Halflings & Weapon Damage

[Arteyu]

Playing as a Halfling Rogue, when buying weapons do I only take from the small category for weapon damage without penalties?

Could I use a medium sized rapier? Shortsword? How can I tell which weapons are fine for me to use, and which are too big?

 

[BadMojo]

Playing as a Halfling Rogue, when buying weapons do I only take from the small category for weapon damage without penalties?

Could I use a medium sized rapier? Shortsword? How can I tell which weapons are fine for me to use, and which are too big?

You can only use "small" sized weapons without penalty. If you use a weapon that's sized medium, you take a -2 to attack and the weapon gets bumped up. For instance, a medium shortsword would become a two handed weapon instead of one handed. A medium dagger would be one-handed instead of a light weapon.

Edit: This is assuming 3.5E rules.

 

[Arteyu]

When I look at Liddas Iconic Character she doesn't appear to have the penalty for wielding a medium sized version Shortsword or Crossbow.

Although one of my friends said, that a Halfling is allowed to wield a Medium sized shortsword, and treat it like it was a small longsword with the profiency. Is that correct?

 

[FrostedMini1337]

I've always been told that you can use something larger if your smaller, by bumping it a size category without penalty: the shortsword take 1 hand it's not light, but you could wield the crossbow without penalty...but then we're not sure what Monkey Grip is for..... so we just use weapons of our size to avoid the hassle.

 

[BadMojo]

I've always been told that you can use something larger if your smaller, by bumping it a size category without penalty: the shortsword take 1 hand it's not light, but you could wield the crossbow without penalty...but then we're not sure what Monkey Grip is for..... so we just use weapons of our size to avoid the hassle.

I think part of the confusion comes from changes to weapon size and the Monkey Grip feat from 3.0 to 3.5.

In 3.5, if you use a weapon sized too large for you, that incurs the -2 penalty to attack rolls. It also bumps a light weapon to one-handed and one-handed weapon to two-handed. As a halfling, you could wield a medium sized short sword as a one-handed weapon with a penalty, but you could not wield a medium sized greatsword at at all (since it's already a two handed weapon for a medium character).

Monkey Grip lets you use a weapon one category larger (large weapon used by a med. character for instance) with no penalty. You still couldn't use a large greatsword as a med. character, but you could use a large longsword as a two handed weapon.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

It really depends upon:

1) What version of the game you're playing. The weapon size rules differ significantly between 3Ed and 3.5Ed. In 3Ed, you could use a larger small weapon as a 1 handed weapon, and a larger 1 handed weapon as a 2 handed weapon without penalty- you just kicked things up a notch. A large creature could use a 2 handed weapon for a medium creature as a 1 handed weapon.

In 3.5Ed, using weapons built for creatures smaller or larger than yourself incurs penalties, in both direction. Monkey Grip in 3.5Ed reduces the penalties for using an oversized melee weapon- AFAIK, there is no analogous Feat to allow you to use smaller weapons with reduced penalties.

2) What your DM rules. What he or she says, goes.

For the record, I hated the 3.5Ed weapon size rules for a long time, until I saw with my own eyes a real-world example of what it meant to use a off-sized weapon. I own a very nice boot dagger that is 7 1/2" long- a regular human sized dagger, with a 4" long handle that is about 3" around. Its blade is an inch wide. I have a longsword-shaped (scaled museum replica) letter opener the same size- perfect for some Fey to use as a longsword (or bastard sword, perhaps), if they existed. The handle on this replica weapon is about an inch long and maybe 1/4" around, and its blade is a hair over 5/16" across.

A medium sized creature trying to use the Fey longsword as a dagger would get his hands sliced by the portion of the blade his hand wraps around.

A Fey using the dagger as a longsword would be using something probably more massive than himself, and would have to wrap both of his arms around the handle just to pick it up. It would look more like a tower shield than a weapon.

 

[Arteyu]

I think part of the confusion comes from changes to weapon size and the Monkey Grip feat from 3.0 to 3.5.

In 3.5, if you use a weapon sized too large for you, that incurs the -2 penalty to attack rolls. It also bumps a light weapon to one-handed and one-handed weapon to two-handed. As a halfling, you could wield a medium sized short sword as a one-handed weapon with a penalty, but you could not wield a medium sized greatsword at at all (since it's already a two handed weapon for a medium character).

Monkey Grip lets you use a weapon one category larger (large weapon used by a med. character for instance) with no penalty. You still couldn't use a large greatsword as a med. character, but you could use a large longsword as a two handed weapon.

Does that mean I could use a Light Crossbow or Shortsword...but I would need both hands to use it without penalty?

 

[Delta]

What version are you playing -- 3.0 or 3.5?

 

[MichaelH]

Does that mean I could use a Light Crossbow or Shortsword...but I would need both hands to use it without penalty?

I will assume 3.5 rules unless you say otherwise.

You can certainly wield a medium light crossbow or medium shortsword, two-handed and one-handed respectively. Since you are small and the weapons are sized for medium creatures, you incur a -2 penalty on your attack rolls.