Excerpt: Weapons (MERGE)

[AZRogue]

I ask again, because I'm honestly curious: what's the difference between a halfling sized longsword and a normal shortsword? Is there any difference?

 

[hong]

And if your campaign features, as the one I'm in does, small, medium, and large PCs, with access to size-changing spells, or changes in size with level gain (Savage Species)?

You ban small and large PCs, of course.

 

[Lizard]

What's the difference between a halfling sized longsword and a shortsword? I ask because I didn't play 3.5 but didn't have a problem with the 3.0 system, so this doesn't seem that different to me.

Isn't a halfling sized longsword basically a shortsword anyway?

Not when there's feats, powers, etc, which require specific weapons. If a halfling uses a human shortsword as a longsword, can he sneak attack with it?

 

[hong]

Not when there's feats, powers, etc, which require specific weapons. If a halfling uses a human shortsword as a longsword, can he sneak attack with it?

Again, all of your problems are rendered moot by simply banning halflings. It's the cure to all ills, people!

 

[AZRogue]

Not when there's feats, powers, etc, which require specific weapons. If a halfling uses a human shortsword as a longsword, can he sneak attack with it?

Well, he'd be using it like a longsword, right? Far too large for him to sneak attack with unless a human sized rogue could also sneak attack with one (not sure on that). It just doesn't seem that strange to me to have the baseline (human sized weapons) and then figure out the size differences, one up or one down the scale. Like I said, I never had a problem with 3.0 weapon sizes and never played with 3.5, so this seems just about the same to me.

 

[vagabundo]

When I think of two sword fighting I think of this guy:

Nasir is a Saracen who was a professional assassin in Palestine. Captured by a European crusader and user of black magic, called Baron de Belleme, Nasir is placed under an evil spell by the Baron and brought back to England to work as his henchman. Nasir is freed from the spell when the Baron is killed by Robin Hood, and, having found respect for Robin during a crucial sword fight, decides to join Robin's band of outlaws in Sherwood Forest and help fight for the rights of the common people in medieval England.

From Robin of Sherwood TV Series.

Here he is in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6KUWz9SeWo

 

[Lizard]

You ban small and large PCs, of course.

So, your method of resolving difficult rule issues is to simply shrink the scope of the game. If simplified rules break in edge cases, eliminate the edges! I'd say "Good thing you're not on the design team", but it seems you're in tune with them philosophically -- "That which cannot be simplified, shall be excised."

Often seen in programming -- if you can't get the feature to work right, just eliminate it, and tell customers they didn't want that feature, anyway. Works just until the competition shows up with the feature working.

 

[Wormwood]

Well, I think this excerpt won't generate a 500+ post thread.

(But this is the internet. It could prove me wrong...)

188 and counting.

 

[hong]

So, your method of resolving difficult rule issues is to simply shrink the scope of the game. If simplified rules break in edge cases, eliminate the edges! I'd say "Good thing you're not on the design team", but it seems you're in tune with them philosophically -- "That which cannot be simplified, shall be excised."

And thus is simplicity achieved. It's all rather zen.

Often seen in programming -- if you can't get the feature to work right, just eliminate it, and tell customers they didn't want that feature, anyway. Works just until the competition shows up with the feature working.

So... why aren't you playing GURPS, which I believe you were doing for 20 years before D&D put in a few sops for the s*mul*tionists?

 

[Lizard]

Well, he'd be using it like a longsword, right?

But it has the "Shortsword" tag and is thus a shortsword.

Far too large for him to sneak attack with unless a human sized rogue could also sneak attack with one (not sure on that). It just doesn't seem that strange to me to have the baseline (human sized weapons) and then figure out the size differences, one up or one down the scale. Like I said, I never had a problem with 3.0 weapon sizes and never played with 3.5, so this seems just about the same to me.

But so much easier to say "This is a Small Greatsword; that is a Huge Dagger." It also makes much more sense to me that a halfling can't just grab a weapon built for human sized and hands and balanced for a human to wield one handed and then just swing it around as if it were built for his grip and body structure. A halfling can pick up a human shortsword, but it's going to be much clumsier for him than a longsword made to halfling scale would be; even if it does the same damage (1d6), he ought to have a to-hit penalty (and in 3.5, he does).