splitinfinitude said:
Stalker, I understand that. My concern is, does the gnome handed a non-prof penalty too? If the gnome has bastard sword proficiency, can it use the longsword one handed?
My understanding is that the longsword always remains a one-handed weapon, even when wielded by a smaller character. Assuming the gnome is proficient with longswords, he can use it without nonproficiency penalty.
Is a large bastard sword equivelant to a medium two-handed sword? If so, wh/at's a large longsword equivelant to, a medium bastard sword?
Weapon equivalencies are reportedly a variant rule after the revision. If you want to use them, they're explained in the DMG. If you don't, then a Large longsword is only a Large longsword, not a Medium anything.
Incidentally, I wouldn't expect the bastard sword to be an easy example. In 3.0 it's listed as a Medium weapon, but acts like a Large weapon, since Medium characters must wield it in two hands. (For characters with EWP, it becomes a regular Medium exotic weapon.) That's an exception to the regular handedness rules, so it's bound to be a little less sensible than the standard case.
Also, IIRC, unless the gnome had monkeygrip, I think the gnome can't use the longsword one-handed - as a weapon one size larger, it requires 2 hands.
That's only in 3E, though. In the new version, size reportedly has nothing to do with handedness. A longsword is one-handed for anyone who can wield it, even a gnome.
The Monkey Grip feat will clearly need to be rewritten. Perhaps it will allow that gnome to wield a Medium longsword without the size penalty. We don't know yet.
I understand the concept, I'm going to need to see how this plays out. This could end up being needlessly complicated, since the old system just needed a little bit of common sensing to work perfectly.
The problem with "common sense" is that it's not really very common.
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What one DM sees as the sensible interpretation may be the complete opposite of what another sees. Witness the arguments about Boccob's Blessed Book.