HYPERBOREA / Top 4 Most Versatile Weapon Mastery Choices for Fighter?

**Posted by Timbo Baggins** 2/08/2023 11:03 am

Okay, so you are a Fighter and you get to master 4 weapons over the course of your career. Which 4 do you pick and why? And, which one of those do you grandmaster?

Last edited by Timbo Baggins (2/08/2023 12:33 pm)

**Posted by Blackadder23** 2/08/2023 12:21 pm

Are you using house rules? As written, fighters only get a total of 5 weapons mastered (4 if one is grand mastered).

Anyway, the bastard sword is a good choice for grand mastery IMO.

**Posted by Timbo Baggins** 2/08/2023 12:49 pm

Blackadder23 wrote:
Are you using house rules? As written, fighters only get a total of 5 weapons mastered (4 if one is grand mastered).

Anyway, the bastard sword is a good choice for grand mastery IMO.

*Fixes Original Post*

Oof. I totally thought I was going to get two more weapons at 4th, 8th, and 12th level.

Personally, I started with Bastard Sword and Longbow (My GM ruled Longbow and Composite Longbow to be the same mastery. Luckily the first magic sword we found was an openly rolled +2 Bastard Sword but after seeing the magic item table, it seems like broad/longsword is the best weapon to master because of probability.

That said I'm more interested in versatile weapon combos.

Feels like, bastard sword, comp. longbow, a polearm of some sort, and something blunt. Maybe it's my inexperienced playing the game but I like the -2 penalty to all of your attacks negates the benefits of two weapon fighting.

**Posted by gizmomathboy** 2/08/2023 2:06 pm

I think "best", "most versatile" is min-max thinking which is a way to play.

It's a bit more fun to build around an idea or something.

Sure, in my current campaign the NPC Amazonian Fighter has grand mastery in longsword and mastery in longbow. That's partly because she's the NPC from Brazen Bull. At 5th level with that grand mastery she's a wrecking machine in melee. The only better fighter in the group is maybe the 4th level berserker with a two-hand scimitar, but they typically use their +0 broadsword.

However, in a campaign I was a player I had an Amazonian Paladin that had mastery in two-handed sword. Partly for the higher average damage but because I thought it would interesting. Righteous fighter needs a righteous sized weapon :-)

**Posted by Timbo Baggins** 2/08/2023 3:00 pm

gizmomathboy wrote:
I think "best", "most versatile" is min-max thinking which is a way to play.

It's a bit more fun to build around an idea or something.

Sure, in my current campaign the NPC Amazonian Fighter has grand mastery in longsword and mastery in longbow. That's partly because she's the NPC from Brazen Bull. At 5th level with that grand mastery she's a wrecking machine in melee. The only better fighter in the group is maybe the 4th level berserker with a two-hand scimitar, but they typically use their +0 broadsword.

However, in a campaign I was a player I had an Amazonian Paladin that had mastery in two-handed sword. Partly for the higher average damage but because I thought it would interesting. Righteous fighter needs a righteous sized weapon :-)

I think system mastery is fine if that's your thing, its not mine though. However, when I get into a game, I think about it sometimes when I'm not playing. That's when I like to munchkin.

For my actual character. I'm considering mastering the lance with my character because I recently read the Hedge Knight by GRRM and the Black Colossus REH and both of those stories feature mounted combat with lances. I rolled soldier/mercenary for my character's secondary skills so it seems fitting that maybe I learned it there. That said, my character is pretty lowborn so I'm also considering asking my Referee about unarmed combat for him.

**Posted by gizmomathboy** 2/09/2023 1:36 pm

What are you considering with respect to unarmed combat?

I can see letting a fighter type take mastery in it. I guess I would allow it for the 4 types (grapple, overbear, pummel, push).

The +1 to hit and damage and higher attack rate isn't unreasonable either.

A fighter type isn't going to ever be better than a monk which is the canonical "beat you down with the empty hands" class.

Even a fighter with grand mastery isn't going to have too much of an edge. They don't get the extra stunning ability, damage, or "magic hands".

Also, fighter types would suffer the two hand fighting penalties, however.