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<blockquote data-quote="Archade" data-source="post: 993903" data-attributes="member: 7654">Edward III's son, the Black Prince had a &quot;sword of war&quot; roughly equivalent to a Bastard Sword that weighed 5 lbs.A German Zweihander (three-handed sword) measuring 6 1/2 feet in length, that is kept at the Tower of London museum weighs a whopping 9 lbs.However, I do agree that in an abstract game like D&amp;D, a greatsword weighing 20lbs does deal with the issues of &quot;bulk&quot;.&nbsp; In fact, back in AD&amp;D times, good Mr. Gygax said that weights were set with this in mind.&nbsp; While D3E does not make any such statement, I'm sure this is a carryover.On the other issue of wages, I think that D3E is very close to a medieval (12-15th century) economy of 1sp per day in common wages, a chain shirt's cost, a longsword's cost, etc.Things tend to break down when you introduce magic.&nbsp; The high prices are set to keep magic exclusive from commoners, experts, and low-level characters, otherwise we'd be playing in Zanth, not Greyhawk or the Forgotten Realms.Take a well-off merchant or craftsman, who makes 3sp per day.&nbsp; Let's assume half his income is spent on food, lodging, and creature comforts.&nbsp; That gives him an extra 4gp per month.&nbsp; - He could afford to have a 1st level cleric cast cure light wounds on his little Timmy who fell off the roof while clowning around at a cost of 10gp, but it would hurt. - Saving for two years, he could afford an Everburning Torch for 90gp, which would save him a fortune and a bunch of back pain in firewood.This is not unreasonable.Also keep in mind, players are *prevented* from dumping 75000gp into the local village economy, as (a) the village can't buy anything that expensive, and (b), they don't have total assets valued that high that adventurers would want to buy!Sure, we're dealing in large sums of money, but during the 14th century, do you know what the ransom was for the King of France?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Archade, post: 993903, member: 7654"] Edward III's son, the Black Prince had a "sword of war" roughly equivalent to a Bastard Sword that weighed 5 lbs. A German Zweihander (three-handed sword) measuring 6 1/2 feet in length, that is kept at the Tower of London museum weighs a whopping 9 lbs. However, I do agree that in an abstract game like D&D, a greatsword weighing 20lbs does deal with the issues of "bulk". In fact, back in AD&D times, good Mr. Gygax said that weights were set with this in mind. While D3E does not make any such statement, I'm sure this is a carryover. On the other issue of wages, I think that D3E is very close to a medieval (12-15th century) economy of 1sp per day in common wages, a chain shirt's cost, a longsword's cost, etc. Things tend to break down when you introduce magic. The high prices are set to keep magic exclusive from commoners, experts, and low-level characters, otherwise we'd be playing in Zanth, not Greyhawk or the Forgotten Realms. Take a well-off merchant or craftsman, who makes 3sp per day. Let's assume half his income is spent on food, lodging, and creature comforts. That gives him an extra 4gp per month. - He could afford to have a 1st level cleric cast cure light wounds on his little Timmy who fell off the roof while clowning around at a cost of 10gp, but it would hurt. - Saving for two years, he could afford an Everburning Torch for 90gp, which would save him a fortune and a bunch of back pain in firewood. This is not unreasonable. Also keep in mind, players are *prevented* from dumping 75000gp into the local village economy, as (a) the village can't buy anything that expensive, and (b), they don't have total assets valued that high that adventurers would want to buy! Sure, we're dealing in large sums of money, but during the 14th century, do you know what the ransom was for the King of France? [/QUOTE]

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