Okay, PG-13 puns aside, I'm wondering about what the average GM does when his characters are in the countryside, zombies slowly shuffling toward them, and one character dashes into the shed to get something heavy and wooden.
Awhile back, I argued that today's shovel, sledgehammer, or axe is made of high-quality materials and sometimes carries a lifetime warranty. The counterargument was that a weapon you find in a shed shouldn't be more powerful than a longsword.
So I've been doing some thinking for an upcoming campaign, and I've come up with some new thoughts on possible weapons that someone might try.
For starters, I should note that I'm using D&D weapons as they stand -- if the characters find an ancient falchion, it's gonna have falchion stats, and if they find a mystical warhammer, it's gonna have warhammer stats, even the x3 multiplier. I won't be adjusting the d20 Modern hatchet to a x3 crit multiplier, because a hatchet is light enough and throwable that it's really a throwing axe, not a hand-axe. But x3 stuff might appear.
First category: Small stuff -- simple
The sai originated as a gardening tool for digging weeds out. As such, I'm lumping anything that's generally used for weed-digging in as 1d4, 20/x2. Better than your fist, not as good as a long knife.
An ordinary hammer (the claw teeth on one side, a hammerhead on the other) is a tiny weapon that does 1d4, 19-20/x2, and has a throwing range of 10 feet. It can be used to deliver bludgeoning or piercing damage.
Second category: Long sticks with things on them -- archaic
In general, I'm making these large weapons that can be used as double weapons, since they are essentially quarterstaves with metal implements on one end. A shovel, or the rake and hoe mentioned up above, will do 1d8/1d4, 20/x2. The haft only gets 1d6 instead of 1d4 if it's specially shod or something.
Shovels, rakes, and hoes are treated as archaic weapons. A character trained with using ancient weapons can handle them well, but an average Joe is going to find them harder to use than a baton.
These are the stats for a new or well-cared-for shovel or rake. An old, beat-up shovel or rake takes a -2 to hit and to damage for being unwieldy, beat-up, and generally not very good.
Third category: Non-weaponized versions of old weapons -- archaic
Scythes, sledgehammers, and woodcutting axes fall into this category. These weapons have not been optimized for combat, and thus are not as good as a battle-axe or war-scythe, but they are still pretty good, relative to a shovel. They are treated as archaic weapons for purposes of proficient use, but must be used as though one size larger, or else used with a -2 penalty to attacks. That is to say, someone who grabs a sledgehammer finds that it is much heavier and not as well balanced as the warhammer he saw in a museum. He can either use this medium weapon 2-handed, OR he can use it at a -2 penalty to hit. If the sledgehammer were small, the one-handed model, he could still use it one-handed, but in order to use it without the -2 penalty, he would have to treat it as Medium-sized, not small -- meaning that using a small sledgehammer in each hand is difficult (-4/-4, since it's medium for purposes of use), since they are so heavy and unbalanced. Note that a scythe, which is already large is treated as huge, which means that the wielder MUST take a -2 penalty (unless the wielder is, say, an ogre, who could use an effectively huge weapon without trouble -- it'd just be a two-handed weapon instead of the usual one-handed weapon that most large weapons are).
Fourth category: Saws -- Archaic
A small saw does 1d4, 20/x3. A medium-sized saw does 1d6,20/x3. It's slashing damage. If you can shake the saw back and forth and the blade wiggles (because it's that thin metal), then it takes a -2 to hit for being flimsy and unweaponslike.
Thoughts? Things I left out? My goal is for these to be good improvised weapons, but not powerful enough that someone who HAS archaic weapon proficiency would use these things instead of, say, a longsword.
Awhile back, I argued that today's shovel, sledgehammer, or axe is made of high-quality materials and sometimes carries a lifetime warranty. The counterargument was that a weapon you find in a shed shouldn't be more powerful than a longsword.
So I've been doing some thinking for an upcoming campaign, and I've come up with some new thoughts on possible weapons that someone might try.
For starters, I should note that I'm using D&D weapons as they stand -- if the characters find an ancient falchion, it's gonna have falchion stats, and if they find a mystical warhammer, it's gonna have warhammer stats, even the x3 multiplier. I won't be adjusting the d20 Modern hatchet to a x3 crit multiplier, because a hatchet is light enough and throwable that it's really a throwing axe, not a hand-axe. But x3 stuff might appear.
First category: Small stuff -- simple
The sai originated as a gardening tool for digging weeds out. As such, I'm lumping anything that's generally used for weed-digging in as 1d4, 20/x2. Better than your fist, not as good as a long knife.
An ordinary hammer (the claw teeth on one side, a hammerhead on the other) is a tiny weapon that does 1d4, 19-20/x2, and has a throwing range of 10 feet. It can be used to deliver bludgeoning or piercing damage.
Second category: Long sticks with things on them -- archaic
In general, I'm making these large weapons that can be used as double weapons, since they are essentially quarterstaves with metal implements on one end. A shovel, or the rake and hoe mentioned up above
, will do 1d8/1d4, 20/x2. The haft only gets 1d6 instead of 1d4 if it's specially shod or something.Shovels, rakes, and hoes are treated as archaic weapons. A character trained with using ancient weapons can handle them well, but an average Joe is going to find them harder to use than a baton.
These are the stats for a new or well-cared-for shovel or rake. An old, beat-up shovel or rake takes a -2 to hit and to damage for being unwieldy, beat-up, and generally not very good.
Third category: Non-weaponized versions of old weapons -- archaic
Scythes, sledgehammers, and woodcutting axes fall into this category. These weapons have not been optimized for combat, and thus are not as good as a battle-axe or war-scythe, but they are still pretty good, relative to a shovel.
They are treated as archaic weapons for purposes of proficient use, but must be used as though one size larger, or else used with a -2 penalty to attacks. That is to say, someone who grabs a sledgehammer finds that it is much heavier and not as well balanced as the warhammer he saw in a museum. He can either use this medium weapon 2-handed, OR he can use it at a -2 penalty to hit. If the sledgehammer were small, the one-handed model, he could still use it one-handed, but in order to use it without the -2 penalty, he would have to treat it as Medium-sized, not small -- meaning that using a small sledgehammer in each hand is difficult (-4/-4, since it's medium for purposes of use), since they are so heavy and unbalanced. Note that a scythe, which is already large is treated as huge, which means that the wielder MUST take a -2 penalty (unless the wielder is, say, an ogre, who could use an effectively huge weapon without trouble -- it'd just be a two-handed weapon instead of the usual one-handed weapon that most large weapons are).Fourth category: Saws -- Archaic
A small saw does 1d4, 20/x3. A medium-sized saw does 1d6,20/x3. It's slashing damage. If you can shake the saw back and forth and the blade wiggles (because it's that thin metal), then it takes a -2 to hit for being flimsy and unweaponslike.
Thoughts? Things I left out? My goal is for these to be good improvised weapons, but not powerful enough that someone who HAS archaic weapon proficiency would use these things instead of, say, a longsword.
