Don’t worry, it’s not just you: the new Weapon Mastery system is kind of confusing to the rest of us, too.

One of the biggest changes when it comes to combat in D&D’s 2024 revamp, aka 5.5e, is the inclusion of Weapon Mastery Properties for, no joke, every single weapon in the game. 

Yes, even the lowly club, in all its 1d4 damage glory, comes with a Weapon Mastery, but some Weapon Masteries are more masterful than others! (and yes we did check, masterful is actually totally a word.)

Almost all the relevant information here can be found in Chapter 6 (page 213) of the 2024 Player’s Handbook titled: Equipment.

But first things first:

Who even gets to use Weapon Mastery Properties, anyway??? 

Short answer: Not everybody, actually.

And I think that might be where people are already getting things wrong, here. “Hey, my character uses a club, so every time I hit it does the Slow effect, right?” Wrong. In potentially a few different ways, actually.

The only people who get to use the fun new abilities baked into each weapon type are those with the Weapon Mastery Feature.

Those are:

• Barbarians (2)
• Fighters (3)
• Paladins (2)
• Rangers (2)
• Rogues (2)

(Yes, we agree, it’s kind of wild not to include Clerics, but they do pretty much everything else so whatever.)

But even these classes are not all made equal in the eyes of the WM Gods, because Fighters start off with three Weapon Masteries in weapons they are proficient in, while everyone else (on the list) gets only two.

Speaking of everyone else, other classes can get the Weapon Mastery feat at Level 4 by, you know, choosing it as their feat.

WEAPON MASTER (pg. 209)

General Feat (Prereq. Level 4+)

You gain the following benefits.

Ability Score Increase. Increase your Str. or Dex. score by 1, to a max of 20.

Mastery Property. Your training with weapons allows you to use the mastery property of one kind of Simple or Martial weapon of your choice, provided you have proficiency with it. Whenever you finish a Long Rest, you can change the kind of weapon to another eligible kind.

Okay that’s actually an important caveat there: that you already need to have proficiency in a weapon type to be able to use the Weapon Master Feat to unlock its super special ability. But still, cool that everyone eventually gets the option to use the abilities, because they’re honestly pretty rad.

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The pretty rad Weapon Mastery Abilities

There are eight abilities, and there are way more than eight types of weapons, which means that a handful of weapons fall into each ability category. Here’s the breakdown:

Cleave (Greataxe, Halberd):

If you hit someone with this weapon (melee), make a second melee attack roll against another creature within 5 feat of the first, and also in your range. If that second attack hits, the damage doesn’t include your ability modifier. Can only do this once per turn. 

Graze (Glaive, Greatsword):

If you miss on an attack roll, you can still choose to deal damage equal to the ability modifier you used to make the attack roll.

(A SUPER IMPORTANT NOTE: Woah there cowboy — Just because you add a +7 to hit on swing doesn’t mean you’re doing 7 damage on a miss here. Your ability modifier does not include your proficiency bonus. So if you’re using all 18 Strength score you’ve got, then you’re doing 4 damage on that Graze, because your +3 proficiency bonus does not stack. The good news? You get to leave your proficiency bonus in the damage for the Cleave ability while removing the ability modifier!)

Nick (Dagger, Light Hammer, Sickle, Scimitar):

On an extra attack of the Light Property, you can make it as part of your Attack Action rather than as a Bonus Action. Can only do this once per turn.)

Push (Greatclub, Pike, Warhammer, Heavy Crossbow):

When you hit with these weapons, you can push a creature 10 feet straight away so long as it is Large or smaller.

Sap (Mace, Spear, Flail, Longsword, Morningstar, War Pick):

Give the creature you just hit disadvantage on its next attack roll before the start of your next turn.

Slow (Club, Javelin, Light Crossbow, Sling, Whip, Longbow, Musket):

On a hit that deals damage, reduce that creature’s speed by 10 feet. Does not stack to other hits by Slow weapons.

Topple (Quarterstaff, Battleaxe, Lance, Maul, Trident):

On a hit, force a Con Save (DC 8 + your attack bonus aka ability modifier plus prof. bonus) or the creature falls Prone on a fail.

Vex (Handaxe, Dart, Shortbow, Rapier, Shortsword, Blowgun, Hand Crossbow, Pistol)

If you hit a creature and deal damage,  get advantage on your next attack roll against that creature before the end of your next turn.

How often can they be used?

Weapon Mastery properties are not an exhaustible resource*, so you don’t have to reup them on short or long rests, you can just do them.

*With the major caveat that the Nick and Cleave properties specify they can only be used once per turn. The lack of that wording for the other properties means that those ones can be used however much you want in a given turn.

Etc. Etc.

It should also be noted that Fighters and Barbarians unlock additional Weapon Mastery capacity as they level up, and that Rogues are limited to just weapons with the Finesse or Light properties.

As well, anyone with a Weapon Mastery of any kind can, at the end of a Long Rest, decide to switch things up a bit and change their mastery to a different weapon.

So yes, that does mean that unless you’re already proficient in, say, Greatswords, you can’t instantly start Grazing enemies after finding one in a dungeon crawl. You gotta master that weapon type first! By sleeping! Okay, technically you’ll spend some of that Long Rest “training” with the new weapon. Or just dreaming of Greatswords, who knows, flavor it however you like, it’s D&D after all!

Got more to say about Weapon Mastery Properties? Think we missed something? Is there a glaring typo we really gotta fix up? Let us know by emailing thedispatcher@dnddispatch.com!

Check these out: 

• 3 ways to make death saving throws more exciting in D&D 5e
• 13 ways a character can be insta-killed in Dungeons and Dragons 5e
• Here’s everything you need to know about death saving throws in D&D 5e