Improved Armory- Part Two: Weapons Reforged

On Tuesday, we looked at what constitutes a weapon, an example of how two weapons can be different, and how roleplaying games have abstracted weapons. Like the picture of the iconic sword Narsil, weapons in roleplaying games can be broken into parts.

(The Shards of Narsil, Lord of the Rings, New Line Cinema)

The main division of parts are most commonly ascribed to a type and damage. Anything after that differs from game to game. Some games say that regardless of the appearance, a 1d8 damage weapon can be list X, while 1d6 is list Y, and so on. Other games painstakingly list these differences weapon by weapon. Though the question remains, "Is there a proper answer?" The real answer is yes and no. It is entirely dependent upon the system it is featured in. In games that are rules light, the fiction of the game is usually deeper, and detail takes precedent due to the lack of abundant and rigid rules. In a system like Dungeons and Dragons where there are rules for every small aspect of the game, I find that when we try to allow room for details in games that have many rules, many players get hung up on the mechanics that they feel has more weight than the narrative. Even though, we may have explored how a longsword and battleaxe are entirely different, a player or GM who feels beholden to the rules may be more inclined to ignore those differences for the sake of keeping the balance of the rules as written (RAW) in tact. There isn't anything inherently wrong with that, in fact, it is entirely a GM's discretion as to what parts of the game are used. We hope that these exceptions are explained to players sooner than later, though.

So if you want to explore how weapons can be expanded upon more, let's get started. A weapon has the following places we can make adjustments in the narrative of the story in 5e:

1. Material

2. Design Features

3. Enchantments (Magical modifications)

We'll focus on Materials and Design Features in this article. Weapon Materials

(Wolverine expressing his opinion to people who say that weapon material doesn't matter, X-Men Twentieth Century Fox)

It could be pretty easy to get lost with weapon materials, it's also easy to not include them as a factor at all, and it is generally harder to include them. It's understandable as to why they weren't included in 5e or at least have yet to be included. In 3.5 the array of standard materials we were given were:

Steel Adamantine

Deep Crystal Mundane Crystal

Darkwood Cold Iron Mithral Alchemical Silver Each one had it's own property, and varying hardness (a form of damage reduction), and hit points should a character attempt to break it. Weapons came in the form of standard and masterwork and most of the materials other than steel had to be master work in order for them to exist. Masterwork swords generally gave a +1 on attack rolls. We can remove silvered weapons off the list as they are already offered in the Players Handbook. If I were to include their use beyond steel I may consider the following: Adamantine- A weapon made from adamantine deals it's maximum damage to objects, and ignores resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.

Deep Crystal- A creature that possesses the ki, psi points, or spellcasting class feature deals an extra 1d6 force damage with this weapon as long as they have ki, psi points, or a spell slot available. It also has the properties of Mundane Crystal. Mundane Crystal- A weapon made from mundane crystal is not subject to rusting and is not considered to be made of metal. Darkwood- A weapon made of wood, or mostly made of wood such as a spear or axe, can be made from darkwood which weighs half as much as it normally would. Cold Iron- Weapons made from cold iron deal an extra 1d6 to fey and fiends. Mithral- A weapon made from mithral weighs half as much as it normally would.

In addition, each of these weapons we could apply the "masterwork" +1 bonus to. If you are thinking, "If that's all the materials do, then what's the point?" In a bounded accuracy system a +1 bonus is pretty good, but these are smaller instances of mechanics in use in the form of design ribbons.

Design Features

Luke Skywalker, as pictured above, was clearly not aware of the design features of a lightsaber at that time. Design features like what we talked about at length in the previous article can very easily be adapted to make weapons more unique and interesting. An example of these design feature differences would be in the differences between a normal dagger, a throwing knife, and a parrying dagger. A normal dagger, probably doesn't need to be fleshed out very much more. Doing a d4 of damage while being a light, finesse weapon, with a thrown range of 20/60 is pretty reasonable. If we wanted to make a parrying dagger, we may want to do take of the throwing property, and add the following:

"You may wield this weapon in your off-hand even when the weapon in your main hand is not a light weapon. If you do not engage in two-weapon fighting on your turn while wielding this weapon, you gain a +1 bonus to your AC until the start of your next turn." Then for a throwing dagger, alternatively, you could double the range to 40/120 and possibly more expensive. These design features set these three daggers apart, and in the mechanics reinforce the ideas we have about these difference in slight ways. Perhaps you'd rather have a saber than a rapier? Simple, change the damage type to slashing. It isn't impossible to make assumptions based on the material given. For instance, isn't it odd that elves are more naturally dexterous but they have elven weapon training in longswords which are antithetical to their affinities? Maybe elven longswords have the finesse property because of their shape, size, and material. That isn't a hard stretch to make, perhaps the most prestigious of these weapons are made of mithral, then your +1 to attack, finesse longsword seems like a sweet deal doesn't it?

The bottom line is, don't be afraid to experiment with these elements but be aware of their effect on balance. How does a rogue having a potential d10 of damage plus their Sneak Attack affect balance early on? Maybe this hypothetical elven longsword is more expensive, or rarer yet an old ancestral heirloom. If you see a problem with the lack of diversity in weapons, it doesn't mean you can't change it. In our next article I will offer a variety of weapon variants and new properties that you may want to use in your own games. Til then, happy gaming everyone!