Average Damage
Philosophy the first:
Look, it’s a straightforward optimization question. In 5e D&D a greatsword swings with 2d6 for an average of 7 damage. A greataxe has that impressive 1d12 damage die, but that’s only 6.5 average damage. Over the life of a campaign, you’re just straight up dealing more damage with a greatsword. That advantage is compounded by the great weapon fighting style, allowing for more frequent damage bumps from more frequent re-rolls. I mean sure, you get a uniform distribution with the greataxe, meaning that you can occasionally swing for crazy damage compared to the more reliable bell curve distribution on the greatsword. But you’re also increasing your chances of lower-than-average damage, and that means you run the risk of under-performing when you really need to put a baddy down. So unless you’ve got some special mojo going (half-orc barbarians with savage attacks and brutal critical are the most common use case) you’re always better off going for the greatsword.
Philosophy the second:
Me like smash. Me choose greataxe!
Your choice of weapon says a lot about who you are as a gamer. Are you trying to fit a badass mental image or are you trying to solve an interesting maths question? Of course, I’m willing to bet that there are other thought processes than the philosophies listed above. So how about it, guys? When it comes time to choose your weapon, how do you make your decision? Let’s hear all about the weapon-selection philosophies you follow down in the comments!
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I tend to just pick whatever weapon happens to suit my fancy at that moment and/or is hella cool. For example, in a long-since completed run of Rise of the Runelords with my group, I ended up with a Skald who wielded a scythe. He had the Spirit Totem line of rage powers and I later added the Bloodsong special ability. To quote,
“While the wielder benefits from a raging song performance (whether her own or from an ally), this weapon gains the keen weapon special ability. If the wearer confirms a critical hit while under the effects of a raging song, she gains 1d10 temporary hit points that last until they’re reduced to 0 or the raging song ends, whichever comes first. If the weapon’s critical multiplier is ×3, add 2d10 temporary hit points instead; if the multiplier is ×4, add 3d10 temporary hit points instead.
While its powers are active, the weapon vibrates and makes a barely audible hum that rises to a shriek of triumph when it confirms a critical hit.”
Because who doesn’t want a scythe that screams when it deals a grievous blow while you yourself are shrouded by moaning and wailing spirits?
I loved you in Chrono Trigger. Some of your best work. 😛
I feel like the maul is the purer expression of “smash” than the greataxe. A maul does 2d6 damage, just like a greatsword, and furthermore, its bludgeoning damage is superior to the greatsword’s slashing damage (being useful against commonly-encountered skeletons and oozes, where slashing is only beneficial against rarely-seen treants), and on top of that, it’s 40 gp cheaper than a greatsword, which is almost a whole extra potion of healing.
TL;DR maul beats all.
Just watched the My Hero Academia movie last night. “A purer expression of smash” is something I can get behind.
https://gfycat.com/officiallightheartedcamel-boku-no-hero-academia-movie-my-hero-academia-two-heroes
It shouldn’t seem revolutionary, but when I first saw the WFRP weapon list I was stunned. No Sword, Axe, Warhammer, Morning Star, Military Pick, etc, just “Hand Weapon”, “Great Weapon”, and a few special-rule cases (like the Flail).
When I first saw it I was almost offended “what, no different damage codes for different weapons?”, but once i thought about it, it suddenly dawned on me how simply it solved the problem. You want a Warhammer-weilding Dwarf, no longer do you need to be looked down on by your Longsword-weilding companions for making a “roleplaying choice”.
I have houseruled this idea over to my D&D games, allowing players to pick the rule, not the appearance. I let my players use a Warhammer with Longsword stats, or a Mace with Shortsword stats (Finesse-weilders love this rule!), or (in the case of your example) use a Greataxe (or even a Halberd) with Greatsword stats. I simply rule that regardless how you have the weapon look, rule interactions refer to the stat lines, rather than appearance (so if you want the forementioned Halberd-with-Greatsword-stats, no use of Polearm Master with that weapon).
Solves all the angst some players may suffer when caught between taking the look they want or the statistically best option.
That’s a really neat way of getting round this, I like it.
How does that work if the PCs find a magic weapon. Do you let the magic warhammer they just found suddenly become a magic shortsword, or do they then have to choose between aesthetic and magic weapon.
