D&D 5E Historical European Weapon Equivalents

So, following the Asian Weapon Equivalents I posted before (covering Chinese and Japanese equivalents to the entries in the PHB), I decided to do the same for historical arms of the Middle Ages to Renaissance (mostly the period 800CE-1599CE). There were a few exceptions (for example, darts weren't really used as a weapon in Europe after the plumbata fell from use in Byzantium), and obviously most of the Scimitar equivalents are Middle Eastern, but that's the nature of the beast.

[h=1]European Weapon Equivalents
[/h]
Simple Melee Weapons
[h=1]Club[/h]Cudgel, Shillelagh

[h=1]Dagger*[/h]Baselard, Bollock Dagger, Cross-Hilt Dagger, Ear Dagger, Hiebmesser (Hewing Knife), Main-Gauche, Misericorde, Poignard, Rondel Dagger, Seax (short), Swordbreaker, Stiletto
Notes: The hiebmesser, seax, and swordbreaker do slashing damage, not piercing.

[h=1]Greatclub[/h]Plancon a Picot

[h=1]Handaxe[/h]Doloire (short-handled), Francisca, Hatchet, Horseman’s Axe, Hurlbat

[h=1]Javelin[/h]Angon, Frakka

[h=3]Light Hammer[/h]Horseman’s Hammer

[h=1]Mace[/h]Bulawa, Pernach, Shestopyor (Six-Feathered)

[h=1]Scourge[/h]Cat-o-Nine-Tails

[h=1]Spear[/h]Winged Spear

[h=2]Simple Ranged Weapons[/h][h=1]Dart[/h]Plumbata

[h=1]Martial Melee Weapons[/h][h=1]Arming Sword[/h]Falchion, Messer, Schiavona, Viking Sword

[h=1]Battleaxe[/h]Skeggox (Bearded Axe, short-handled), Sparth (Pale Axe, short-handled)
[h=1]Flail[/h]Goupillon (flail with 2-3 weighted heads, short-handled)
[h=1]Glaive[/h]Bill, Fauchard, Guisarme, Jedburgh Staff, Sovnya, War Scythe

[h=1]Greataxe[/h]Bardiche, Breidox (Broad Axe), Dane Axe, Doloire (long-handled), Skeggox (Bearded Axe, long-handled), Sparth (Pale Axe, long-handled)

[h=1]Greatsword[/h]Claymore, Kreigsmesser, Zweihander

[h=1]Halberd[/h]Lochaber Axe, Voulge

[h=1]Longsword*[/h]aka Bastard Sword, Estoc (aka Tuck), Grosse Messer, Spadone
Notes: The estoc and spadone are piercing weapons.

[h=1]Maul*[/h]Goedendag (Good Day), Morningstar (long-handled)
Notes: The long-handled morningstar is a piercing weapon.

[h=4]Military Flail[/h]Goupillon (flail with 2-3 weighted heads, long-handled)

[h=3]Morningstar[/h]aka Holy Water Sprinkler, aka Morgenstern

[h=3]Pike[/h]Ahlspiess (Awl Pike), Boar Spear, Bohemian Earspoon, Corseque, Longspear, Military Fork, Ox Tongue, Partisan, Ranseur, Spetum

[h=3]Pollaxe*[/h]Bec de Corbin (Crow’s Beak), Bec de Faucon (Falcon’s Beak), Lucerne Hammer
Note: The bec de corbin and bec de faucon are piercing weapons.

[h=1]Scimitar[/h]Kilij, Shamshir, Storta, Talwar

[h=4]Shortsword*[/h]Badelaire, Cinquedea, Katzbalger, Rondel Dagger (long-bladed), Seax (long)
Note: The badelaire, katzbalger and long seax are slashing weapons.

[h=2]Martial Ranged Weapons[/h][h=4]Crossbow, Heavy[/h]Arbalest

[h=1]Longbow[/h]English Longbow

New Weapons
Simple Melee
Scourge: 1 gp, 1d4 slashing, 2 lb., Light

Simple Ranged
Staff-Sling: 5 sp, 1d6 bludgeoning, 4 lb., Ammunition (range 50/200), two-handed

Martial Melee
The Arming Sword is a one-handed-only sword, lacking the Versatile property:
Arming Sword: 10 gp, 1d8 slashing, 3 lb., --

The Pollaxe is basically a bludgeoning polearm (versions relying more on the axehead that the hammerhead are treated as Halberds):
Pollaxe: 20 gp, 1d10 bludgeoning, 6 lb., Heavy, reach, two-handed

Thank you for some useful and intriguing research.

