Hello everyone! Welcome to Rivervale!
Today we’ll talk about the problem with Versatile Weapons in D&D 5.5 and we’ll look at how we can fix this.
Let’s get right into it!
Versatile weapons in D&D are one-handed weapons that can be used with two hands, for some extra damage. Their damage die is 1d8 when wielded with one hand, or 1d10 when wielded with two hands.
The problem is that, for a character with a fighting style, versatile weapons deal more damage one-handed, than two-handed.
Let’s break it down.
We’ll use the Longsword as an example.
It’s damage before modifiers is 1d8, which averages to 4.5 damage per hit.
When wielded with two hands, its damage is 1d10, which averages to 5.5 damage per hit.
Sounds good, right?
Let’s take a look at the two available fighting styles for melee weapons.
Dueling (2014 and 2024 version)
Fighting Style Feat (Prerequisite: Fighting Style Feature)
When you’re holding a Melee weapon in one hand
and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage
rolls with that weapon.
Great Weapon Fighting (2024 version)
Fighting Style Feat (Prerequisite: Fighting Style Feature)
When you roll damage for an attack you make with
a Melee weapon that you are holding with two
hands, you can treat any 1 or 2 on a damage die as a 3.
The weapon must have the Two-Handed or Versatile
property to gain this benefit.
So, when wielding a longsword with 1 hand while using the dueling style, the average damage (before modifiers) is 4.5 + 2 = 6.5
For the two-handed version, with the great weapon fighting style, the damage is calculated as follows:
1 = 3
2 = 3
3 = 3
4 = 4
5 = 5
6 = 6
7 = 7
8 = 8
9 = 9
10 = 10
Adding all the results and dividing by 10 we get:
Average damage (before modifiers) is 5.8
So we finally arrive at the problem:
A Longsword, when wielded with 1 hand, deals an average of 6.5 damage (before modifiers) with the dueling style.
A longsword, when wielded with 2 hands, deals an average of 5.8 damage (before modifiers) with the great weapon style.
So, how do we fix this?
The core concept of our solution is that we allow versatile weapons to use either the dueling, or the great weapon style.
With this solution:
A Longsword (1-handed with dueling) deals 1d8 + 2 (before modifiers) = 6.5 damage on average
A Longsword (2-handed with dueling) deals 1d10 + 2 (before modifiers) = 7.5 damage on average
Looks great for the Longsword, but there is a complication.
Now, a longsword when wielded with 2 hands, deals more damage than a greataxe.
A Greataxe is a two-handed weapon, that uses a d12 for its damage die.
Without any fighting style, it deals 1d12 damage (before modifiers), so 6.5 damage on average.
With the great weapon fighting style, its damage is calculated as follows:
1 = 3
2 = 3
3 = 3
4 = 4
5 = 5
6 = 6
7 = 7
8 = 8
9 = 9
10 = 10
11 = 11
12 = 12
Adding all the results and dividing by 12 we get:
Average damage (before modifiers) is 6.75
With our solution,
A longsword, when wielded with 2 hands, deals an average of 7.5 damage (before modifiers) with the dueling style.
A greataxe, when wielded with 2 hands, deals an average of 6.75 damage (before modifiers) with the great weapon style
So, our conclusion is that the problem now lies with the great weapon style.
Let’s look at it again:
Great Weapon Fighting (2024 version)
Fighting Style Feat (Prerequisite: Fighting Style Feature)
When you roll damage for an attack you make with a Melee weapon that you are holding with two hands, you can treat any 1 or 2 on a damage die as a 3.
The weapon must have the Two-Handed or Versatile property to gain this benefit.
The benefit is decent on a greatsword that uses 2d6 for its damage, but it’s not nearly as good on weapons that have a larger damage die.
So, let’s try to fix both fighting styles and see where we’re at.
Dueling FIXED version)
Fighting Style Feat (Prerequisite: Fighting Style Feature)
When you’re holding a Melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, or when you’re holding a versatile weapon with two hands, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon.
A versatile weapon can only benefit from either the dueling or the great weapon fighting style at a time, not both.
Great Weapon Fighting (2024 FIXED version)
Fighting Style Feat (Prerequisite: Fighting Style Feature)
When you roll damage for an attack you make with a Melee weapon that you are holding with two hands, you cannot roll below half of the maximum result of the die.
The weapon must have the Two-Handed or Versatile property to gain this benefit.
A versatile weapon can only benefit from either the dueling or the great weapon fighting style at a time, not both.
This means that:
On a 2d6 weapon, treat any roll of 1 or 2 as a 3.
On a d10 weapon, treat any roll of 1, 2, 3 or 4 on a damage die as a 5.
On a d12 weapon, treat any roll of 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 on a damage die as a 6.
So, let’s look at the damage of various weapons, using the fixed styles
Average damage without a fighting style
Average damage with the dueling style
Average damage with the great weapon fighting style
Versatile with one hand (1d8)
1d8 = 4.5
1d8 + 2 = 6.5
Versatile with 2 hands (1d10)
1d10 = 5.5
1d10 + 2 = 7.5
1d10 (treat 1, 2, 3, 4 as 5) = 6.5
Two-handed (1d12)
1d12 = 6.5
1d12 (treat 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 as 6) = 7.75
Two-handed (2d6)
2d6 = 7
2d6 (treat 1, 2 as 3) = 8
The result of this, is that
~ weapons that deal more damage without a style, still deal more damage with a style.
~ characters with the dueling style can easily switch between one and two hands
~ characters with the great weapon style can easily switch between all two handed weapons
That’s it for this article, thanks for staying with me on this! See you on the next one!