If I Were You, I Would Avoid Using These Weapons In Dungeons & Dragons

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There’s a lot to consider when it comes to picking weapons in Dungeons & Dragons. Between basic stats, range, damage, mastery properties, and more, there’s a lot that can work well for your build or almost work against you, depending on your class and character concept. But, how do you know which weapons to avoid?

That’s why we’ve created this list of the worst weapons to avoid in Dungeons & Dragons at all costs. For this list, we’ll be primarily looking at core weapons from the 2024 Player’s Handbook, not magic items. Here are the worst weapons to avoid in DND.

8 Club

Club by Polar Engine, John Grello, and Michael Broussard

The club is the first obvious choice for a list like this, as it does some of the least amount of damage of any weapon in Dungeons & Dragons. Slow is an alright mastery property, which means it’s not totally useless. However, you won’t have access to this ability right away, making it pretty useless overall.

1d4 is also such an insulting amount of damage to be able to do. Some characters, like monks, can do more than that with their fists even at first level. Why should you have to settle for 1d4 on a weapon attack? You’re better than that. You’re worth it.

7 Javelin

Javelin by Polar Engine, John Grello, and Michael Broussard

Like the club, the javelin also suffers from a pretty low amount of damage at 1d6. Only two simple weapons do more, but it’s still worth noting. Plus, the javelin’s main appeal is the fact that you can throw it. However, especially at low levels, throwing one of your only weapons isn’t going to be that helpful.

Thrown weapons are always a real hit or miss (pun intended) for me in Dungeons & Dragons. Unless you can somehow magically return the weapon to yourself, what’s really the point of throwing something? Plus, you can throw this weapon and still miss, meaning you’re potentially out of luck on your next attack.

6 Mace

Mace by Polar Engine, John Grello, and Michael Broussard

The mace is an alright weapon that does okay damage for a simple melee at 1d6, though again, not any more than a javelin. Sap is a very good mastery property, but again, you won’t get access to this until much later on. And, most of the time, you’ll have long since gotten rid of your first standard mace you got at character creation by the time you unlock this property.

The real downside here is that the mace is literally the only simple melee weapon that doesn’t have any kind of additional property. Meaning you can’t throw it, it’s not versatile, and you can make off-hand attacks with it. This is a real downside.

5 Whip

Whip by Polar Engine, John Grello, and Michael Broussard

As cool as it sounds on paper, the whip is one of the worst weapons in all of Dungeons & Dragons, in my opinion. It does the least amount of damage in the martial melee category, and has a not-so-great mastery property with slow, which is generally one of the weaker properties.

Obviously, the buff to a whip is that it has the reach property, but frankly, if range is your concern, you’re better off just picking a different ranged weapon instead of the whip. Try to resist the urge to feel like Indiana Jones. It’s just not worth it.

4 Dart

Dart by Polar Engine, John Grello, and Michael Broussard

The dart loses points on a lot of different fronts. At the bare minimum, it’s just not that cool in terms of character concept. Plus, its range is thrown, meaning, in theory, depending on how strict your DM is, this isn’t really a piece of ammunition, but rather an individual item. The vex mastery property is good, but the shortbow also has this property within the simple ranged weapon tier.

Plus, alongside the next weapon on this list, the dart does very minimal damage at 1d4. Unless you absolutely have to, I would avoid taking any weapon that does 1d4 damage. There’s almost always an alternative way to do more damage.

3 Sling

Sling by Polar Engine, John Grello, and Michael Broussard

Similar to the dart, the sling also does very minimal damage at 1d4. Plus, once again, slow is one of the weaker mastery properties, as we’ve previously established. Honestly, though, the bone I have to pick with this weapon is more personal than anything else.

If I’m playing Dungeons & Dragons, why on earth do I want to look like Dennis the Menace? Unless it’s essential for your character concept, I just can’t get behind the aesthetic of this weapon. Plus, its features just aren’t that great compared to either the light crossbow or the shortbow.

2 Hand Crossbow

Hand Crossbow by Polar Engine, John Grello, and Michael Broussard

Hand crossbows have a great mastery property in the form of vex, and also gain some benefits thanks to their light property, which can synergize well with feats like crossbow expert. However, the hand crossbow ends up on this list again in comparison to the other martial ranged weapons you can have.

It has the second-lowest amount of damage at 1d6 on this list. No matter how hard you try, you’re not really going to be able to make a hand crossbow compared to anything else on the same list, unfortunately.

1 Blowgun

Blowgun by Polar Engine, John Grello, and Michael Broussard

The blowgun is far and away the worst weapon you can take in Dungeons & Dragons. This weapon, if it can be said to be a weapon at all, does one point of damage. No roll, no nothing. It just does one damage no matter what. I can’t imagine anything more boring than not even really being able to roll damage for an attack.

It does have the vex mastery property, which is good, but ultimately, this just isn’t going to be worth it. Plus, again, depending on how strict your DM is with ammunition, you could run out of these fast and barely have done any damage at the end of the day.

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