No small weapons - I'm okay with this

[Keenath]

I think I'm pretty okay with the idea of having no "small" weapons.

That is, from today's weapons preview, it sounds like there is no equivalency weapon for small characters. There's no weapon that a Halfling can pick up and have it operate like a Longsword does for a human.

And I think I'm okay with that.

Is there a reason for symmetry? Why SHOULD a small character be able to fight exactly like a medium one? I think I kind of like the idea of a halfling having different considerations when selecting a weapon, where there are some options humans have that they don't.

 

[Trainz]

I am perfectly OK with it too, I don't really care, but I fully understand where the nitpickers are coming from. If you accept that premise, than you state that Halfling smiths only make weapons for medium size creatures, not for themselves... it's a weird premise.

The more elegant thing to do is to simply make the following table:

Normal.................Halfling
Weapon...............Weapon
======================
Dagger................Short-Sword
Short-Sword.........Long-Sword
Hand-Axe.............Battle-Axe
Battle-Axe............Greataxe
Short-Bow............Long-Bow

You do that in the halfling racial entry. If a medium creature finds a halfling short-sword, he can wield it as a dagger. If a halfling finds a medium hand-axe, he can wield it as a battle-axe, and so on and so forth.

 

[Surgoshan]

But would he use a club as a greatclub? Then could he use a greatclub as a weensy little battering ram? A quarterstaff as a polearm? You'd have to create a whole lot of analogs and the seeming elegance would quickly be buried under a pile of rules.

 

[Shado]

Small: This property describes a two-handed or a versatile weapon that a Small character can use in the same way a Medium character can. A halfling can use a shortbow, for example, even though halflings can’t normally use two-handed weapons.

I wouldn't say there aren't small weapons anymore.

 

[I'm A Banana]

A weapon made for a smaller creature does -2 damage per size smaller they are.

A weapon made for a larger creature deals +2 damage per size larger they are.

You can only wield weapons within one size category of yourself. Smaller weapons can be wielded in one hand (as long as it makes sense). Larger weapons must be wielded in two hands.

Why not something like this?

Really, it's a corner case, so I can see why they ditched it, but it's not going to be a corner case for every campaign (PCs are playing pixies in a tree!), just for the bog standard campaigns.

 

[TerraDave]

From my point of view it is also an improvement. Or, it is an end to one of 3.5s worst "innovations".

Regarding weapons for specific cultures...we are supposed to have that anyways, according to one of the previews, ie "elven weapons" "tiefling weapons"...but the mechanics are exactly the same.

Regarding nomenclature: if the halfling smith makes a sword about the size of a human short sword, you don't think that in Common they could just call it a short sword? And even if they don't (maybe they just call it a sword, or a stabby) can't we call just call it one?

 

[Thasmodious]

I don't think it's saying there are no halfling smiths or they only craft medium weapons. Its a matter of weapon equivalency. A halfling that crafts a 'longsword' for halfling hands has really just crafted a short sword, by the game statistics. The halflings may consider it a longsword or a greatsword or what ever they want, but it has the same statistics and characteristics as a short sword, and in a medium creatures hands, that's what it is.

We know, for example, that small creatures can use shortbows normally. Now, no matter who is wielding it, its a shortbow in terms of game stats. Halflings may call it a longbow, or a greatbow, or whatever, but its still a shortbow and does xdx amoung of damage regardless of the size of the hands that are wielding it.

 

[I'm A Banana]

if the halfling smith makes a sword about the size of a human short sword, you don't think that in Common they could just call it a short sword?

The idea is that a longsword has different properties than a short sword aside from damage (which is why with Weapon Focus you only got +1 to your long sword attacks, not your short sword attacks). Part of that difference in 3e, at least, was that a long sword was slashing, while a short sword was piercing, which didn't matter often, but was still an element of that difference.

And, really, they'd probably call it something amusingly appropriate for halflings.

"This is only a half-sword!"

"Oh, it's a baby blade! A little kiddie-knife! Some day it'll grow up and be a real sword!"

"What's this, your gator-poker?"

"Your honor, this is the murder-weapon."

"Hey! I was wondering where I left my butter knife!"

"...so that's the Pocket-Cutter that relieves so many rubes of their purses!"

"...that's a long sword? I've seen longer swords in the showers, wee one!"

 

[Mercule]

I'll withhold judgment until I see the PHB. I generally consider the 3.5 rules superior to the 3.0 rules in this regard.

If they have something like Kamikaze Midget's idea, though, I'll be happy. The "this can be used by a small person" tag seems to be about the clumsiest way I can think of to handle it.

 

[jaelis]

It's kind of weird because it means that a halfling rogue does just as much damage as a human one.