GameBanshee Forums

I did not realize that about power attack, thanks.

I do intend to take into account the difference in reach between one and two-handed weapons, but I think that is best handled on a case by case basis for most weapons. The standard rules are probably sufficient for a clash between a unit of short swordsmen and a unit of pikemen. But great club versus sword and shield requires more specialized attention.

I have heard similar things about the gladius. My understanding was that Roman legionaries were trained to use the gladius as both a slashing and stabbing weapon, but in combat they tended to use it more as a stabbing weapon. I imagine there was more slashing when formations deteriorated.

I think I would allow the gladius to be used as a stabbing weapon in regular order formations, but as a slashing weapon in a close order formation. Which maybe means that I should change its designation to P/S S/T.

As far as the quarterstaff and spear, this had not escaped my notice. I have been considering ways to incorporate these techniques. I may integrate them into feats somehow. That might be something to addlater if I find that these weapons are under-appreciated.

I do intend to fiddle with some game mechanics in play, which is another reason to roll the dice behind the curtain.

Overall, I want a weapons list where there is a rough balance between the weapons, every weapon should have the potential to be the best weapon under some circumstances. Also, these should be weapons typical of the Iron Age.

Thanks again for all of your input.

Here is my most up-to-date weapons list for your perusal.

Simple Weapons

Light
Weapon
cost weight type motion range damage Critical
Small Medium
Pugio, dagger 2 1 P T 20 1d3 1d4 19-20/x2
Sica, curved dagger 3 2 S/P T/S -- 1d3 1d4 19-20/x3
Baton 0.1 4 B S 20 1d3 1d4 X2
Switch1 0 1 B S -- 1 1d2 X2
Thrown rock 0.01 1 B N/A 30 1d2 1d3 X2











One-Handed
Weapon
Cost Weight Type Motion Range Damage Critical
Small Medium
Weighted club 0.5 5 B S 20 1d4 1d6
X2
Mace, light 4 6 B S 10 1d4+1 1d6+1 X2
Mace, Heavy 6 8 B S -- 1d6+1 2d4 X2
Hammer, light 5 6 B S 10 1d4+1 1d6+1 X3
Hammer, heavy 8 8 B S -- 1d6+1 2d4 X3
Dory, half-pike 7 5 P T -- 1d4+1 1d6+1 X2
Hasta, spear 5 4 P T 20 1d4 1d6 X2
Verutum, javelin 2.5 3 P T 30 1d3 1d4 X2
Dart 2 2 P -- 30 1d3 1d4 X2
--Atlatl2,3 1 1 P -- 30 1d4 1d6 X2

Two-Handed
Weapon
Cost Weight Type Motion Range Damage Critical
Small Medium
Quarterstaff 0.5 6 B S -- 1d4+1 1d6+1 X3
Great Club 4 10 B S -- 1d6+1 2d4 X3














Martial Weapons

Light
Weapon
Cost Weight Type Motion Range Damage Critical
Small Medium
Gladius, Short sword 15 5 P T -- 1d4+1 1d6 19-20/X2
Hand axe 3 4 S S 10 1d4+1 1d6+1 X2
Throwing axe 4 3 S S 20 1d4+1 1d6+1 X2
Light pick 5 4 P S -- 1d6 1d6+1 X3
Kukri 10 3 S S -- 1d4 1d6 18-20/X3
Sling3 0.1 -- -- S -- -- -- --
-Stone 0.01 1 B N/A 50 1d2 1d3 X2
-Bullet 0.1 1 B N/A 50 1d3 1d4 X2
Horseman’s Flail 12 8 B S -- 1d6 1d8 X2
Sickle 3 3 S S -- 1d4 1d4+1 X3
Scourge1 0.2 1 B S -- 1 1d2 X2
--barbed 0.3 1 S S -- 1d2 1d3 X2

