Melee Weapons sorted by effectiveness?

Since critical hits double the dice but do not double the adds, a 1d6+1 weapon will do 2d6+1 (average 8) on a crit, while a 1d8 weapon will do 2d8 (average 9) on a crit. Therefore when you make a Mace 1d6+1 you are saying that Mace crits are not as bad as other crits. There are a lot of dead bodies out there in the archeological records that suggest that Mace crits are bad - they're called compound skull fractures....

Awesome feedback thanks, I've updated the table. Not sure I want to add more polearms yet until I figure out exactly how I'm going to distinguish each weapon as a tactical choice. I do want to restrict it so you can only have one 2-handed weapon.
I think for damage type I will only have physical, however I can give out a blunt property and then just have a small subset of monsters which are vulnerable to blunt damage (skeletons being the super fun classic example).

Peter BOSCO'S said:

Since critical hits double the dice but do not double the adds, a 1d6+1 weapon will do 2d6+1 (average 8) on a crit, while a 1d8 weapon will do 2d8 (average 9) on a crit. Therefore when you make a Mace 1d6+1 you are saying that Mace crits are not as bad as other crits. There are a lot of dead bodies out there in the archeological records that suggest that Mace crits are bad - they're called compound skull fractures....

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I'm not going to do critical hits, I don't really like the swingyness that it introduced. I want to try to have a system where tactical choices are more important than rolling natural 20s !

Kobold Stew said:

• dagger spear and hand axe should have "thrown" whatever that proves to mean.

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I'm not really sure all spears are effective throwing weapons. The Spartans carried a spear that was up to 9 feet in length and you're probably not going to throw that very far. I would think a spear designed for throwing would be different from a spear designed for melee use.

MGibster said:

I'm not really sure all spears are effective throwing weapons. The Spartans carried a spear that was up to 9 feet in length and you're probably not going to throw that very far. I would think a spear designed for throwing would be different from a spear designed for melee use.

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That is why my comments distinguished between spear and pike (heavy spear) -- in the b ullet point immediately following what you quoted.

Kobold Stew said:

That is why my comments distinguished between spear and pike (heavy spear) -- in the b ullet point immediately following what you quoted.

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I missed it. My apologies.

Kobold Stew said:

• scimitar shouldn't be offhand.

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Rapier can be and is used dual - even up to 4' blades (I've done 3.5 in one hand and 4' in the other many times - usually with the long in the off-hand.). The term is «case of rapier» in the period manuals.
There are comparable scimitars for heavy-blade fencers (rapier, triple epee, dimond schlaeger), and I assure you, the 3.5' ones can be used paired. It's not as natural as case of rapier, but it's just as doable.
It naturally falls, as does case of rapier to the same shifting of offense blade and defense blade back and forth; a fencer of paired rapier who learns the technique differences for single scimitar can easily convert to paired scimitar. (Also, historic scimitars are not the wide ones of Hollywood fame... the term shamshir is almost synonymous - and single hand shamsheers to over 4' blades are known. (A mamluke hilt of 8" isn't big enough for two-hand use.)

If you can wield one whatever 1 handed, you can wield two of them at once. Basic knowledge of almost every ARMA fighter, SCA fencer, and SCA Heavy...
Most of us also learn that, most of the time, a shield is better than an off hand dagger... but an off-hand longsword is almost as good as a shield, and less tiring, plus adds many more options for feints.

Now, dual shield isn't allowed in ARMA nor SCA, not because it's ineffective, but because it's not able to be safe to use a shield offensively without serious risk of injury to the target. Shield punches can easily break ribs and dent breastplates.

@Jd Smith1 the difference between a fencing dagger and a short sword isn't much - the range of hilts for fencing period daggers (15th to 17th C) vary widely, from my preference of quarter sphere solid through simple Scots dirk spool, and is the same as the range for shortswords. That's also most of the Reiver period in Britain. Length and edge placement determine use type within each system; a dirk, often made from a broken longsword, would be 12-18" and in a spool hilt. Since Scots longswords were usually basket hilt, single or half-double edge, and equipped with a thrusting point... so were the dirks, tho' some wound up thus being fully backedged.
As for the differences between dagger, knife, and short sword, really, they're a spectrum, not discretely different types.
They're all pointy, all have at least one sharp edge, and can have anywhere from dirk-style spool to full basket hilt. (The technical distinction between knife and dagger is 1 vs 2 edge in modern parlance. But that's due to modern classification systems, not period understanding.)

Bilharzia said:

Agree with MGibster - it depends. Different weapons have different characteristics, so system matters in this respect. Does your system support Blunt Vs Slashing Vs Piercing? in which case this might make a difference. Does your system support weapon range? in which case long hafted and/or 2H weapons behave differently from 1h weapons. Does your system support secondary effects such as stunning, bleeds, impale? in which case Maces will have different effects than spears.

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Identical weapons can be used differently due to school studied. Niten isn't the same as traditional kenjutsu, despite using identical weapons, and Kendo and Niten schools use the same training weapons... but use them differently.

aramis erak said:

Identical weapons can be used differently due to school studied. Niten isn't the same as traditional kenjutsu, despite using identical weapons, and Kendo and Niten schools use the same training weapons... but use them differently.

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Weapons which have material differences do different things. A tanto has certain characteristics which are different from a kanabo, independently from how they are used. That's why different weapons exist.

Bilharzia said:

Weapons which have material differences do different things. A tanto has certain characteristics which are different from a kanabo, independently from how they are used. That's why different weapons exist.

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study Di Grassi (Italian), you'll use your rapier and dagger differently from if you studied Thibault (Belgian school). Not hugely differently, but it will be different. Study the Spanish school (Destrezza), and you approach enemies differently, and even hold the blade differently. All three are valid and work well with identical weapons. Not all of how it is used is derived from the shape and size...
The trained reactions differ, too... conversion from one to another isn't trivial.

Few RPGs model different training schools' differences. they do make a difference.