What is the maximum number of weapons you can draw in one turn?

Question

I was thinking about ways to replicate that movie scene where somebody begins taking out tons and tons of weapons. In this endeavor I am wondering: What's the greatest number of weapons you can draw (and subsequently drop for free) in one turn?

Multiclassing is allowed but I would like to avoid magic items. I would also like to avoid using polymorph or similar spells, the character should remain their starting race.

Please assume in answers to this question that you do not need to have infinitely many hands because dropping an item costs no sort of action.

Would conjuring a physical item count (such as Pact of the Blade or Weapon Bond), or only drawing? — David Coffron, Nov 01 '19 at 14:15
@davidcoffron However, you can't summon the same weapon repeatedly, otherwise it wouldn't actually seem like you have multiple weapons — Exempt-Medic, Nov 01 '19 at 19:23

score 10 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 16 '20 at 10:23

At least ten

This requires a Thief Rogue / Fighter affected by haste and with the Dual Wielder feat which states:

[...] You can draw or stow two one-handed weapons when you would normally be able to draw or stow only one.

The character, like any, can take the Use an Object action, using their action to draw two weapons and can use their item interaction to draw two more.

The Thief Rogue gets the Fast Hands feature which states:

Starting at 3rd level, you can use the bonus action granted by your Cunning Action to make a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check, use your thieves' tools to disarm a trap or open a lock, or take the Use an Object action.

Then we can multiclass into Fighter to get Action Surge which states:

Starting at 2nd level, you can push yourself beyond your normal limits for a moment. On your turn, you can take one additional action.

This lets us take the Use an Object action yet again, giving us two more weapons to draw.

After that we would want the haste spell which states:

[The creature] gains an additional action on each of its turns. That action can be used only to take the Attack (one weapon attack only), Dash, Disengage, Hide, or Use an Object action.

We would take the Use an Object action to draw another two weapons bringing our total to ten.

In summary we have:
Two weapons from our action, two from our object interaction, two from Action Surge, two from Fast Hands, and two from haste.

linksassin · Accepted Answer · 2019-11-07T06:31:52.300

22, if Unearthed Arcana is allowed

This answer relies on UA content and another character to support you, but on the upside you do actually get to attack with most of the weapons you draw.

The Helper

The exact build for this character doesn't really matter. They only need to be able to cast haste and take the help action. For the sake of simplicity lets call them a 5th level Wizard.

The Character

A level 20 fighter with the samurai martial archtypes. This gives us the following benefits:

Extra Attack x3 (Level 5, 11 and 20): Gives us the most possible attacks per turn
Thrown Weapon Fighting Style: This is the key to the whole build as this UA fighting style contains the text:

You can draw a weapon that has the thrown property as part of the attack you make with the weapon.
Action Surge: 4 more attacks!
Dual Wielder feat: Draw two weapons instead of one.
Rapid Strike: Turn advantage into one additional attack.

Our fighter will need a belt capable of holding 20+ daggers too, but lets assume carrying the weapons to be drawn isn't an issue.

The Setup

In a previous round our friendly wizard has cast haste on the fighter
The wizard then uses the help action, or in some other way grants advantage for at least one of the fighters attacks.

The Turn

For each attack the fighter is going to draw 2 weapons, attack with one and drop the other for free.
Action: 4 attacks, 8 weapons drawn.
Rapid Strike: 1 attack, 2 weapons drawn.
Action surge: 4 attacks, 8 weapons drawn.
Haste action: 1 attack, 2 weapons drawn.
Free item interaction: 0 attacks, 2 weapons drawn
Bonus action: 1 attack, no weapons drawn.
Total: 11 attacks, 22 weapons drawn.

We could get more if we can find a way to use our bonus action to draw a weapon. But since this exploit relies on thrown weapons, and the two-weapon fighting rules require us to be holding the second weapon to get the bonus action attack, we can't draw.

I think asking whether thrown weapon fighting works with dual wielder may be worth its own question, though it does seem rather straightforward — Exempt-Medic, Nov 07 '19 at 06:24
@Medix2 I thought the same initially, but the abilities are fairly clearly worded and I can't see any RAW reason why it wouldn't work. — linksassin, Nov 07 '19 at 06:28
@Medix2 Even if it doesn't, this is still 11 attacks with 11 drawn weapons, which is pretty good. — linksassin, Nov 07 '19 at 06:30

score -2 · Answer 3 · edited Nov 07 '19 at 07:41

Allowing UA, double however many opportunity attacks can be provoked:

This relies on the Thrown Weapon Fighting fighting style (from UA: Class Feature Variants):

You can draw a weapon that has the thrown property as part of the attack you make with the weapon.

Note that this doesn't actually require us to throw the weapon. We can instead make a melee attack with it if we wanted.

We also need the Dual Wielder feat (PHB, p. 165):

[...] You can draw or stow two one-handed weapons when you would normally be able to draw or stow only one.

Now we can also use the Tunnel Fighter fighting style (from UA: Light, Dark, Underdark!):

[...] As a bonus action, you can enter a defensive stance that lasts until the start of your next turn. While in your defensive stance, you can make opportunity attacks without using your reaction [...]

Thus we could enter the Tunnel Fighter fighting style stance, and each time a creature provoked an opportunity attack from us, we could draw two weapons (Dual Wielder feat + Thrown Weapon Fighting fighting style), attacking with one and dropping the other.

The number of weapons we could draw is thus only limited by the number of opportunity attacks provoked.