You're welcome. It turned up a couple weapons I wasn't aware of (such as the sabre-like Italian storta):
, and was also great for showcasing little-known weapons such as the German grosse messer (one of my favourites, and a wonderful alternative to typical long swords and bastard swords):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnXpMRI5KYg

But ... what about my Bohemian Ear-spoon?

bastard sword is a modern term. i think long sword or two-handed sword would be more appropriate based on a few youtube videos i've seen.

Great post and pretty accurate from my experience. Most weapons will have more than one way of dealing damage however for game terms we need to limit it to keep the combat complexity down. The English Longsword for example (usually used in 2 hands but light enough to still be cotrolled if one hand is withdrawn to enable reach) is initially aimed at slashing damage but still has a sharp point for thrusting with. Against an unarmoured opponent, a solid attack with either will cause a serious wound but if the opponent is armoured the point and thrusting becomes more important (it was often used in "half-sword" format with one hand on the hilt and the other halfway down the blade).

Now coming to my point, whilst longer blades may be designed to primarily use either a slashing or a piercing attack (even though alongsword has a point and a rapier is still kept sharp down the blade), with shorter weapons there is not usually enough momentum behind a swing for a slashing attack to be its most effective attack. Almost all shorter weapons are either designed to be sharp piercing weapons or weighted to cause bludgeoning damage at close range.

Transferring to game mechanics, whilst most weapons in the dagger category will have sharp blades as well, treating them all as piercing weapons is not historically innacurate.

Weapons I would struggle to place in the 5E ruleset though are the common and various broadswords and backswords (very similar but broadsword is sharpened on both edges whereas backsword has one true edge and one "back" edge that is not sharpened and hence adds more weight to attacks with the true edge). For me, they are the weapons on the cusp of the change from primarily piercing to primarily slashing - which is why I explained the above. However I would probably still have to classify them as slashing weapons yet there is no suitable weapon in the PHB to treat them as. They should be the slashing equivalent of a rapier as the rapier developed from these types of weapons. This could partially be achieved by calling them longswords but they absolutely cannot be used in 2 hands other than for halfsword techniques. Many have a basket hilt which would make it impossible to wield in 2 hands.

For a look at the type of thing I'm talking about, check out the video from Matt Easton of Scola Gladia Toria at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0TmSLdNVbU
For anyone interested in Weapons in general, he has made tons of short videos and really knows his stuff. He has also studied many of the historic manuals around so his stuff is about as close to the truth as its possible to get these days (much of the knowledge in the West has been lost as we stopped teaching it soon after the advent of gunpowder)

Olgar Shiverstone said:

But ... what about my Bohemian Ear-spoon?

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Look under Pike (the catch-all long spear-like polearm entry).

rjfTrebor said:

bastard sword is a modern term. i think long sword or two-handed sword would be more appropriate based on a few youtube videos i've seen.

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I included it for clarity as a number of folks were asking for the bastard sword when 5e released. To be honest, many of the terms we use for specific weapons and categorisation thereof are modern inventions.

Cannyjiggit said:

Great post and pretty accurate from my experience. Most weapons will have more than one way of dealing damage however for game terms we need to limit it to keep the combat complexity down. The English Longsword for example (usually used in 2 hands but light enough to still be cotrolled if one hand is withdrawn to enable reach) is initially aimed at slashing damage but still has a sharp point for thrusting with. Against an unarmoured opponent, a solid attack with either will cause a serious wound but if the opponent is armoured the point and thrusting becomes more important (it was often used in "half-sword" format with one hand on the hilt and the other halfway down the blade).

Weapons I would struggle to place in the 5E ruleset though are the common and various broadswords and backswords.

Click to expand...

Thank you, and yes, it can be a devil to fit some weapons into D&D and its simplification properly. So many weapons could be used to inflict varied types of damage.