#DND twitter! What say ye? Can my halfling barbarian use a great axe? Yay or Nay? She’s little but she wants to smash ALL THE THINGS! @mikemearls @ChrisPerkinsDnD @MikeVorpal @ShimmerwindIsle @Sydniac tagged some DM’s I’ve got big respect for but please everyone chime in! Does it make her story awesomer? If so, yes!!!
— 🎄🏕Adam Lee🎄🏔 (@adamofadventure) April 15, 2018
yeah, it doesn’t break anything to allow it
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) April 15, 2018
A thousand times yay! #wotcstaff https://t.co/7ZJcUohluU
— Christopher Perkins (@ChrisPerkinsDnD) April 15, 2018
Do it! 🙂
— Richard Whitters (@WhittersRichard) April 15, 2018
Small creatures have disadvantage on attack rolls with heavy weapons. A heavy weapon’s size and bulk make it too large for a Small creature to use effectively.
The trick is to get Advantage somehow to counteract the Disadvantage.
Give the same Gnome Barbarian the Mounted Combatant feat and stick them on a mount bigger than their enemies, and now they can attack normally.
Plus, since multiple counts of Disadvantage don’t have any affect, they can also be blind, poisoned, prone, et cetera, and still be just as effective. So long as you have the feat, a drunken, blind-folded gnome slumped over the back of a horse on their stomache, weilding an axe far too large for them is just as effective a combative as a typical warrior.
Thank you Mr. C for replying here with the rule as well, so those who are curious of the game’s interactions of such a creature with such a weapon are aware of the mechanics.