Usually no, but that was because i always use random treasure tables for loot, and even with named high-level magic weapons, I would always roll on the random weapon type chart (so that Flametongue could be a Flail rather than a Sword), so it would always be a fairly random what the players might find, and then it was up to them whether they sacrifice their preferred look to get the shiny.
The tradeoff, of course, is that you run into situations where your great sword becomes a double, monk, reach, trip weapon wielded in each hand with a chain you can extend the chain to make a single reach attack.
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment/weapons/weapon-descriptions/kama-double-chained/
That’s an absurd example that no one would actually use in pursuit of the rule of cool. But the larger point is that the effect of all those niggling little rules tells you something about the world. If you see an opponent with a greatsword, you know something about their fighting style rather than trying to guess what they’re using it to represent.
Elegant simplicity always has a tradeoff.
Oh, I never used it for an NPCs (for exactly that reason, so players can plan based on what they see), it was merely a player rule-of-cool. And the avoid cheese interaction, the player had to buy the rules they were using, and those rules were fixed to that weapon, and its appearance was fixed on purchase. So sure, they could have two swords with different rules (since one was bought as a Rapier, and another a Flail for example), but they wouldn’t be able to suddenly take on the appearance of another weapon, and they would have to buy a third “sword” if they wanted the features of a Scimatar.
I want a double, monk, reach, trip greatsword with a chain in the middle.
Such is the human condition.
Those are called sword-chucks.
I like to go with the last option: All of the above.
I recently started playing a Barbarian with a Gladiator background. He carries around a Greatclub, a Greataxe, and a fancy curved Greatsword, and switches depending on the situation. For example, even though it’s the weakest option, there’s something far more satisfying about using the Greatclub for weaker, squishier enemies.
I will have you know that “golf bag comic” is on my to-do list. I don’t really have a good character to represent that though. :/
Welp time to introduce a soulknife
I love the analogy of a golf bag. I might have to borrow it.
I can see the problem, though, especially with Barbarian and Fighter each having one weapon as a big part of their brand. And while the ranger class has long been a favorite for switch-hitters, I’m not sure if Ranger herself is the type.
Magus might be a candidate. Any class that can turn a wine bottle into a +2 flaming burst wine bottle has reason to carry around a weapon for every non-magical special ability.
Heh. Now I’m imagining Magus apologizing as she christens a now-flaming ship.
Sounds like your Barbarian is one of the Greatest! Or, at least, they are attracted to Greatness, and no doubt aspire to Greatness.
(Those puns are great, no?)
This is the other reason I picked up the Greatclub. It felt more like a complete set that way.
I would trade in his Javelins, but they don’t sell Greatjavelins or even Greatspears…
I had a fighter like that… the kind of character who believed that since he was proficient in everything, he shouldn’t limit himself. And more to the point, if you broke one weapon while beating an ogre to death, no worries… there were plenty where that came from. Perfect in a Dark Sun game, where the scarcity of magic items means you don’t get too attached to any single item…
Myself I like the claymore as my go-to for big big hitty stick, although optimization doesn’t really factor into that particular equation.
I’m a very “rule of cool” player and for my money, aint nothing cooler then the Claymore.
But like… what if we made it weird and bendy?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flame-bladed_sword
That just makes me want to vomit, what purpose does mangling my beloved greatsword like that serve Colin?
Keep that crap outta my sight and don’t @ me with ridiculous ugly weaponry.
But… but… “some attributes of the waved blade were useful in combat.[citation needed]”
lol
I knew a guy with one. We got a couple sides of beef for a cookout and did some Science to them. Turns out the flamberge is slightly better for draw cuts.
Well, as I tend to play rpg’s for the immursion, I take the weapon that its my notion of that character. So, yes, me barbarian, me have big axe that hurts. and if I play a fancy pancy swashbuckler, bring on the rapier, and such. Thinking about the math of the whole game system is rather alien to me anyway, so I can savely say that that consideration has (almost?) never entered my consience while choosing weapons.
As you might have noticed, a lot of the gags in this comic come from extrapolating on game rules.
