Weapon Mastery is one of the coolest new features coming in the 2024 PHB. If you haven't been paying any attention at all to the Unearthed Arcana playtests that came out over much of 2023 and a bit this year, here's what Weapon Mastery is:
Certain classes - Barbarians, Fighters, Paladins, Rangers, and Rogues - will get a new feature at early levels (it might be 1st level for all of them, actually) that lets them take advantage of a new special property that each type of weapon has. You'll be able to choose a couple weapon types (I believe starting at 2 and going up at higher levels, with Fighters in particular getting I think 3 to start with instead because they're the most weapon-focused class) but you can swap these out on a long rest, so you should pretty much always be able to have the masteries of the weapons you're regularly using.
These Mastery Properties have various effects - most of them adding an effect after you hit an enemy with the weapon, though some will work a little differently.
In a lot of ways, these masteries allow weapon-focused characters to gain the kind of secondary effects spellcasters often get with cantrips - a wizard casting Ray of Frost will deal some cold damage but also slow down an enemy by 10 ft. if they hit, and now a character with a weapon that has the Slow mastery will get to both do their damage and also slow that target down some.
This does, I think, two big things for the game: the first is that it gives martial characters more interesting capabilities in the middle of combat, where damage becomes only part of what you're doing when you hit an enemy.
The other major thing is that it gives the designers new room to really distinguish different weapons from one another. Mechanically, under the 2014 rules, you have instances like Battleaxes and Longswords or Glaives and Halberds, where the weapons are functionally identical (other than minor considerations like cost and weight). These new masteries let weapon choice feel like a more meaningful choice, while still allowing you to pick things based on aesthetics thanks to the fact that the different masteries are all reasonably good.
However, if there's one critique of the system, it's that it risks slowing down combat in a game that can suffer from slow combat. Giving players another thing to track and remember and choose, they argue, will balloon the time it takes for each round leaving each player all the more impatient for their next turn to come.
Personally, I think that some of this argument is based on faulty premises.
First off, player characters don't switch weapons all that often. Chances are that, until you get a +1 weapon around level 5 or so, you'll probably be using the same mundane weapon in each combat. This means that players will quickly learn about their masteries and know to apply it on each of their hits.
Second, this is not a system every player is going to be interacting with, so it really depends on your party composition how many instances of resolving mastery properties will happen per round.
The third objection, though, will require a little more investigation: I think that most of these masteries are simple enough that it should not actually be too hard to weave the effects into the flow of combat.
But this does depend on the mastery, and so what I wanted to do with this post was to look into each mastery and rate how much it's going to actually slow things down.
Note that this is using the Mastery definitions from Playtest 8, which was the final Unearthed Arcana playtest for the 2024 core rulebooks. I don't expect any of these to change.
Cleave:
Found on: Greataxe, Halberd
When you hit a creature with a cleave weapon, you can make an additional attack once per turn against another creature that is within 5 feet of the first one if it's within your reach. If you hit, the creature takes the weapon's damage, but you don't add your ability modifier to that damage unless the modifier is negative (however, I would think that rage bonuses, magic weapon bonuses, and extra dice from class features and the like do apply here).
I will concede that this one will most assuredly add time to a player's turn simply because it introduces another attack roll into the mix. The good news is that a level 20 fighter isn't going to be getting sixteen attacks when they action surge because of this - the once-a-turn limit puts it more in the category of the bonus action attack you get with the 2014 version of Great Weapon Master. So, yes, slower, but it's also damage, which means that the net effect might actually speed up the fight.
Graze:
Found on: Glaive, Greatsword
Unlike most masteries, this goes into effect when you miss an attack. If you miss the attack roll, you can still do damage (of the weapon's type) equal to the ability modifier you used to make the attack. This damage cannot be increased in any way other than increasing your ability modifier (so nothing like Divine Smite or the like - this is still a miss, after all).
This one I don't think will slow combat down at all. In fact, it will probably speed it up, because using a weapon like this means you'll be guaranteed to get damage in every turn as long as you can get in range to hit.
Nick:
Found on: Dagger, Light Hammer, Sickle, Scimitar
While wielding a Nick weapon, when you make the extra attack of the Light property, you can make this attack as part of your Attack action, rather than as a bonus action (you can still only make this extra attack once per turn).
