Warlock Pact of the Blade with Improved Pact Weapon Invocation - Weapon Handling

[LordEntrails]

Or just remove the effect before you attack with something other than your pact weapon. It depends on how you play and what you prefer

I too find that I have no need for more than 1 or 2 pact weapons. Unlike 3.5, creatures tend not to have resistance or immunity to just one martial damage type. And then if I'm attacking with a weapon, it will always be a pact weapon.

But, lots of ways depending upon what and how you want to play.

[Three of Swords]

Yes, if you put it on permanently but you need to set the expend to on next action. The effect is applied just before the attack roll and then again before the damage roll. Which is the point Minty makes in post #6 above.

Gotcha. Thanks.

[Minty23185Fresh]

Yeah, I have rarely seen a blade pact warlock change the weapon for any reason other than finding a magic item. The shape and the description of the weapon tend to become part of the character identity.

Conceivably I might want to use different weapons for differing NPC opponents based on their AC. I have a +3 DEX bonus but +0 STR bonus. Being able to get that +3 to hit with a finesse weapon might be preferable to the +0 of the non finesse even though the finesse weapons do less damage (on average). Whereas if I come up against one of those punching bag, low AC NPCs it might be advantageous to take the +0 to hit penalty in favor of the higher damage of two handed weapon.

But I concede the point, I'm, in all likelihood only going to need a couple at most.

Thanks everyone for chiming in.

[GavinRuneblade]

Conceivably I might want to use different weapons for differing NPC opponents based on their AC. I have a +3 DEX bonus but +0 STR bonus. Being able to get that +3 to hit with a finesse weapon might be preferable to the +0 of the non finesse even though the finesse weapons do less damage (on average). Whereas if I come up against one of those punching bag, low AC NPCs it might be advantageous to take the +0 to hit penalty in favor of the higher damage of two handed weapon.

But I concede the point, I'm, in all likelihood only going to need a couple at most.

Thanks everyone for chiming in.

Not counting houserules, you must use the same stat for damage and to hit. So in your example there is never a case where you want to use the +0 to hit/dmg strength weapon. Finesse weapons move down 1 die size and that is 1 point average 2 points max. The 3 point damage bonus is greater in every case.

If you have a reason to swap to a two-handed weapon, on the other hand, and are not using any third-party equipment lists, then the lack of a two-handed finesse weapon might be an edge case. Going from the d6 of a scimitar or shortsword, or even the d8 of a rapier to the 2d6 or 1d12 of a maul or greataxe might be worth it. but just barely. A shortsword's 1d6+3 averages 6.5 vs the same 6.5 of a 1d12 so not really and the rapier is 7.5 on average so definitely better than the greataxe. But the 2d6 maul has an average of 7 so it would be superior to the shortsword and yet still a worse option than the rapier with +3 damage. This is on average. If you have a crit-fishing build or reroll 1s and/or 2s you can squeeze out an increase from the higher max damage.

Kinda too much work though, just use the rapier vs everyone or bust out the comprehensive equipment manual and use a naginata ^.^

[Minty23185Fresh]

Thanks GavinRuneblade. I stand corrected. My premise was incorrect. And thanks for the detailed math. I probably wouldn’t have gone to that fine of detail, though maybe in the future I should. The best about being wrong here is, I get to deal with just one weapon, the rapier.

[GavinRuneblade]

Thanks GavinRuneblade. I stand corrected. My premise was incorrect. And thanks for the detailed math. I probably wouldn’t have gone to that fine of detail, though maybe in the future I should. The best about being wrong here is, I get to deal with just one weapon, the rapier.

No worries. I love building characters and figuring out how to get the optimal effect for the least resources so I can use the most resources for totally sub-optimal but fun things. And ya the rapier is rather a bit too good as a side effect of how powerful a stat dex is.

Though, I'm ok with that. Except for a quickdraw scenario most of the best swordsmen I know in real life say they'd choose a rapier over any other sword ever made on earth if they had to fight a duel to the death.