Martial
Weapon
Cost Weight Type Motion Range Damage Critical
Small Medium
Spatha, long sword 25 7 S/P S/T -- 1d8 1d8+1 19-20/X2
Battle axe 12 9 S S -- 1d6 1d8 X3
War flail, Footman’s 9 10 B S -- 1d6+1 2d4 X2
Falcata 25 7 S S -- 1d6+1 1d8 18-20/X3
Trident 9 6 P T 10 1d4+1 1d6+1 X2
Xiphos, broad sword 20 8 S S -- 1d6+1 1d8 19-20/X2



1Inflicts nonlethal damage.
2Used to throw darts, Makes darts projectile weapons instead of thrown weapons.
3Requires two hands for loading. A light shield can still be used in the off hand.

The usage of the gladius depended on the specific swing, it was not so formation specific. The Romans tended to avoided fighting in very close order, since it would hamper their fighting.

If you're this intrested in "realistic" combat, I'd suggest to keep your eyes peeled for another system altogether, since D&D isn't the best for this.

As for the fullscale weapon balance: in the real world, certain weapons were popular because they were cheap and/or easy to use. However, alot of weapons were plain better than others.
For example: bows are superior to crossbows, but crossbows are quite easy to use in comparison.
Maces were cheap and pretty basic in usage, but a fullblown polearm took quite some training to learn to wield.
Try to achieve balance between Simple, Martial and Exotic, if you must.

Well, I did not do a very good job of explaining what I meant about parity between weapons, but you did. As you explained the idea is that each weapon on the list should have its place, when you take into account its cost, weight, requisite skill, damage, range, etc.

There are a few weapons that seem pointless to me as they are layed out in the Player's Handbook. The punching dagger has a higher damage multiplier on a critical hit, but the lower probability of inflicting a critical hit (as compared to a dagger) more than negates this.



Simple Weapons

Light
Weapon
cost weight type motion range damage Critical
Small Medium
Pugio, dagger 3 1 P T 20 1d3 1d4 19-20/X2
Sica,
curved dagger 5 2 S S -- 1d3 1d4 19-20/X3
Katar,
punch dagger 8 2 P T -- 1d3 1d4 19-20/X3
Baton 0.1 4 B S 20 1d3 1d4 X2
Switch1 0 1 B S -- 1 1d2 X2
Thrown rock 0.01 1 B N/A 30 1d2 1d3 X2
Dart 3 2 P -- 30 1d3 1d4 X2
Rattle 8 1 B S -- 1d2 1d3 X2











One-Handed
Weapon
Cost Weight Type Motion Range Damage Critical
Small Medium
Weighted club 0.5 5 B S 20 1d4 1d6
X2
Mace, light 6 6 B S 10 1d4+1 1d6+1 X2
Mace, Heavy 9 8 B S -- 1d6+1 2d4 X2
Hammer, light 7.5 6 B S 10 1d4+1 1d6+1 X3
Hammer, heavy 12 8 B S -- 1d6+1 2d4 X3
Dory, half-pike 12 5 P T -- 1d4+1 1d6+1 X2
Hasta, spear 7.5 4 P T 20 1d4 1d6 X2
Verutum, javelin 3 3 P T 30 1d3 1d4 X2

Two-Handed
Weapon
Cost Weight Type Motion Range Damage Critical
Small Medium
Quarterstaff 0.5 6 B S -- 1d4+1 1d6+1 X3
Great Club 4 10 B S -- 1d6+1 2d4 X3
Dart w/ Atlatl2,3 1.5 1 P -- 30 1d4 1d6 X2














