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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cap'n Kobold" data-source="post: 7272147" data-attributes="member: 6802951">Just because a weapon is listed as Finesse, it doesn't mean you can't still use your Str to hit and damage. You can choose to use Dex, but you don't have to. The sword is generally considered to be the second-best weapon for most given situations.So they were carried (when the warrior could afford one) as a back up to the warrior's primary, whether that was a polearm, or a bow, or a spear/lance. Unless your opponent has a shield. In which case most bow, crossbow, and sling projectiles are much less effective, and more suitable for attrition and preventing fast maneuver.However, most D&D combats are not military in nature. Adventurers don't usually engage in unit-to-unit combat, but individual combat, where many large polearms for example are much less useful.And it is in more individual combat that swords do tend to excel. You might have an axe if you couldn't afford a sword, but until the advent of heavy armour requiring specialised weapons, the sword was second only to the shield for individual, armed combat. Making a good sword was also much harder than the majority of other weapons, particularly for areas with poor starting materials, so it became a symbol of wealth and status as well. That is going a tad too far I think. But I'm certainly not a fan of trying to give finesse to longswords or arming swords. Agile and well-balanced does not equate to Finesse in D&D terms: they fail the Baggins/Lee test for me.Even if it does make Elves even more powerful.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /></blockquote>

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