D&D 5E Falchion & Finesse?

[77IM]

I'm not sure how abusive the GWF+SneakAttack combo really is, considering:
1) Nobody has a problem with GWF+Smite, which can get pretty substantial.
2) A Fighter 1/Rogue X is going to be perpetually 1/2 a die behind a straight rogue on sneak attack damage. Brutal 2 on a d6 adds about half a point of damage per die, so you are looking at being a Fighter 1/Rogue 5 before you break even on that lost die.
3) The Savage Attacker feat. WTF? If that thing's balanced, I'm not worried about anything a GWF guy can do.

I'd be inclined to allow at least d10 two-handed finesse weapons (e.g. katana as a finesse longsword) until they were demonstrated broken.

 

[Steely Dan]

I'm not sure that it's even physically possible to finesse a weapon while wielding it in two hands.

In one of the playtest packets the spiked chain was included: 1d8, finesse, reach, two-handed.

 

[jgsugden]

My answer changes depending upon why I am adding falchion to 5E.

Basically, if a player wants to do something, I look to see if there is a fun and balanced way to make it happen. If a player wants a 2 handed Finesse weapon, and likes the idea of calling it a falchion, I'm going to figure out how much damage it should do and add it.

However, if I were not trying to please a player at the moment, but was merely translating something old into 5E and the old enemies had falchions, I'd likely just use a 2 handed sword stat and not worry about it.

 

[Mouseferatu]

"Shamshir" and "scimitar" are basically variants on the same root word, and are slight variants on a design. As big as that last picture looks up there, look at the proportions of the hilt. It's still meant as a one-handed weapon. Just requires a decent amount of arm strength.

 

[was]

I think the heavy descriptor is at odds with finesse

 

[Hrothgar Rannúlfr]

Short sword is a finesse weapon, but its larger equivalents (long sword and great sword) are not. Therefore, even if the "falchion" is a two-handed scimitar (which it has been since 3.0) it wouldn't necessarily be a finesse weapon.

I like this line of thinking.

 

[Francesco Lepore]

Wow, what a complete discussion full of references and good point of view. Really interesting and complete. Well done guys. I am an anarchist in comparison of many here! I am the GM and i presented a PNG inspired to Azim, the Morgan Freeman character in Robin Hood with Costner. Anyone remembers the witch scene? Great moment of cinema, Fortunately i did not gave reach and throw to the falchion. We play in Faerun and he is a ranger, coming from Kalimshan. Now i read all of this. Now i know how deep i am a fool! Really i took it lightly and I decided that this GM character uses a falchion AND a scimitar! Falchion has finesse AND versatility! Crazy GM! it inflict 1d8 or 2d4 when brought with two hands. Well maybe it is too much... i don't know if a turning a 1d6 scimitar to a 1d8 it is equal to broke the game... Bytheway we played and had fun. No player made claims, no discussion as well. But now i know. Now i know how anarchic i am! I have to change the equip to my Azim... or maybe not... However thank you everybody here for the many different examples and the wide medieval culture shown above!

 

[auburn2]

If you were importing the falchion to DnD 5E, would you give it the finesse property?

Why? Or, why not?

Thank you.

I would say the Falchion is a type of scimitar, along with the mechete and the cutlass, so yes. Maybe give it a slightly different weight.

A falchion is definitely not a two-handed weapon.

 

[auburn2]

IMO the only really egregious sword name error in D&D is the long sword for a normal good old one handed sword!

no kidding. Even more egregious is that for years the longsword was one-handed while the bastard sword was 2-handed. That is completely backwards.

 

[Horwath]

Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat

Please leave exotic weapons in previous editions.

Hell, like some weapons are thrown in 5E in simple and martial category, we might remove those two categories and have all weapons on martial power level.

Fighting styles, weapon feats, extra attack(s) are enough to differentiate "martial" from "non-martial" characters.