Martial Weapons

Light
Weapon
Cost Weight Type Motion Range Damage Critical
Small Medium
Gladius,
Short sword 22.5 5 P/S T/S -- 1d4+1 1d6 19-20/X2
Iklawa 18 4 P T -- 1d4+1 1d6 19-20/X2
Hand axe 4.5 4 S S 10 1d4+1 1d6+1 X2
Throwing
axe 6 3 S S 20 1d4+1 1d6+1 X2
Light pick 4 7.5 4 P S -- 1d6 1d6+1 X4
Kukri 15 3 S S -- 1d4 1d6 18-20/X3
Sling3 0.1 -- -- S -- -- -- --
-Stone 0.01 1 B N/A 50 1d2 1d3 X2
-Bullet 0.1 1 B N/A 50 1d3 1d4 X2
Sickle4 4 3 S S -- 1d4 1d4+1 X3
Scourge1 0.2 1 B S -- 1 1d2 X2
--barbed 0.3 1 S S -- 1d2 1d3 X2

One-handed
Weapon
Cost Weight Type Motion Range Damage Critical
Small Medium
Battle axe 18 9 S S -- 1d6 1d8 X3
Heavy
pick4 25 10 P S -- 1d6 1d8 X4
Horseman’s
Flail5,4 15 8 B S -- 1d6 1d8 X2
Falcata 37 7 S S -- 1d6+1 1d8 18-20/X3
Trident5 13 6 P T 10 1d4+1 1d6+1 X2
Long sword 30 8 S S -- 1d8 1d8+1 19-20/X2










Two-Handed
Weapon
Cost Weight Type Motion Range Damage Critical
Small Medium
Sarissa, pike 15 8 P T -- 1d6 1d8 X2
Great Axe 30 12 S S -- 1d10 1d12 X3
Scythe 12 5 S S -- 1d4 1d6 X3
Maul 16.5 15 B S -- 1d8 1d10 X3
Falx 60 10 S S -- 1d8 1d8+1 18-20/X3
Bow 50 3 -- -- -- -- -- --
-Arrows 0.2 0.25 P -- 60 1d4+1 1d6+1 19-20/X2
Staff Sling 0.6 3 -- S -- -- -- --
-Stone 0.01 1 B -- 50 1d3 1d4 X2
-Bullet 0.1 1 B -- 50 1d4 1d4+1 X2
-Jar, incendiary 2 B -- 50 1d2 1d3 X2
War flail, Footman’s 13.5 10 B S -- 1d8 1d10 X2

Exotic Weapons

Light Weapon

Cost Weight Type Motion Range Damage Critical
Small Medium
Nunchaku 10 4 B S -- 1d4 1d6 X2
Jitte5 4 2 B S 10 1d3 1d4 X2
Net5,4 10 4 B S 10 1 1d2 X2
Chakram -- -- S -- -- -- -- --
-Small 1 1/4 S -- 10 1 1d2 X2
-Medium 2 1 S -- 30 1d3 1d4 X2
-Large 3 2 S -- 20 1d4 1d6 X2
Shuriken 0.5 1/5 P -- 10 1 1d2 X2



One-Handed
Weapon
Cost Weight Type Motion Range Damage Critical
Small Medium
Bola4 5 2 B S 20 1d3 1d4 X2
Whip5,4 1 2 B S -- 1d2 1d3 X2
Dwarven
Waraxe 30 11 S S -- 1d8 1d10 X3
Lasso5,4 --
Pilum, Armor-piercing
javelin, light 6 7 P T 20 1d6 1d8 X3
Pilum, Armor piercing
javelin, heavy 10 10 P T 10 1d6+1 1d8+1 X3





Two-handed
Weapon
Cost Weight Type Motion Range Damage Critical
Small Medium
Blowgun 15 5 -- -- -- 10 -- --
-needles (20) 1 1 P -- -- 10 -- 1
Manuballista 300 25 -- -- -- -- -- --
-bolts 3 1 P -- 90 1d8 1d10 X3
-stones 0.01 2 B -- 70 1d6 1d8 X3
Sode-garami,
sleeve entangler5,4 35 8 B T -- 1d3 1d4 X2



1Inflicts nonlethal damage.
2Used to throw darts, Makes darts projectile weapons instead of thrown weapons.
3Requires two hands for loading. A light shield can still be used in the off hand.
4 +2 bonus to trip attempts.
5 +2 bonus to disarm attempts.