Are all weapons useful in D&D 5e I wondered… Well, let’s see!

What do I mean by useful? Well, first, if there is a weapon that is strictly better it’s probably not a useful weapon. There might be roleplay or in-game reasons to use a less optimal weapon but knowing is always good.

In D&D weapons have traits, the official traits are:

  • Light (+)
  • Finesse (+)
  • Reach (+)
  • Thrown (+)
  • Ammunition (+, imply that it’s a range weapon)
  • Versatile (+)
  • Special (0)
  • Heavy (-0.5, only a problem for small races so it’s only half bad)
  • Martial (-)
  • Two-handed (-)
  • Loading (-)

And I added the following trait:

  • From-far (-, must be use “from far” which is 5ft away ot suffer disadvantage, added to the Net and the Lance)
  • Martial (-, if the weapon is a martial weapon because all things being equal a common weapon as strong as a martial weapon is better)

Also I added the two-hand property to the Lance because it can only be use with two hands unless you’re mounter and we are comparing ground combat here.

We are going to have a constructionist approach and think about how the weapons have been constructed from a gameplay point of view weapons starts at 1d8 damages (average 4.5 damages).

The + or - sign in parenthesis says if the trait is positive or negative. A positive trait should be compensated by reduced damages or a negative trait. A negative trait should be compensated by increased damages or a positive trait. This value is in the “Theoratical damage” column.

With this we have to following values for the theoretical damage that a weapon should do (called “Score”) compared to the actual damage that they do. The ratio of the two gives us how much good is a weapon. We are going to ignore cost and weight of weapons in this analysis.

# Category Weapon Cost (sp) Damage dice Average damage Damage type Weight (lb.) Properties Pos Neg Score Theoratical damage grade = dmg / tdmg
1 Simple Melee W. Club 1 1d4 2.5 blud. 2 Light 1 0 1 3.50 0.71
2 Simple Melee W. Dagger 20 1d4 2.5 pierc. 1 Finesse, light, thrown (range 20/60) 3 0 3 1.50 1.67
3 Simple Melee W. Greatclub 2 1d8 4.5 blud. 10 Two-handed 0 -1 -1 5.50 0.82
4 Simple Melee W. Handaxe 50 1d6 3.5 slash. 2 Light, thrown (range 20/60) 2 0 2 2.50 1.40
5 Simple Melee W. Javelin 5 1d6 3.5 pierc. 2 Thrown (range 30/120) 1 0 1 3.50 1.00
6 Simple Melee W. Light Hammer 20 1d4 2.5 blud. 2 Light, thrown (range 20/60) 2 0 2 2.50 1.00
7 Simple Melee W. Mace 50 1d6 3.5 blud. 4 0 0 0 4.50 0.78
8 Simple Melee W. Quarterstaff 2 1d6 3.5 blud. 4 Versatile (1d8) 1 0 1 3.50 1.00
9 Simple Melee W. Sickle 10 1d4 2.5 slash. 2 Light 1 0 1 3.50 0.71
10 Simple Melee W. Spear 10 1d6 3.5 pierc. 3 Thrown (range 20/60), versatile (1d8) 2 0 2 2.50 1.40
11 Simple Ranged W. Crossbow, light 250 1d8 4.5 pierc. 5 Ammunition (range 80/320), loading, two-handed 1 -2 -1 5.50 0.82
12 Simple Ranged W. Dart 0.5 1d4 2.5 pierc. 0.25 Finesse, thrown (range 20/60) 2 0 2 2.50 1.00
13 Simple Ranged W. Shortbow 250 1d6 3.5 pierc. 2 Ammunition (range 80/320), two-handed 1 -1 0 4.50 0.78
14 Simple Ranged W. Sling 1 1d4 2.5 blud. 0 Ammunition (range 30/120) 1 0 1 3.50 0.71
15 Martial Melee W. Battleaxe 100 1d8 4.5 slash. 4 Versatile (1d10) 1 -1 0 4.50 1.00
16 Martial Melee W. Flail 100 1d8 4.5 blud. 2 0 -1 -1 5.50 0.82
17 Martial Melee W. Glaive 200 1d10 5.5 slash. 6 Heavy, reach, two-handed 1 -2.5 -1.5 6.00 0.92
18 Martial Melee W. Greataxe 300 1d12 6.5 slash. 7 Heavy, two-handed 0 -2.5 -2.5 7.00 0.93
19 Martial Melee W. Greatsword 500 2d6 7 slash. 6 Heavy, two-handed 0 -2.5 -2.5 7.00 1.00
20 Martial Melee W. Halberd 200 1d10 5.5 slash. 6 Heavy, reach, two-handed 1 -2.5 -1.5 6.00 0.92
21 Martial Melee W. Lance 100 1d12 6.5 pierc. 6 Reach, two-handed (if not on mount), special, from-far 1 -3 -2 6.50 1.00
22 Martial Melee W. Longsword 150 1d8 4.5 slash. 3 Versatile (1d10) 1 -1 0 4.50 1.00
23 Martial Melee W. Maul 100 2d6 7 blud. 10 Heavy, two-handed 0 -2.5 -2.5 7.00 1.00
24 Martial Melee W. Morningstar 150 1d8 4.5 pierc. 4 0 -1 -1 5.50 0.82
25 Martial Melee W. Pike 50 1d10 5.5 pierc. 18 Heavy, reach, two-handed 1 -2.5 -1.5 6.00 0.92
26 Martial Melee W. Rapier 250 1d8 4.5 pierc. 2 Finesse 1 -1 0 4.50 1.00
27 Martial Melee W. Scimitar 250 1d6 3.5 slash. 3 Finesse, light 2 -1 1 3.50 1.00
28 Martial Melee W. Shortsword 100 1d6 3.5 pierc. 2 Finesse, light 2 -1 1 3.50 1.00
29 Martial Melee W. Trident 50 1d6 3.5 pierc. 4 Thrown (range 20/60), versatile (1d8) 2 -1 1 3.50 1.00
30 Martial Melee W. War Pick 50 1d8 4.5 pierc. 2 0 -1 -1 5.50 0.82
31 Martial Melee W. Warhammer 150 1d8 4.5 blud. 2 Versatile (1d10) 1 -1 0 4.50 1.00
32 Martial Melee W. Whip 20 1d4 2.5 slash. 3 Finesse, reach 2 -1 1 3.50 0.71
33 Martial Ranged W. Blowgun 100 1d1 1 pierc. 1 Ammunition (range 25/100), loading 1 -2 -1 5.50 0.18
34 Martial Ranged W. Crossbow, hand 750 1d6 3.5 pierc. 3 Ammunition (range 30/120), light, loading 2 -2 0 4.50 0.78
35 Martial Ranged W. Crossbow, heavy 500 1d10 5.5 pierc. 18 Ammunition (range 100/400), heavy, loading, two-handed 1 -3.5 -2.5 7.00 0.79
36 Martial Ranged W. Longbow 500 1d8 4.5 pierc. 2 Ammunition (range 150/600), heavy, two-handed 1 -2.5 -1.5 6.00 0.75
37 Martial Ranged W. Net 10 0d1 0 3 Special, thrown (range 5/15), from-far 1 -2 -1 5.50 0.00