“Greatswords are always better? Why do the other weapons exist?” Answering that question is interesting for me. Although that kind of thinking does result in things like the Tippyverse:
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?222007-The-Definitive-Guide-to-the-Tippyverse-By-Emperor-Tippy
Well, as we were playing First Edition “Das Schwarze Auge/ Oog des Meesters/ The Dark Eye” just the other day, and I was looking for the melee stats for a spear (which were not there – apparantly a spear in that system is only for throwing) we lamented the fact that HISTORICALLY the most used weapon is the lowly spear, but that you very seldom see this in RPGs as a weapon of choice. Also because it is best used “en masse” with a whole group of people doing a hedgehog\porcupine imitation, but stil…
I remember back in the day when I was trying to figure out what the hell a “fauchard” actually was, I cam across some period fencing manual explaining that it was the best possible dueling weapon. Wish I could track it down now, but my character notes are lost to time.
Ah man, Oog des Meesters, first edition, that was my first TTRPG, it was fun but they really didn’t think stuff though, it had a charm spell that was clearly meant to solve an encounter but didn’t specify any way for the charm to end. So our wizard gathered an army of creatures around him. Armour worked by damage reduction, so if you had an armour that did for example DR 8 a foe that did 1d6+2 couldn’t hurt you at all. A knight in full plate could wade into an army of goblins and just start mowing them down without ever taking one point of damage, and yes, the weapon selection was very, very limited. If I remember correctly it had a barbarian greataxe which did 1D20+2 damage, a greatsword did 1d6+6
lol. I don’t know. I think greatsword fits my character better. I mean, what if I roll a 1 on my 1d20? I’d be leaving that old reliable damage on the table!
First I’d like to say that I very much appreciate today’s mouse-over text, it amused me greatly.
Also Fighter, being a fighter, should remember the old proverb about the plank in ones own eye and the speck in others eyes, before he so smugly hassles a barbarian over as minor bits of suboptimality as 0.5 damage pr swing.
He should just be happy that she chooses to outshine him less than she could. ;-P
As for your question, I am pretty influenced by the first philosophy (through I’d find it very poor manners to argue against other people using their preferred weapon like that, but personally I’m unlikely to ever make a melee rouge using daggers instead of shortswords if I don’t get a benefit from a feat/archetype for it).
At the same time, I am however very influenced by matters of image, literally that is. My gaming community has a habit of printing out character nameplates with an image on them to aid us in remembering which characters we are playing with. I am quite susceptible to the demands of whatever cool character images I can find, and which weapons they use when I select my starting weapons.
It was hard typing that scroll-over text while pushing up my own glasses, but I managed. 😛
I wonder if there’s some kind of “I only use knives” thief out there that gets a lot of mileage from throwing weapons? Maybe a strength-based rogue that specializes in Climb and Stealth. That way you get max damage by hurling your throwing weapon. (I’ve often been frustrated by my inability to make “knife fighter” viable without bending over backwards.)
Though I haven’t seen them in action yet, my first Pathfinder 2e character is a knife Rogue. He’s actually a doctor by profession (focus on the Medicine skill with abilities like Sneak Attack, bleed damage, poison use, Alchemist multiclass, DEX-to-damage and trap disarming flavored as being from his medical knowledge or hand-eye coordination from being a surgeon), so knives were just too flavorful to not use, even for maybe a point of additional damage.
For actual mechanical benefits of dagger usage (besides concealability and the like), 1e has the Knife Master Rogue ( https://www.aonprd.com/ArchetypeDisplay.aspx?FixedName=Rogue%20Knife%20Master ), which gets d8s on Sneak Attack. Tables turned, average-damage-focusers!
Pretty sure thrown knives still use the finesse rules in 5e (and therefore run off of Dex). Is that not the case in other editions?
I think it’s some and some. For a 5e PbP game I once had a dwarf ranger with two weapon fighting style. I thought – hammers are cool, that makes sense for a dwarf! Lets have him fight with two hammers! What shall I have for a ranged weapon? Light hammers! I can throw them!
I didn’t think about average damages once there, because I thought the idea was fun. On the other hand part of the reason I chose a throwing weapon instead of another ranged weapon was that I dumped DEX, so there’s still a certain amount of mechanics making the decision for me.
Thanks to its flattened math, 5e is especially good for making a lot of builds viable. You can go out of your way to multiclass something silly, but by and large optimized builds don’t seem to keep their party members from being relevant. And since I think a character ought to be “minimally viable,” that means you’ve got the freedom to do whatever. And that’s a plus in my books.
