doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
I'd look at the 4e weapon chart. It is simpler than 3.5, less bare-bones than 5e, and has fun properties like High Crit, and Brutal, that can translate directly into 5e with basically no changes, to differentiate weapons that currently have no mechanical point, without any meaningful increase in complexity or learning curve.
1d6 Brutal 1 is barely below 1d8 in average damage, while 1d6 Brutal 2 is, IIRC, the same average damage as 1d8? Sadly, the wotc forum threads where all this stuff was broken down and thoroughly analyzed are gone in the nonsensical forum purge, but I have faith in the math nerds here on enworld.
I wouldn't want to see crit ranges and multipliers come back, though. High Crit could either be maxed dice on a crit, or add an extra die, or something like that. A multiplier is just not going to play well with the rest of the 5e system.
More specific things I'd want to see are:
A focus on bringing bad weapons up, not bringing down weapons like Rapiers. Rapeirs don't need any boost, but they also don't need to be dropped at all in power, IMO. Rename them if you must to something like "Arming Sword" or whatever, but they're good as is.
A trait for small offhand weapons that lets them be used with one handed weapons regardless of whether the bigger weapon is Light.
Maybe a dagger that loses the thrown property, but gains that Off-Hand property?
Maybe give spears a Thrusting property that lets them be used as if they have Reach when attacking on your turn, but you don't threaten extra area? I'd be fine with dropping Rapiers one die step to give them the same property. If you've seen the really long historical rapiers, in a thrusting attack, it's pretty long reach.
Maybe a Defensive property for some weapons to make them valuable without changing their damage?
Maybe a Trait for weapons like Whip, Handaxe, and possibly a few others, that makes it easier to trip or disarm an opponent?
Shields with weapon traits. They add 1d4 damage when you use them to shove. Spiked shields deals 1d6 damage, and is a martial weapon.
Sidenote: Way more magic shields. 4e had really fun magic shields, and I miss them.
Add a two-handed 1d6 finesse reach weapon. Add a note that it is a monk weapon. Seriously, monks aren't going to even benefit that much from reach, so just let us have our polearm monks. Such a weapon can represent light spear/glaive type weapons made for lightwieght dueling usage, as well as fantasy classics like the spiked chain. I've added a 1d4, Finesse, Versatile (1d6), Piercing Spiked Chain, but I'm not sure if it being Versatile makes it too, well, versatile, for balance.
Give all thrown weapons the Range trait, instead. They are both melee and ranged weapons now, and thus are worthwhile in RAW games with feats.
Give Handaxes finesse.
That's all I can think of.
1d6 Brutal 1 is barely below 1d8 in average damage, while 1d6 Brutal 2 is, IIRC, the same average damage as 1d8? Sadly, the wotc forum threads where all this stuff was broken down and thoroughly analyzed are gone in the nonsensical forum purge, but I have faith in the math nerds here on enworld.
I wouldn't want to see crit ranges and multipliers come back, though. High Crit could either be maxed dice on a crit, or add an extra die, or something like that. A multiplier is just not going to play well with the rest of the 5e system.
More specific things I'd want to see are:
A focus on bringing bad weapons up, not bringing down weapons like Rapiers. Rapeirs don't need any boost, but they also don't need to be dropped at all in power, IMO. Rename them if you must to something like "Arming Sword" or whatever, but they're good as is.
A trait for small offhand weapons that lets them be used with one handed weapons regardless of whether the bigger weapon is Light.
Maybe a dagger that loses the thrown property, but gains that Off-Hand property?
Maybe give spears a Thrusting property that lets them be used as if they have Reach when attacking on your turn, but you don't threaten extra area? I'd be fine with dropping Rapiers one die step to give them the same property. If you've seen the really long historical rapiers, in a thrusting attack, it's pretty long reach.
Maybe a Defensive property for some weapons to make them valuable without changing their damage?
Maybe a Trait for weapons like Whip, Handaxe, and possibly a few others, that makes it easier to trip or disarm an opponent?
Shields with weapon traits. They add 1d4 damage when you use them to shove. Spiked shields deals 1d6 damage, and is a martial weapon.
Sidenote: Way more magic shields. 4e had really fun magic shields, and I miss them.
Add a two-handed 1d6 finesse reach weapon. Add a note that it is a monk weapon. Seriously, monks aren't going to even benefit that much from reach, so just let us have our polearm monks. Such a weapon can represent light spear/glaive type weapons made for lightwieght dueling usage, as well as fantasy classics like the spiked chain. I've added a 1d4, Finesse, Versatile (1d6), Piercing Spiked Chain, but I'm not sure if it being Versatile makes it too, well, versatile, for balance.
Give all thrown weapons the Range trait, instead. They are both melee and ranged weapons now, and thus are worthwhile in RAW games with feats.
Give Handaxes finesse.
That's all I can think of.