With this we can see that:

  1. The club is worse than the light hammer (because the light hammer can be thrown)
  2. The mace is worse than the quarterstaff (because it does the same two-handed damage but can’t be hold with one hand since it’s not versatile)
  3. The greatclub is worse than the quarterstaff (because the quarterstaff is versatile)
  4. The sickle is worse than the handaxe (because it does more damage, …)
  5. The glaive is equivalent to the halberd
  6. The long sword is equivalent to the battleaxe

And if we ignore damage types (because, let’s face it they don’t really matter) we also have:

  1. The quarterstaff is worse than the spear (because the spear can be thrown)
  2. The light hammer is worse than the dagger (because the dagger can be thrown)
  3. The scimitar is equivalent to the shortsword
  4. The flail is worse than the warhammer (because the warhammer does the same damage one-handed and can do more if two-handed)
  5. The maul is equivalent to the greatsword
  6. The warhammer is equivalent to the longsword
  7. The morningstar is worse than the rapier (because the rapier has finesse)
    • The morningstar is also equivalent to the war pick
  8. The war pick is worse than the rapier (because the rapier has finesse)
  9. The pike is equivalent to the halberd
  10. The trident is worse than the lance (because the lance is a common weapon)

Also all ranged weapons are different enough (blowguns are too special to be compared to other range weapons) to avoid redundancy so we are going to exclude them from this analysis from now on.

For 16 melee weapons in the list there exists a weapon that is better, which means that the list of 28 melee weapons could be reduced to 12.

Think about it when you are choosing the weapon for your character newt time.

All this means that you could reduce the melee weapon list to the following table and read only the “Weapons / group” column while you search for you weapon.