Im liking Pathfinder 2e’s take on all this. All weapons do 1 die of damage (d10 and d12 for the big guys), with runes to add more die later. And for extra fun, traits and other effects on the weapons to try to make them feel more distinct. Like on a crit hammers can knock people back, but a sword will leave them flat-footed. Can’t wait to actually try it out.
Yah. I thought the “sweep” ability on my starting scimitar felt like a magic weapon in any other edition. It was a nice bit of distinctive design.
I try to fit them to the character.
My first character used a platinum full blade, and man that was cool! But now-a-days I try to pick a more realistic option for my characters based on their personality and backstory.
I find it’s more fun that way for me. The DM is also less concerned about party balance with a 4d6 unenchanted sword swinging around.
I find any sword that hits me for 4d6 to be unenchanting. :/
Weapons? Who cares about weapons? Magic is more powerful* force.
-Wizards OP and broken since 1E 🙂
*Not counting things like fighting styles, feats and/or adventages added to an average fighter. In case of doubt consult your nearest powergamer.
Also i must complete agree with the alt-text. That is an imperdonable mistake and i am gonna rage-quite 🙂
https://i.imgur.com/LJlzk0s.jpg
See, make continuity mistakes and you will end with pitchforks and torches on your doorstep 🙂
At least is not as bad as an argument about who does more damage, fighters or rogues 😛
Yes, but swords are for sad losers who smell bad. It’s not a question of “Why would anyone use a 1d12 greataxe when 2d6 greatswords exist?” It’s a question of “Why would anyone use a 2d6 greatsword when 2d6 mauls don’t come with the implication that you’re a sad loser who’s overcompensating with a phallic symbol?”
So real-world history time! Swords historically served the role of a pistol: A less effective secondary weapon (Often given to officers to denote rank) that had the primary benefit of being able to be carried on one’s person. Swords were complete garbage against armor due to the shape of the blade, and the fact that the weight was even throughout. (As opposed to effective weapons which were harder to wield because the wight was concentrated at the striking end) That said, you weren’t going to have a spear/axe on you when fighting muggers or assassins, which was the sword’s primary use.
Greatswords pretty much only really existed for dick-measuring purposes. Swords contained a lot more metal than other weapons, and said metal was a single piece. This meant it took a very skilled smith to make them. (The increased material and labor costs combined with the fact that officers carried them led to the romanticizing of swords which is why they’re so over-saturated in media compared to primary weapons) Moreso if the sword was big. Hence smiths would make big swords to show off their smithing abilities. Odachi were pretty much only used for duels. Landsknechts were pretty much the only people ever to use greatswords effectively on the battlefield.
Warhammers were actually the weapons of elite badasses. They required great strength and skill to wield, and were most effective against the more expensive armor of other elite badasses.
Swords are just warhammers in disguise: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-sword#/media/File:Augsburg_Cod.I.6.4%C2%BA.2_(Codex_Wallerstein)_107v.jpg
Which once again, was less effective against armor than real bludgeoning weapons because the hilt while better than a sword blade, is not designed as a proper striking weapon, as well as the sword’s even weight-distribution impeding its effectiveness. It also reinforces my point aboot swords vs armor, since gauntlets can safely grip a sword-blade securely enough to use as a handle in combat. Angrily adjusts non-existent glasses in the general direction of any “Historical” or fantasy piece that treats swords like they’re the most effective weapon This problem has become so saturated that pretty much every magic item in a the DMG is a sword of some sort, and any time the party encounters a +X weapon in an adventure it’s a sword.
On the subject of glasses-adjustment, the answer to the mouse-over is that magical items resize for their wearer. This means that they could easily resize from short, to long, to bastard to greatswords.
And don’t get us started on the sizes of axes in Fantasy compared to realistic historical axes. ;p
I was always happy with Barbarian’s axe in that regard. It seems just this side of believable.
My weapon of choice is Spiritual Weapon. Why hit something for 2d6 or 1d12, when you can summon a weapon that keeps dealing 1d8+Wis/Cha per turn?
Because it’s not on my spell list.
https://www.documentingreality.com/forum/attachments/f225/769303d1521607113-napoleon-dynamites-wife-caught-cheating-napoleon-20dynamitw-20well-20duh.jpg
I choose my weapons based on a mental image of the character, mostly. Do they sing around a sword in my mind? An axe? A polearm?
Whatever I think will suit them.
