WotC 2020 Was The Best Year Ever For Dungeons & Dragons

[Sacrosanct]

So, how would you mechanically differentiate between a blade on a 5 foot stick, a 6 foot stick, and a 7 foot stick?

The blades are different. A halberd functions totally different than a pike. A glaive is more slashing than a spear.

 

[Reynard]

So, how would you mechanically differentiate between a blade on a 5 foot stick, a 6 foot stick, and a 7 foot stick?

By using the weapon speed and reach rules from AD&D.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The blades are different. A halberd functions totally different than a pike. A glaive is more slashing than a spear.

Some are slightly wider and have wiggly bits on. In 5e rules the shape of blade makes no mechanical difference other than slashing damage or piercing damage.

By using the weapon speed and reach rules from AD&D.

The boring nerdy rules we all ignored?! The point of 5e is to be KISS fun fantasy, not a simulationist medieval battle game.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Do we need a sickle? Not not really. But we go one. A trident? No, but we got one. There would be no harm from adding a few more polearm options. We have tons of options for ordinary one handed weapons, tons for ordinary light weapons, tons for ordinary two handed weapons, tons for ordinary ranged weapons, but very few for ordinary polearms. The polearm section should see some more support. It's very sparse compared to the other categories. The only other category I think could use additional support other than polearms is probably thrown weapons.

I would love to find out how many PCs use tridents and what percentage of those are sea elves or half-sea elves. Definitely a niche item.

Sickle, I think, is mostly for druids whose players love Asterix comics.

One weapon I would put in the PHB is the boomerang, which is in the Eberron books, but more importantly, the Legend of Zelda, which is a more foundational fantasy document for today's players than almost anything in Appendix N.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Some are slightly wider and have wiggly bits on. In 5e rules the shape of blade makes no mechanical difference other than slashing damage or piercing damage.

Again, same for swords. The difference between a scimitar and a long sword aren't greater than a glaive and a spear

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Again, same for swords. The difference between a scimitar and a long sword aren't greater than a glaive and a spear

And D&D differentiates between a glaive and a spear. Spear does piercing damage. What it doesn't need to do is differentiate between a glaive and a halberd (or guisarme-voulge).

The main difference, of course, is cultural. Most pole-arms were peasant weapons, adapted from agricultural tools. Swords have always been status symbols.

 

[Sacrosanct]

And D&D differentiates between a glaive and a spear. Spear does piercing damage. What it doesn't need to do is differentiate between a glaive and a halberd (or guisarme-voulge).

You should look at a glaive, and a halberd, because there is a big differentiation. And they are used completely different.
you said a blade on a stick is a blade on a stick. Now you're differentiating. So it's not "a blade on a stick is a blade on a stick" then. Good to know.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

You should look at a glaive, and a halberd, because there is a big differentiation. And they are used completely different.

A glaive is typically about a foot longer than a halberd, and has a slightly lighter weight blade. But 5e rules don't have a way to differentiate between 6 foot long and 7 foot long unless you use the overcomplex, slow and dull reach rules from 1st edition.

Falchions and katanas are far more different to each other than halberds and glaives, but 5e lumps them both into longsword. All the 5e weapons are broad categories, not representations of specific real world weapons (there was never any such thing as a longsword).

 

[Parmandur]

I would love to find out how many PCs use tridents and what percentage of those are sea elves or half-sea elves. Definitely a niche item.

Sickle, I think, is mostly for druids whose players love Asterix comics.

One weapon I would put in the PHB is the boomerang, which is in the Eberron books, but more importantly, the Legend of Zelda, which is a more foundational fantasy document for today's players than almost anything in Appendix N.

Mearlsaid out in one of the Happy Fun Hours that they put the trident in because of all of the monsters with trident, but that if they had done the game in 2017 it would have just been a spear.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Mearlsaid out in one of the Happy Fun Hours that they put the trident in because of all of the monsters with trident, but that if they had done the game in 2017 it would have just been a spear.

Indeed, the trident has symbolic meaning, and was included for that reason, like the sickle. But mechanically there is no way to differentiate it from a spear (which is what it was - a fishing spear).