D&D 3E/3.5 [3.5] Mis-sized ranged weapons

[Hypersmurf]

Well, pg. 160 says that darts and shurikens are treated as light weapons and bolas, javelins, nets, and slings are treated as one-handed weapons when used in each hand.

Ah, excellent. So a Duellist's Precise Strike ability still applies to darts and shuriken, as "Light or One-Handed Piercing Weapons".

Cool.

-Hyp.

 

[Kirowan]

Alright Hypersmurf, WotC got back to me. Basically, characters are allowed to use ranged weapons either 2 categories larger or smaller than they are. They suffer a -2 penalty for each category (-4 max). In all other ways, the rules function normally.

It's a bit unsatisfying, but at least it is easy.

Nick

 

[Hypersmurf]

Alright Hypersmurf, WotC got back to me. Basically, characters are allowed to use ranged weapons either 2 categories larger or smaller than they are. They suffer a -2 penalty for each category (-4 max). In all other ways, the rules function normally.

It's a bit unsatisfying, but at least it is easy.

So a Large Heavy Crossbow is okay, but a Huge Hand Crossbow is unuseable, for the halfling.

Fair enough.

How does that fit with a sling, though? P160 apparently states that it is treated as a one-handed weapon. So a Medium sling would be treated as a two-handed weapon (for a halfling), and a Large sling would be bigger-than-two-handed and therefore unuseable... except that as a ranged weapon, it can be used?

Odd.

-Hyp.

 

[Kirowan]

The gist I got from the reply was that you just ignore the light, one-handed, and two-handed designator thing all together when dealing with ranged weapons. You just worry about the sizing penalties.

Nick

 

[Conaill]

Alright Hypersmurf, WotC got back to me. Basically, characters are allowed to use ranged weapons either 2 categories larger or smaller than they are. They suffer a -2 penalty for each category (-4 max). In all other ways, the rules function normally.

Except I believe they explicitly stated in the DMG that Small characters using a ballista (Huge weapon) do so at a penalty of -6 (instead of -4 for a Medium character).

Hang on, it looks like the info about siege weapons is not included in the SRD!? Could anybody check the DMG and figure out if that entire section is missing?

 

[Hypersmurf]

Hmm. A Medium creature - say a human sorcerer - can fire (but not load) a Huge Heavy Crossbow with one hand, with a total penalty of -8... or one in each hand for a total penalty of (with the TWF feat) -12/-12.

2 bolts at 4d6 damage each... as long as you can hit with them

-Hyp.

 

[Conaill]

ph34r the ballista gunslinger!

Edit: of course, that's 32 lbs of xbow in each hand, but who's counting... Hmm, could anyone check what the weight is of a ballista? I bet it's more than 32 lbs.

 

[Snipehunt]

Except I believe they explicitly stated in the DMG that Small characters using a ballista (Huge weapon) do so at a penalty of -6 (instead of -4 for a Medium character).

Does that make sense to anybody? Isn't a ballista stationary?

 

[Pax]

Hmm. A Medium creature - say a human sorcerer - can fire (but not load) a Huge Heavy Crossbow with one hand, with a total penalty of -8... or one in each hand for a total penalty of (with the TWF feat) -12/-12.

2 bolts at 4d6 damage each... as long as you can hit with them

-Hyp.

And with the Quick-Loading enhancement from either Magic of Faerun or Arms and Equipment, you can do that for 100 rounds n a row, before having to spend hours reloading the suckers (with fletched javelins or the like, I'm sure)!!

 

[Hypersmurf]

Hammerbow, baby!

-Hyp.