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<blockquote data-quote="woodelf" data-source="post: 1453429" data-attributes="member: 10201"><p>Well, don't forget that D&amp;D has always over-sized many of their weapons, especially the swords. When i've compared them in the past, the D&amp;D sword lengths were a good 30%-50% longer than the real thing. It's harder to say with D&amp;D3E, because they don't give actual numbers. But assuming the grid in the image [in the D&amp;D3E PH] is in quarter-foot increments (which seems to be the intention), they're still at it. A claymore, frex, arguably either a 2-handed or hand-and-a-half (i.e., &quot;bastard&quot;) sword in actual real-world use, seems to have typically been under 5 feet in total length (usually just more than 4.5'), and with a blade around 3.5 feet long. Now, looking at the illustrations in the PH, that's pretty close to what D&amp;D calls a longsword. Looking around some more at historical-replica websites, the sorts of swords one would normally call a longsword--large but clearly one-handed swords--run in the 30&quot;-33&quot; blade length--considerably shorter than the 39&quot;+ length depicted in the PH. Likewise, actual shortswords start at around 22&quot; (blade length) and go down--vice the 24&quot; blade depicted in the PH. And if you restrict yourself just to swords that were heavy primarily-thrusting weapons, like the gladius, you find them more around the 1.5' blade-length. So, given that the D&amp;D sizes run around 30% larger than their real-world bases, i'd say that the D&amp;D khopesh could conceivably be longsword-like. Maybe.</p></blockquote><p></p>

[QUOTE="woodelf, post: 1453429, member: 10201"] Well, don't forget that D&D has always over-sized many of their weapons, especially the swords. When i've compared them in the past, the D&D sword lengths were a good 30%-50% longer than the real thing. It's harder to say with D&D3E, because they don't give actual numbers. But assuming the grid in the image [in the D&D3E PH] is in quarter-foot increments (which seems to be the intention), they're still at it. A claymore, frex, arguably either a 2-handed or hand-and-a-half (i.e., "bastard") sword in actual real-world use, seems to have typically been under 5 feet in total length (usually just more than 4.5'), and with a blade around 3.5 feet long. Now, looking at the illustrations in the PH, that's pretty close to what D&D calls a longsword. Looking around some more at historical-replica websites, the sorts of swords one would normally call a longsword--large but clearly one-handed swords--run in the 30"-33" blade length--considerably shorter than the 39"+ length depicted in the PH. Likewise, actual shortswords start at around 22" (blade length) and go down--vice the 24" blade depicted in the PH. And if you restrict yourself just to swords that were heavy primarily-thrusting weapons, like the gladius, you find them more around the 1.5' blade-length. So, given that the D&D sizes run around 30% larger than their real-world bases, i'd say that the D&D khopesh could conceivably be longsword-like. Maybe. [/QUOTE]

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