D&D: Five Things To Do With A Dagger
The single most popular item in 5th Edition D&D is the humble dagger. Everyone from rogues to wizards to fighters can find a use for ’em. How about you?
Characters in D&D carry with them a variety of gear. You can find polearm specialists armed with glaives, great weapon masters with mauls or greataxes, crossbow experts with hand crossbows, rapier-wielding rogues, even wizards get in on the equipment action with their arcane focuses and spell component pouches. But one item is head and shoulders more popular than the rest:
With that in mind, here’s a look at five things you can do with the one or more daggers that your character has on them, right now.
Improvised Thieves’ Tools
You might not have your handy thieves’ tools nearby, but in a pinch, the humble dagger can be used for all sorts of lockpicking/trap disarming purposes. Use the blade to wedge open pressure plates and pry open small locks, use the point to carefully separate delicate trigger mechanisms and tumblers, and when all else fails whack it with the pommel until the thing does what you want it to.
Mirror for peeking into rooms
Attach your dagger to a slender stick and slide it under a door. You can get a decently good glimpse of whatever is in the adjoining room without actually having to go in yourself. Combine this with spells that require you to target a creature you can “see” and suddenly the combat just got a lot more interesting.
Dramatic Punctuation
When you deliver a dramatic reveal, unveil that next big twist, or want to let someone know as they walk out of a room that you could’ve, but you didn’t, you can just hurl a dagger. It’ll probably embed itself into whatever wooden floor you’ve got nearby. Need to deliver a threat? Nothing says “violence is at hand” like a dagger flung pointedly into something inanimate.
Climbing Spike
If you’re playing something like Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden, you’ll likely be stuck in many a cold environment and be forced to interact with things of ice and snow. Need to scale a high, icy cliff? Use a pair of daggers as spikes and you can ascend just about anything.
Eating
If you’re not eating your tavern meat and cheese plate with nothing but a dagger and hunk of bread, are you really even eating?
And that’s just scratching the tip of the iceberg. What do you typically do with your daggers?
