Request: Oversight: the "Heavy" weapon property does not correctly interact with abilities like pact weapon that change which ability score the weapon works off of.

[skadooshbag]

What are you requesting?

Other

Name

The "Heavy" weapon property should switch to looking at other ability scores when appropriate.

D&D Beyond link

No response

Source book

N/A

Why do you think this should be added?

I'm not sure whether this is an intended functionality or not, as I've yet to actually play 5.5e, but one would intuitively assume that if I have an ability that somehow lets me swing a greatsword with my sexiness and force of personality rather than my muscle power, then any properties of that sword that normally require a minimum amount of muscle power would also switch to working off charisma as well.

Even summoned pact weapons require a minimum of 13 str to use properly, even while they use charisma for everything else. Weapons sanctified by a Blade of Radiance Rogue have the same problem.

Checklist

• I searched existing discussions and this hasn't already been requested.
• I confirmed this isn't already implemented in the current mod version.

[Yoonmoonsik]

Thanks for the write-up, but this is working as intended rather than an oversight.

Heavy in the 2024 rules checks your Strength score itself (or Dexterity for ranged) being at least 13. It's a prerequisite on the weapon property, not a check tied to whichever ability you happen to attack with. Pact of the Blade only says you may use Charisma for the attack and damage rolls instead of Strength or Dexterity — it says nothing about the Heavy requirement, so the requirement stands. Same for the Rogue's sanctified weapons and any other ability-swap feature.

This has been chewed over plenty in the community (the D&D Beyond rules forums and RPGBot's 2024 Warlock handbook both land on the same reading), and there's no Sage Advice ruling overturning it. The consensus is that it feels unintuitive but is exactly what the text says.

Practical answer: if you don't want to invest in 13 STR, just don't use a Heavy weapon. Versatile martial weapons — longsword, battleaxe, warhammer — all deal 1d10 two-handed and none of them have Heavy, so a CHA-based build swings them at full effect with zero Strength investment. You give up 1-1.5 average damage per hit versus a greatsword, which is nothing compared to eating Disadvantage on every attack. They carry good masteries too (Warhammer has Push, Longsword has Sap).

Closing this as working as intended.