I assume they only sign around a sword if they’re a bard. 😛
Personally I feel that Swashbucklers are more likely than bards to pull a Zorro like that 😛
Fighter’s about to learn that fixed damage and power attack is the only baseline a barbarian needs.
Barbie is about to be all like, “You know what? That’s enough sharpening for today. A nice dull edge will do just fine.”
I’m a bit of a mixed bag. When I have a specific image in my head, I might go for the less efficient option, otherwise I’ll go for what hit hardest (and more dice = more fun, too).
One specific case that sticks to my mind, is the rapier. This evoke a very particular mental image to me, that of the witty, nimble, blustering duellist, who most likely has some noble lineage. So it bugs me that it is objectively the best finesse weapon in 5e (it’s not even a case of different distribution here, 1D8 is the best you can have, everything else is 1D6 or 1D4), meaning every dex based combattant takes it. If the character you’re going for fits the description I just gave, then great! But if it’s, for example, a cruel assassin that pops out of nowhere and stab their victim in the back, then a rapier just… doesn’t work. Neither does it work with a Barbarian/Rogue multiclass that use finesse weapons with Strength to brutally sneak attack their foes. So I usually prefer the shortsword. Even if it’s a tiny bit weaker. It fits with much more archetypes.
Didn’t Entreri use a rapier? Or was he a short swords guy? So damn long since I read Salvatore….
…I kinda think Entreri might have used shortswords? That at least would work thematically as someone intended to be a foil to our favorite dual-wielding drow. Or maybe he used one sword and a dagger?
I dunno. It’s been forever since I read any of those books, too.
Just googled it. Entreri used a sword and a vampiric dagger.
I generally opt for versatility over straight damage. I like weapons that can deal more than one type of damage or that can be thrown in a pinch. Of course, since I mainly play casters, it’s usually a non-issue anyway.
Heh. If you play casters, you like light crossbows.
Axes all the way man. I might use Daggers or shortswords but if I need to use a big honking weapon, it better be a big honking axe on a stick. I dislike swords as generic edgy weapons taken by wannabe warriors who feel the need to emphasis their martial abilities, whereas an axe is humble but by no means harmless. You will find axes in all walks of life whether you’re a peasant or a king.
A sword is a tool made only for killing, but an axe can defend your home from the wolves and make your home from the trees. Try chopping down an oak with that 2d6 blunt saw, compared to the chad honking 1d12.
Somewhat related, I was playing a funny oneshot where I was allowed to have a silly but magical weapon. I created the backwards axe: an axe who’s blade was facing inwards (think a really bendy scythe) so it only did bludgeoning damage. But my Damage die was reversed as well: instead of hitting for 1d12, I’m rolling 12d1 aka constantly 12 Damage. Twas a fun and silly night.
12d1 is an amazing damage number. In practice, I imagine it’s just rolling 12 marbles with a 1 painted on and waiting a full minute for them to stop rolling.
Gömböcs are a thing I know about because of Darths & Droids.
http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/1707.html
I go for style: Rapier for rogues or Falchion for Barbarian.
My Arcane Trickster build Dwarf carried an axe just for show (and had one Level of Monk for Improved Unarmed Strike)
theoretically I also go for high threat range but I can’t even remember the last time I rolled an 18, on anything.
I assume your referring to 12 D.O.R.F § 1426 (H.House 3018), which legally requires dwarves of all ages, genders, and settings to carry at least one ax(e) upon their person at all times.
Axe or hammer, or even occasionally a warpick.
Those are separate statutes.
I don’t know why, but I hate having my characters all use the same weapon. I was twisting myself into knots trying to figure out how to give my Rogue something OTHER than a rapier. This was because she has a twin that’s a Dashing Thief Swashbuckler and because my Magus and Bard both have a level of Inspired Blade Swashbuckler and have to use rapiers. Long story short, my Rogue has a rapier and her twin has a cutlass. Which have the EXACT SAME STATS!
I referenced it a bit further up the page, but going for something exotic like the double-chained kama is a fun build-around:
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment/weapons/weapon-descriptions/kama-double-chained/
I’ve got a buddy using it in a gestalt game, and it’s a little like watching a combo deck in M:tG what with all the moving parts.
I wanted to give her a Sword Cane, but she didn’t have the proficiency and I couldn’t fit the feat in to give it to her.
