Equivalent Weapons for Different Sizes

[Shadaraman]

I was recently reading through a bunch of different 3rd edition supplements, just browsing for useful things to include in my game.

I came across an alternate system for weapons of non-standard sizes. In this system, a weapon of a non-standard size was equivalent to a different weapon of other sizes. For example, a Tiny Greatsword might be the same as a short sword to a medium creature.

Unfortunately, I lost where I saw this, and my frantic searching is turning up nothing. I think it was in a book, but I did page through a few issues of Dragon as well.

Anyone know where I need to look to find this again?

 

[Drowbane]

3e phb? (3.5 changed the rules for "realism")

 

[Shadaraman]

3e phb? (3.5 changed the rules for "realism")

No, I've read that a couple hundred times. This was something new.

Hopefully I'll spot it sometime when I'm reading through things again.

 

[blargney the second]

Drowbane's right - it was in the 3.0 PHB.

 

[frankthedm]

3e phb? (3.5 changed the rules for "realism")

And rightly so. The way a shortsword is weighted is a far cry from a longsword.

And it was not just for realism. Gamedevs gave simple weapons a one handed 1d8x2 weapon [Heavy Mace and morningstar]. Next best blunt weapon was the Martial 1d10x2 greatclub. In 3.0, one could work around this with a large heavy mace or large Morningstar for a two handed simple weapon with 2d6 x2. In 3.5 they fixed this with the -2.

 

[Shadaraman]

Drowbane's right - it was in the 3.0 PHB.

If you're referring to the size descriptions on page 97, that's not what I'm looking for.

What I saw was a table that listed conversions from one weapon to other weapon depending on size. What the PHB has is simply the stats for smaller and larger versions, not direct conversion to a different weapon.

The trick Frankthedm mentions would be impossible with what I saw, because you would need proficiency with the weapon it was equivalent to, not what it actually was. If a tiny creature used a shortsword as a greatsword, they would need the greatsword proficiency. A medium creature using a large Morningstar would probably need a martial weapon proficiency to use it properly.

The point was to make weapons from large creatures more useful in loot.

I know for sure what I saw was not in the PHB (any version). Sounds like I'll have to do some serious digging if I want to find it again.

 

[blargney the second]

The point was to make weapons from large creatures more useful in loot.

What you want is the Strongarm Bracers from Magic Item Compendium. They let you use a weapon one size category larger than you.
-blarg