Crusher 5e (Updated for the 2024 Rules)

Published on: May 20, 2025

The Crusher feat can provide a significant power boost to martial builds that rely on bludgeoning damage. How well will it work for your build? Find out here.

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What Is the Crusher Feat in 5e?

Crusher is one of the three martial-focused feats we got in 2024 Player’s Handbook, alongside Slasher and Piercer. These feats offer martial classes an additional bonus for sticking to a specific damage type and also provide an increase to prevalent ability scores.

How Does Crusher Work?

If you grab this feat, you’ll end up with three new benefits:

Ability Score Increase. You can increase your Strength or Constitution by one, up to a maximum of 20. Boosts your attack roll’s chance to hit and damage or increases your survivability.
Push. Once per turn, when you hit a creature with an attack that dealt Bludgeoning damage, you may move it five feet into an unoccupied place, as long as the creature is no more than one size category larger than you. Good for pushing targets into hazards or strategically repositioning them.
Enhanced Critical. Whenever you score a Critical Hit that deals Bludgeoning damage to a creature, any attack rolls made against that creature have Advantage until the start of your next turn. Unfortunately, if your crit finishes off your target, this ability is a big ol’ whiff.

How to Get the Crusher Feat

The Crusher feat is available to all classes at level 4 and beyond whenever they can select a feat.

Is Crusher Good?

In our 5e Feats Tier List, Crusher was given a B Tier rating, making it a niche feat that can improve some builds in D&D 5e.

Crusher is a somewhat situational General feat. The only build that really wants this feat is a melee build (preferably Champion Fighter, for the added Critical Hit potential) with a Bludgeoning weapon. If this fits your build, being able to +1 your Strength or Constitution while getting the bonus from crits is going to provide a lot of value for your party.

Crusher and Weapon Mastery

Weapon Mastery is a mechanic introduced in the 2024 Player’s Handbook. This feature adds effects to weapons that apply when making attacks. There is a Weapon Mastery property called “Push,” which does the same thing as the Push benefit of the Crusher feat, only it’s not necessarily limited to weapons that deal Bludgeoning damage and pushes creatures 10 feet instead of 5 feet..

Combining the Crusher Feat with the Push Mastery Property

If you’re looking to create a battlefield manipulation build, combining these two properties is quite strong, especially because neither has the opportunity to be suppressed by a saving throw. As long as you hit, you can push the creature you’re targeting.

It’s worth noting that this is not RAW, a DM could adjudicate that you could use either property on a hit, not both. But, I see a certain case that you can push a creature 15 feet straight away from you on hit, seeing as Crusher allows you to move the creature 5 feet to any unoccupied space, but the Push mastery property only allows you to move them in a straight line.

The best weapon for this type of playstyle is the Warhammer as it deal more damage than the Greatclub. You could even throw in Shield Master to allow you to push creatures as a Reaction after you get hit.

I would also recommend finding a way to pick up Booming Blade, as this will ensure the targeted creature can’t just dust itself off and charge back at you without taking some extra damage.

The Best Weapons for the Crusher feat

Here are the weapons in D&D that deal Bludgeoning damage:

Name	Damage	Properties	Mastery	Weight	Cost
Club	1d4 Bludgeoning	Light	Slow	2 lb.	1 SP
Greatclub	1d8 Bludgeoning	Two-Handed	Push	10 lb.	2 SP
Light Hammer	1d4 Bludgeoning	Light, Thrown (Range 20/60)	Nick	2 lb.	2 GP
Mace	1d6 Bludgeoning	—	Sap	4 lb.	5 GP
Quarterstaff	1d6 Bludgeoning	Versatile (1d8)	Topple	4 lb.	2 SP
Sling	1d4 Bludgeoning	Ammunition (Range 30/120; Bullet)	Slow	—	1 SP
Flail	1d8 Bludgeoning	—	Sap	2 lb.	10 GP
Maul	2d6 Bludgeoning	Heavy, Two-Handed	Topple	10 lb.	10 GP
Warhammer	1d8 Bludgeoning	Versatile (1d10)	Push	5 lb.	15 GP

It’s also worth noting that Unarmed Strikes and any spells that deal Bludgeoning damage (like Bigby’s Hand) also proc the effects of this feat.

Of these options, the best weapons for this feat are as follows:

Maul: The most damage, has the Topple mastery property, and is Heavy to combine with Great Weapon Master.
Warhammer: Versatile and has the Push mastery property with can combo with Crusher’s ability to push targets.
Quarterstaff: Works with Shillelagh to allow your Druid or Ranger to become a magical Quarterstaff-wielding melee combatant.

