{"id":4207,"date":"2025-04-24T15:26:22","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T22:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/?p=4207"},"modified":"2025-04-24T15:26:22","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T22:26:22","slug":"dd-5e-5-5e-rules-weapon-juggling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/heroes\/2025\/04\/dd-5e-5-5e-rules-weapon-juggling.html","title":{"rendered":"D&D 5e\/5.5e Rules – Weapon Juggling!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"KnowPart of an ongoing series of 5e (2014)<\/strong> Rules notes.<\/a>\u00a0 See the end of the post for notes on 5.5e (2024)<\/strong> rules.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

This is one that the tables of our gaming group generally do wrong — or, at least, not Rules as Written (PHB 190) for quite some time:\u00a0 what it takes, action-wise, to change from one weapon to another.<\/p>\n

When describing what you can do on your turn, the rules say:<\/p>\n

You can also interact with\u00a0one object<\/b>\u00a0or feature of the environment for free, during either your move or your action. For example […] you could\u00a0draw your weapon<\/b>\u00a0as part of the same action you use to attack. If you want to interact with\u00a0a second object<\/b>, you need to use your action.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And, under the rule on interacting with objects around you, it says:<\/p>\n

draw\u00a0or\u00a0<\/b>sheathe a sword<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words, you can on any given turn, for\u00a0free<\/u>, (a) draw<\/strong> a weapon, or (b) sheathe\/put away<\/strong> a weapon … but not\u00a0both<\/u>. This means the (very common) “Hmmm, with which of my array of weapons am I attacking with on this turn?” maneuver doesn’t work (RAW).<\/p>\n

Round 1 – I plonk the bad guys with my bow.
\nRound 2 – Ooh, a bad guy is in my face, I stab him with my sword.
\nRound 3 – I shoot the guy across the room with my bow.
\nRound 4 – I charge in and stab that guy with my sword.<\/p>\n

Nope. Essentially, switching weapons takes a full Action (putting away one weapon for free, Use an Object<\/em> for your Action to draw the other one), meaning no attack that round.<\/p>\n

This also complicates life for thrown weapon players. If drawing one of your throwing daggers takes up your free object interaction, then even if you have multiple attacks for your Attack action, you won’t have a way to draw additional daggers \/ shuriken \/ etc.<\/p>\n

A couple of ways around this if you want a quick weapon change (one-way):<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Don’t put your weapon away. Just\u00a0drop it\u00a0<\/b>(as you would a torch), which takes no time, and then lets you use your free interaction to draw your new weapon. Except in exceptional circumstances, there’s no call to worry about damage to the weapon. Dropping something takes no no time, and then you can draw your other weapon.
    \nGetting that weapon back to use again in the battle seems like it would be dodgy, but the rules do let you pick something up just as easily as drawing from a sheathe, for that free object interaction. Of course, if you have to flee the battle, the weapon might be left behind. Or, more seriously, the bad guys could grab the weapon you dropped, too.<\/li>\n
  2. You can also, if you really don’t want to lose your weapon and maintain maximum flexibility, do something along the lines of (Turn 1) Attack-Sheathe then (Turn 2) Draw-Attack as a way of switching weapons, but it’s not something you can do\u00a0every<\/u> turn, and it does leave you empty-handed (for Opportunity Attacks) elsewhere in that turn.<\/li>\n
  3. Rogues (Thieves) can use Fast Hands<\/em> on their Bonus Action to Use An Object<\/em>. That totally works for this (free action to put away a weapon, FH>UAO to draw a new one, then Attack). That’s doubtless why Legolas took a couple of levels of Rogue at one point.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Frankly, all of this strikes me as Not Fun. Which is why we’ve tended to drop this from our games, as DMs are allowed to do. But that has some consequences.\u00a0\u00a0The design\u00a0<\/i>idea behind this restriction, among other factors, seems to be<\/p>\n