I suppose you could argue that now that the Rogue gets to make a main-hand attack, an off-hand attack, and use their Cunning Action, they're technically doing more on their turn. Bonus actions are limited, though, and I think most players who have a real use for their bonus actions are going to know what they mean to do with it most of the time. (I will say that a Monk who gets their hands on Weapon Mastery is going to be pretty nuts, as this won't prevent also making an unarmed strike or flurry of blows after getting your dual-wield strike).
Push:
Found on: Greatclub, Pike, Warhammer, Heavy Crossbow
If you hit a creature with a weapon that has Push on it, you can push the creature up to 10 feet straight away from you if it's Large or smaller.
I think this is likely to be one of the most iconic weapon masteries, as it feels like a real battlefield-manipulation ability. I will say that it depends very much on the player whether this slows things down. A player who plans ahead and has a real idea of what they want to do by pushing their enemy will probably get through their turn pretty quickly. However, if a player hems and haws over what angle they want to push from, this could introduce a real delay in the game.
Sap:
Found on: Mace, Spear, Flail, Longsword, War Pick
If you hit a creature with a Sap weapon, the creature has Disadvantage on the next attack roll they make before the start of your next turn.
Arguably, survival abilities inherently slow down combat, but players going down slows it even more. The point where this might really delay things is if a player is indecisive about spreading this debuff to multiple enemies, as this can potentially affect as many monsters as you have attacks.
Slow:
Found on: Club, Javelin, Light Crossbow, Sling, Whip, Longbow, Musket
Hitting a target with a Slow weapon will reduce their movement speed by 10 feet until the start of your next turn. Hitting the same creature more than once with this property, the reduction in speed doesn't exceed 10 feet.
The caveat here is sensible - you can't just lock down a creature if you can hit it three times in a row (or just twice for a zombie!) However, like Sap, a player might be tempted to spread this out across multiple foes using multiple attacks. The feature is literally called slow, of course. Ideally this keeps foes from reaching ranged player characters, which means that DMs might need to burn a turn having them dash.
Topple:
Found on: Quarterstaff, Battleaxe, Lance, Maul, Trident
If you hit a creature with a Topple weapon, the creature must make a Constitution save (based on the ability you used to make the attack) or fall prone.
So, this is the mastery that I think has been called out the most as potentially slowing the game down, because it introduces a saving throw to every hit. I will say that because it's a Con save, rather than the more common Strength save to avoid being knocked prone (or sometimes Dex,) there's a good chance that monsters will usually succeed on this save, which means that they'll be making a lot more of those saves. So, look, I think that, yeah, it will probably slow things down a little.
Vex:
Found on: Handaxe, Dart, Shortbow, Rapier, Shortsword, Blowgun, Pistol
When you hit a target with a Vex weapon, your next attack roll before the end of your next turn (note end, not start like most of these) has Advantage.
I think maybe more than any other property, this is going to speed combat up. For one thing, it's going to make it way, way easier for Rogues to get sneak attack, and will just generally result in more attack hitting and more critting, which of course speeds things up.
So, that's all the masteries. (While Pistols and Muskets are graduating to the PHB, I'll be curious to see if masteries are given to modern and futuristic firearms as well - we know that the Soulknife's psychic blades get the Vex property).
Overall, I think that the worry that they might slow down combat isn't entirely overblown - some of these really do introduce new choices to make on the battlefield.
Here's why I'm not worried, though: this is still far, far less choice to worry about than a full spellcaster looking at their big spell list and trying to decide what to do when it gets to their turn.
I think the real culprit in the slowness of D&D combat is not really mechanical, but a question of attention. Look, I have a lot of friends with ADHD, and I love them very much. But I think the real thing that makes D&D combat go slow is when players aren't keeping a close look at what other players and the monsters are doing, and only returning their attention to the battle when it's their turn, then having to go through the entire process of assessing the situation, determining what the party most needs to deal with, and then looking at their abilities and seeing what they can do.
My hope, then, and maybe it's a vain hope, is that players who might feel disengaged because all they do is make a couple of attack rolls each turn, will start to think more tactically, and start to feel more engaged as they think about the larger impact they'll have on the fight, and thus feel more interested in what is actually going on.
Will that happen? Maybe for some people. Probably not for all.
But the benefit of all of this is, I think, worth it. Even if combat does wind up slowing down a little, I think there will be a slight tip toward balancing the capabilities of martial characters and spellcasters, even if the latter will inherently still be more complex classes. Combat is supposed to be fun, of course, and I think the scenarios that come to mind when looking at these masteries really sound enticing.
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