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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tarchon" data-source="post: 2124136" data-attributes="member: 5990">Bronze of the same volume as iron weighs around 10% more - you just can't argue against density. Practically speaking it also has to be much thicker to get the same stiffness. The factor required to match iron is pretty ridiculous (only has ~1/2 the shear modulus) <a href="http://www.efunda.com/materials/common_matl/Common_Matl.cfm?MatlPhase=Solid&MatlProp=Mechanical" target="_blank">http://www.efunda.com/materials/common_matl/Common_Matl.cfm?MatlPhase=Solid&MatlProp=Mechanical</a>, so in reality, it just isn't going to happen, thus I figured there'd be maybe a 10% factor for that before they just gave up and accepted the basic weakness, giving about a 20% penalty. Looking at historical bronze weapons, the increased weight per length seems to typically be similar to that estimate, around 20% to 30%, so a 1/4 penalty is probably reasonable.A typical sword historical sword weight seems to come in at around 2-3 pounds (<a href="http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/shield_and_weapon_weights.html" target="_blank">http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/shield_and_weapon_weights.html</a>), so I don't think the 3.5 SRD is really that far off. 2 lbs for a rapier or shortsword, 4 lbs for a longsword (heavyish, but I don't know how "long" they mean it to be), 1 lb for a dagger. Given that D&D sword weights are given in 1 lb. increments, the bronze weight penalty is probably too small to really tip the scales though.</blockquote>

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