Which 5e Classes Make the Most of Crusher?

The color code below has been implemented to help you identify, at a glance, how good the Crusher 5e feat is for a specific class/subclass.

Red: Weak, unlikely to contribute to your build

Orange: Situationally good, but below average

Green: A solid choice

Blue: A great option worth considering

Sky Blue: One of the best choices for optimization

Crusher is best on builds that:

Want to be in melee range with Bludgeoning-type weapons (maces, hammers, clubs, etc.)
Ideally, have access to Booming Blade.

This is an ideal feat for any martial class that doesn’t want to go with Polearm Master, as it adds a great repositioning attack and the chance for extra advantage, plus an increase to an important ability score. It forces you to stay with a particular weapon type, though, which may be difficult to keep if your DM offers a lot of magical weapons that don’t deal bludgeoning damage.

Artificer: Because this class is so flexible, it can work with most feats. Melee-focused artificers like Battle Smiths or Armorers can get some great use out of this since they are melee-oriented.

Barbarian: It's not a terrible choice for a Barbarian, especially compared to the other damage-type feats. It offers them a chance to have a little battlefield manipulation, plus a possible damage boost.

Bard: Most Bards won’t be in melee range, so this is a skip. Both of the melee subclasses can potentially use this feat, but I think they would be better off with more flexible utility feats like Lucky or Mobile.

Cleric: Melee-focused Clerics can get a lot of use out of this, especially the War Domain. You already get extra attacks and damage, making this feat even better.

Druid: Melee-based Druids don’t use weapons, so you’ll need to rely on a Wild Shape animal that not only deals bludgeoning damage but is also appropriate for your level. Overall, it’s too difficult to get this feat to work without any compromises.

Fighter: Crusher is a very strong pickup for any build using a Bludgeoning weapon. The Champion subclass especially loves this feat because of how much more often they will be landing Critical Hits. The only downside of this feat would be if your Fighter finds a magical weapon that doesn't deal Bludgeoning and is strictly better than your current weapon.

Monk: If there was ever a perfect feat for Monks, this is it. Because your Unarmed Strikes deal Bludgeoning damage and a good variety of Monk weapons, you can almost always trigger this feat. Any subclass is excellent, but I think Way of the Drunken Master fits best since they already offer a lot of battlefield manipulation.

Paladin: This is a great secondary option for most Paladins if you don’t want to go the polearm route. They have access to all the weapons this feat wants, and they get plenty of mileage out of the manipulation.

Ranger: I don’t think most Rangers will care much about this feat, as it isn’t in their wheelhouse. The push can help get them in and out of melee range, but it isn’t as effective with any particular Ranger build.

Rogue: This feat doesn’t add much to the Rogue class unless you’re aiming for a particular style of play. Rogues can already get in and out of melee range with Cunning Action, and they typically want DEX over STR.

Sorcerer: Absolutely not worth it, as they never want to be in melee range. This feat is for martial classes.

Warlock: Absolutely not worth it, as they never want to be in melee range. This feat is for martial classes. Hexblades can use Bludgeoning weapons, which works well with Booming Blade, for some fun damage opportunities, but it isn’t an essential feat by any means.

Wizard: Absolutely not worth it, as they never want to be in melee range. This feat is for martial classes. Bladesingers can use Bludgeoning weapons, which works well with Booming Blade, for some fun damage opportunities, but it isn’t an essential feat

Crusher FAQs

What's the best weapon to use with Crusher?

Different weapons will shine in different scenarios. The maul is the go-to choice for great weapon builds because it deals 2d6 and has the heavy property, the quarterstaff can work with Polearm Master and doesn't require proficiency with martial weapons, the warhammer offers versatility between 1d8 and 1d10 depending on how you wield it, and even the sling can be used for ranged builds.

Conclusion

All three of these damage feats from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything offer martial classes something new and different. These new damage-type feats expand on what a regular melee class can do without expending any bonus actions. Crusher is by far the best of them, though it is the one that has the least amount of support behind it, as bludgeoning isn’t as common.

How do you feel about Crusher? Do you think it works for any particular class we didn’t mention? Let us know in the comments below!

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Mike Bernier

Mike Bernier is the lead content writer and founder of Arcane Eye. He is a Adamantine best-selling author of Strixhaven: A Syllabus of Sorcery on DMs Guild and is a contributing author at D&D Beyond. Follow Mike on Twitter.