Very prone to using daggers on my rogues in most systems we run, since they have utility. They’re easy to hide, you can carry several of them easily, and you can throw them in a pinch. In Pathfinder/D&D, I’m less concerned about my damage die since all my damage is from Sneak Attack anyway. If I’m going to be reduced to only weapon die, I may as well strike from Range and prevent the enemy from getting a full attack on me. In Anima, they are super fast, especially with Quality bonuses, which makes them dangerous on their own despite their relatively low damage.
For more weapon focused characters, the weapon should be iconic to the character. I once built a “trap” build in Anima that was a Psychic Warrior using the Increase Strength and Increase Reactions Psychometabolics powers to make her able to wield a two handed sword that was as fast as a long sword, which is a huge deal since the Initiative difference between the two is roughly 80 points. The “trap” came when someone put me in a situation where i couldn’t use the two handed sword. Low ceiling caves, disarms, other shenanigans prompted her to pull her Short Sword, which because she was still maintaining the Initiative power, let to her becoming a high Chi Naruto character who moved so fast her opponents couldn’t keep up.
So you went from good character to great character when they took your toys? Nice. Reminds me of that Mighty Max episode where Norman loses his sword, spends the whole ep getting it back, and then doesn’t use it.
Who cares if it’s effective. It looks cool!
For values of good and great, yeah. I went from “If i hit you even a little, you are critically injured” to “I will hit you and deal less damage more consistantly”.
The correct philosophy is to just ask if you can reflavor the better mechanical weapon as whatever it is you want to use. smirk
Not quite the same thing at all, but currently I have a character that’s reflavoring rapiers to arming swords. Entirely because of character art and because duel rapier fighting is very silly (and what little I understand of irl sword fighting suggest to me that a basket hilt would make a lot of duel wielding moves extremely difficult to do). And a little bit because within the last few months I learned what arming swords, bastard swords, longswords, and greatswords all actually are and D&D has pretty much managed to be wrong about all of them. (Well maybe not bastard swords, I can’t remember how 3.5 dealt with them. And hey at least they didn’t fail at understanding a short sword. Though… I don’t know how that would even be possible.)
Apparently people care about what swords are called more now than in the past. From what I understand, ‘bastard sword’ was applied to a shitload of different weapons over the life of the term. Trying to figure out which one is “correct” is a matter of specific time, place, and English-accented YouTube videos.
Indeed what gets classified what (or has been at various points in time) is all over the place. In part because people during those time periods just didn’t use specific terms for objects they didn’t need to. It didn’t matter much to them that their common style of “sword” was vastly different from some other period’s style. It was still the common type people were using so it was just “sword” or whatever kind of sword.
I still think we can pretty much all agree that anyone who has even a vague understanding of what a greatsword actually is has to find it baffling that D&D doesn’t think it’s a reach weapon.
My years in the SCA taught me that there’s a considerable difference between reach and reach. A glaive or a greatsword can outreach a one-hander all day. But in my first castle battle at my first Estrella War I brought my glaive. Never have I felt so useless. Nine foot spears don’t care about your six-foot polearm. They just stab you.
So I guess that, if it’s going to be an arbitrary division anyway, I’m OK with great swords being the pole arm without reach. It’s all an abstraction anyway, you know?
I suppose you’re right…. in a way that maybe you didn’t mean … to me anyway. Your point about the spears is… on point. If only half of the weapon stats make sense for what they really are it is a little pointless to nitpick specific things rather than just saying I’d like more accurately presented weapons and/or having more of them be mechanically viable options in general.
Because spears are great irl and cool…. but in D&D they’re neither of those things.
This is why I love incomperables. Sure 7 average is better than 6.5, but harder questions arise when the option is 7 damage with no abilities and 6.5 damage with the ability to ready as a free action, or a 1d6 damage weapon with the ability to give a minor debuff to living creatures versus a 2d4 weapon with the ability to be thrown. None of these abilities is objectively worse or better, because they are all situational.
The weapons in P2e are pretty slick for this:
https://2e.aonprd.com/Weapons.aspx
Hell yeah, sweep!