To read the following table table know that:

  • Children of a group are equivalent
  • Groups of weapon have a grey background (and “/” in their label)
  • Children of weapons (not group) are worse than their parents
# Category Weapons / group worse or equal weapons 1 worse or equal weapons 2 Cost (sp) Damage dice Average damage Damage type Weight (lb.) Properties
2 Simple Melee W. Dagger 20 1d4 2.5 pierc. 1 Finesse, light, thrown (range 20/60)
6 Simple Melee W. Light Hammer 20 1d4 2.5 blud. 2 Light, thrown (range 20/60)
4 Simple Melee W. Handaxe 50 1d6 3.5 slash. 2 Light, thrown (range 20/60)
9 Simple Melee W. Sickle 10 1d4 2.5 slash. 2 Light
5 Simple Melee W. Javelin 5 1d6 3.5 pierc. 2 Thrown (range 30/120)
1 Simple Melee W. Club 1 1d4 2.5 blud. 2 Light
10 Simple Melee W. Spear 10 1d6 3.5 pierc. 3 Thrown (range 20/60), versatile (1d8)
29 Martial Melee W. Trident 50 1d6 3.5 pierc. 4 Thrown (range 20/60), versatile (1d8)
8 Simple Melee W. Quarterstaff 2 1d6 3.5 blud. 4 Versatile (1d8)
7 Simple Melee W. Mace 50 1d6 3.5 blud. 4
3 Simple Melee W. Greatclub 2 1d8 4.5 blud. 10 Two-handed
Martial Melee W. Battleaxe / Longsword / Warhammer
15 Martial Melee W. Battleaxe 100 1d8 4.5 slash. 4 Versatile (1d10)
22 Martial Melee W. Longsword 150 1d8 4.5 slash. 3 Versatile (1d10)
31 Martial Melee W. Warhammer 150 1d8 4.5 blud. 2 Versatile (1d10)
16 Martial Melee W. Flail 100 1d8 4.5 blud. 2
18 Martial Melee W. Greataxe 300 1d12 6.5 slash. 7 Heavy, two-handed
Martial Melee W. Halberd / Pike
25 Martial Melee W. Pike 50 1d10 5.5 pierc. 18 Heavy, reach, two-handed
20 Martial Melee W. Halberd 200 1d10 5.5 slash. 6 Heavy, reach, two-handed
17 Martial Melee W. Glaive 200 1d10 5.5 slash. 6 Heavy, reach, two-handed
21 Martial Melee W. Lance 100 1d12 6.5 pierc. 6 Reach, two-handed (if not on mount), special, from-far
Martial Melee W. Maul / Greatsword
19 Martial Melee W. Greatsword 500 2d6 7 slash. 6 Heavy, two-handed
23 Martial Melee W. Maul 100 2d6 7 blud. 10 Heavy, two-handed
26 Martial Melee W. Rapier 250 1d8 4.5 pierc. 2 Finesse
Martial Melee W. Morningstar / War Pick
24 Martial Melee W. Morningstar 150 1d8 4.5 pierc. 4
30 Martial Melee W. War Pick 50 1d8 4.5 pierc. 2
Martial Melee W. Scimitar / Shortsword
27 Martial Melee W. Scimitar 250 1d6 3.5 slash. 3 Finesse, light
28 Martial Melee W. Shortsword 100 1d6 3.5 pierc. 2 Finesse, light
32 Martial Melee W. Whip 20 1d4 2.5 slash. 3 Finesse, reach
33 Martial Ranged W. Blowgun 100 1d1 1 pierc. 1 Ammunition (range 25/100), loading
34 Martial Ranged W. Crossbow, hand 750 1d6 3.5 pierc. 3 Ammunition (range 30/120), light, loading
35 Martial Ranged W. Crossbow, heavy 500 1d10 5.5 pierc. 18 Ammunition (range 100/400), heavy, loading, two-handed
36 Martial Ranged W. Longbow 500 1d8 4.5 pierc. 2 Ammunition (range 150/600), heavy, two-handed
37 Martial Ranged W. Net 10 0d1 0 3 Special, thrown (range 5/15), from-far
11 Simple Ranged W. Crossbow, light 250 1d8 4.5 pierc. 5 Ammunition (range 80/320), loading, two-handed
12 Simple Ranged W. Dart 0.5 1d4 2.5 pierc. 0.25 Finesse, thrown (range 20/60)
13 Simple Ranged W. Shortbow 250 1d6 3.5 pierc. 2 Ammunition (range 80/320), two-handed
14 Simple Ranged W. Sling 1 1d4 2.5 blud. 0 Ammunition (range 30/120)

A few things remain to be analyzed:

  • What if a strictly better weapon is only available to a subset of classes whereas the lesser weapon is available to mostly everyone?
  • Does the cost matters? I would say no but…
  • Does weight matters? Maybe, in some games at least

I may see about those in an other post.

The data I computed in this post are available in ods format.