Level Up (A5E) Druids, Great Clubs weapon proficiency or not, and the Shillelagh cantrip

[Tessarael]

Interestingly, the 3E D&D Player's Handbook uses singular for weapon names for weapon proficiencies. Whereas 5E D&D 2014 and A5E both use the plural, which implies all weapons of that type.

Here are the respective weapon lists for Druid across these editions:

• 3.5E: club, dagger, dart, quarterstaff, scimitar, sickle, shortspear, sling, spear
• 5E 2014: clubs, daggers, darts, javelins, maces, quarterstaffs, scimitars, sickles, slings, spears
• A5E: blowguns, clubs, daggers, darts, javelins, maces, quarterstaffs, scimitars, scythes, sickles, slings, spears
• 5E 2024: simple weapons

Note that D&D 2024 Druids can select Magician or Primal Order at level 1. Primal Order gives proficiency in martial weapons and medium armor. And they dropped the restriction that Druids cannot use metal armor. Those are good fixes IMHO.

 

[Toan Li]

I really believe the weapon lists are much more specific. No where else do the rules group weapons in that fashion. Simple, martial, and rare are the only terms that encompass multiple weapon proficiencies.

Polearm Master (O5E) had this same issue that Polearm Savant (A5E) fixed. Without the "or any other similar weapons" caveat, tridents weren't an option before.

Proficiency in "daggers" shouldn't encompass every weapon with the word dagger. I think A5E's Adept / Rogue proficiencies show this best. There's no reason an Adept can only use punching, a Rogue can only use dueling, but a Druid can use any dagger.

 

[Tessarael]

You may well be right. Voidrunner's Codex has "medium mauls" for Psions, and "blades" for Psyknights - the latter is definitely a broader category. I think the way that D&D 2024 handles it is quite well done too.

 

[Toan Li]

That's valid. I suppose I should have said the A5E core rules. But the weapon chart in VRC clearly defines which weapons fall in those categories. The core rule weapon chart does not. Next we could try to say a hand crossbow is a "light" crossbow because it weighs less.
I agree 2024 handles it in a clean way, but I also find it boring.