D&D 5E Moar fun with weapons

[Szatany]

I've been thinking about how to make weapons in DNDN more interesting to players, and also more diverse. It's about making weapons better with certain maneuvers so they play differently if a player chooses so. It also makes weapons more distinct from eachother.

In a hand of a skilled warrior, a weapon causes not only harm, but is also a specific tool for specific purpose. In its description, each weapon lists a number of maneuvers. When a character uses one of those maneuvers while wielding the weapon, he or she can add one expertise die to the roll for free. The size of die is equal to the size of die he can normally use.
If a character has expertise dice but doesn't have a maneuver his weapon enhances, he can now use that manuever with a single expertise die.
Alternatively (and this is a weaker variant), weapon would not grant an extra die to its maneuvers, but only increase dice already used by 1 step (d6 to d8 etc.). In this variant, a character without proper maneuver still can't execute it.

Basic Weapons
--Club (glancing blow)
--Greatclub (glancing blow)
--Handaxe (cleave)
--Mace (glancing blow)
--Scythe (cleave)
--Sickle
--Spear (parry)
--Trident
--War pick
Finesse Weapons
--Dagger (composed attack, opportunist)
--Katana (composed attack, parry, spring attack)
--Quarterstaff (glancing blow, parry)
--Rapier (composed attack, opportunist, spring attack)
--Scimitar (parry, spring attack)
--Short sword (opportunist, parry)
--Spiked chain (whirlwind attack)
--Whip (spring attack, whirlwind attack)
Martial Weapons
--Bastard sword (parry)
--Battleaxe (cleave)
--Flail (glancing blow)
--Longsword (parry)
--Morningstar (glancing blow)
--Throwing axe
--Warhammer (glancing blow)
Heavy Weapons
--Glaive (protect, whirlwind attack)
--Greataxe (cleave, whirlwind attack)
--Greatsword (protect, whirlwind attack)
--Lance
--Longspear (protect)
--Halberd (cleave, whirlwind attack)
--Maul (glancing blow)
Simple Missile Weapons
--Crossbow, hand (precise shot, sneak attack)
--Dart
--Sling
Martial Missile Weapons
--Crossbow, light (precise shot)
--Javelin
--Shortbow (volley)
--Throwing hammer
Heavy Missile Weapons
--Crossbow, heavy (precise shot)
--Longbow (volley)
Shields
--Small shield (protect)
--Large shield (parry, protect) (same as small shield but more expensive and heavier)

I have, of course, eyeballed specific weapons, going by what felt right rather than playtesting it, but you get the idea. Ideally I'd have every weapon (except simple ones) tied to at least one maneuver, but there just aren't that many.
What do you guys think?

 

[Ed_Laprade]

I don't know what the mechanics are for Maneuvers, but in the real world small shields are better at parrying and large shields are better at protecting.

 

[Szatany]

I don't know what the mechanics are for Maneuvers, but in the real world small shields are better at parrying and large shields are better at protecting.

Download the playtest packet, they are very simple.

 

[variant]

I definitely wish there was more options to distinguish the various weapons and give each weapon a reason to be used over another.

Short bow and longbow should be something like dual shot.

 

[Derren]

I definitely wish there was more options to distinguish the various weapons and give each weapon a reason to be used over another.

Short bow and longbow should be something like dual shot.

Or instead of adding over the top stuff like dual shot we could look back at history to see why so many different weapons were used and try to model that. But that also requires one to accept that some weapons are simply upgrades over others with no downside.

About the list, the maneuvers for each weapon seem pretty arbitrary. What can a spear do a halberd or lance can not?

 

[Szatany]

About the list, the maneuvers for each weapon seem pretty arbitrary. What can a spear do a halberd or lance can not?

Yeah, the list is there just as an example of how this rule might look in the book. Not that much thought was put to accurately pair weapons and maneuvers (both from the standpoint of realism and balance).