Also, in Pendragon, which is my favorite RPG anyway, (almost) everybody has a Sword, and damage is measured by how big and strong you are. So small SIZ and STR characters do something like 3D6 damage, but big strapping Saxons (who get extra points for SIZ) can do like 6 or even 7D6 damage. And Lance damage, for when you do the Lance charge as a knight, is dependent on how strong and fast your horse is. Some of my players, who are rather strong and large, so 7D6 damage, sometimes want to use their own damage when on a horse, because their horse is rather small, and the Lance damage would only be 6D6
You know that Tommy Boy movie? First thing that springs to mind: “Fat guy on a little horse…”
https://giphy.com/gifs/movie-food-chris-farley-4BtenTYxs8q76
It really depends, but I will say this. Feat tax, particularly for certain types of combat flavors, is real.
Really, here’s a better question. If your character is using some sort of signature weapon, doesn’t it stand to reason that the character should just be good with it? Or at least not crippled by preferring to fight with, FOR EXAMPLE, a whip? Three feats in to just do damage is brutal.
And particularly melee weapons-why the division between simple and martial? The vast majority of melee weapons are ‘hit the other guy with it’ type affairs, with the caveat that if it has a sharp end, hit the guy with the sharp bit.
I feel like at some point, rather than making feats amazing (or even just interesting) features that make characters stand out from each other, they just made several of them into baseline competencies.
I seem to remember scorpion whip being kind-of-sort-of viable, depending on which of the two versions of the silly thing you’re talking about. But there’s no argument here: feat tax is a bitch.
Simple > Martial > Exotic has always confused me, given the variable power bumps you seem to get. In theory, you ought to get more features as you go up in order, but it’s rarely worth the tradeoff. My one brush with the weapon creation rules…
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment/Weapons/#Creating_New_Weapons
…seemed to indicate that you couldn’t even recreate the default exotic weapons within the system. Weird shit.
Re: Creating New Weapons
I noticed that when I messed with it, but also decided if I really needed to make any new weapons, as the GM… I’d just arbitrarily give them the stats I figure they deserve. Rule 0 that nonsense.
Yeah, I get feats to get special abilities out of a weapon, but if your character has practiced with a weapon for a couple of years (which is probably a fair assumption for a level one character) they should be good with it.
Maybe a better solution would be to say that a character is proficient with X weapons at level 1, depending on class, where X is a much bigger number for martial classes than casters. That way you can be a sorcerer with a whip if you want, as a trade off for not being able to use any other weapons.
If you wanted to complicate it, maybe have prerequisites, so you have to take proficiency in small swords if you want proficiency in big swords or finesse swords for example.
Re: alt text:
“What? No, Mr. Stabby’s always been a greatsword, what are you talking about? On an unrelated note, can you pass me an eraser? There’s something I just noticed I need to fix on my character sheet.”
I really need to do a comic on continuity errors….
Well in 5e my Dwarf Cleric starts with a Warhammer so that is his weapon sorted. I tend to play soellcasters or Rogues which means finesse weapons which have much fewer options. Casters have a dagger just in case; there dex is better than Strength so we do want to use our staff to hit someone. Rogues want either paired weapons or Rapier and Booming Blade.
I did have an Elven Wizard/Cleric that ended up with a magic Longsword and Magic Mace as that was what we found during the campaign. In games with random loot I just grab the first magic weapon I can use.
I believe we’ve got a comic about “the golf bag” currently in the queue. In other words: I tend to enjoy bringing along my whole armory when I go dungeon delving. 😀
I remember way back in 2d edition D&D thinking ‘Why would anyone use a battleaxe? No bonus damage against Large (back when that was a thing, longswords did d12 against large monsters while battleaxes did d8) and slower (initiative could be modified by weapon, and axes were worse). And let’s not get in on the mess of other weapons … yeesh.
Next time Dragon Con rolls around, I need to make it a point to drop in on some 2e games. It’s ridiculous at this point in my gaming career that I’ve never had a chance to play.
My weapon choices are generally based on my character’s general feel. One time I noticed all my characters always have tons of daggers, so I made a character that had 5 daggers at first level- The most I could get using only the 5e PHB- Just for a dumb joke.
I thought “knife rogue” sounded cool back in the days of 3.0. I was just starting out, so I didn’t know much about weapon qualities. I looked at the weapons chart, looked at the greatswords chart, and cursed the unfairness of the world.
I just want to yell “MISERUM!” and “Perī!” to my enemies before I end them rightly! https://youtu.be/tuvnbRt-1oE?t=43