D&D 3E/3.5 [3.5] Size replaced by Handedness?

[Staffan]

What happens to someone like a halfling rogue who's proficient with shortswords, but now has to use a halfling shortsword? Does it still do d6 damage, or does it drop to d4? Can anyone who already has a PHB comment on this?

A halfling shortsword will likely do 1d4 damage, and be a light weapon for the halfling. If you're converting a halfling that used to wield a 3.0 shortsword, he should probably wield a 3.5 halfling longsword or rapier instead. If he doesn't have longsword proficiency, that's tough for him.

Come to think of it, I think the new rules clear up the rogue proficiencies pretty well, even if they don't give exactly the same effect. Instead of saying "Rogues gain proficiency in weapons A, B, and C, plus weapons D, E, and F if they're Medium-sized" they can just say "Rogues gain proficiency in weapons A, B, C, and D" and let the sizing take care of itself.

 

[Jens]

Are the rules for scaling weapon damage by size now in the PHB? It seems like they would be needed more frequently now.

Also, has there been any changes to the scaling of damage dice with size? It used to go something like d6 -> d8 -> 2d6, is that still the pattern?

 

[kallisti_dk]

If I may make a correction.

Alright, I'm going to try and reexplain it because I think a few people still don't quite understand the new system.

Every weapon has a type now, light/one handed/two handed

This NEVER changes no matter whose using it. So in the example above, the human is using a medium longsword (one handed weapon). He gives it to the gnome, its still a one handed weapon. The gnome weilds it with a -2 penalty because its one size too large for him.

The system tries to address that a greatsword isn't just a big longsword, they are fundamentally different in the way they are made and weilded.

Actually this is incorrect. Handling does change when you are using a wrongly-sized weapon.

Quote from the new PHB:
"The measure of how much effort it takes use a weapon [...] is changed altered by one step for each size category of difference between the wielder's size and the size of the creature for which the weapon is designed."

So, a gnome's greatsword is used one-handed by a human, and as a light weapon by an ogre (used at -2 and -4 respectively, unless you use the optional weapon equivalency rule from the DMG)

Also:
"If a weapon's designation would be changed to something other than light, one-handed or two-handed by this alteration, it can't use the weapon at all."

So, if a gnome attempts to use the human's greatsword, the greatsword would count as a category higher than two-handed, which there isn't, so the gnome can't use it.

Conversely, an ogre can't use a human's dagger, because it would be a category smaller than light.

Of course, the question still remains, when the human uses the gnome's greatsword in one hand, does it count as a greatsword, a longsword, or neither, feat-wise. Personally, I would rule that it counted as a longsword.

 

[kallisti_dk]

Are the rules for scaling weapon damage by size now in the PHB? It seems like they would be needed more frequently now.

Also, has there been any changes to the scaling of damage dice with size? It used to go something like d6 -> d8 -> 2d6, is that still the pattern?

Q1: Yes. The weapon table lists damage for small and medium version of all weapon. Fun fact: There's a human sized Gnome Hooked Hammer, a halfling sized Orc Double Axe and so forth. And theres a table for converting to Tiny and Huge versions of the weapons. The full size conversion table is in the DMG.

Q2: The weapon weapon damage by size progression has changed in a good way and in a bad way. It's good because it is more numerically sound, and gives a nicer, more linear progression. It's worse than the old one, because it's harder to remember.

Here's an example, a longsword increasing in size.
Medium - 1d8
Large - 2d6
Huge - 3d6
Garg. - 4d6
Col. - 6d6

And here's a shortsword:
Medium - 1d6
Large - 1d8
Huge - 2d6
Garg. - 3d6
Col. - 4d6

As you can see, this is not as easy as the old rule, and this is just part of the table for increasing weapon sizes, then theres the other table for reducing them. Both of them 4x11 matrices.

I sure hope they will be on the new 3.5 DM screen.