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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rothe" data-source="post: 3004647" data-attributes="member: 39813">Eltern, good ideas.  Complex? No, not any more than D&D as is.  You are just talking about modifiers to rolls to reflect these aspects and they can all be put in one abbreviated line for a weapon.  One D&D complexity you do remove is the whole need for "touch AC."Your ideas on "non-weapons" I agree with.  What makes a tool different than a weapon?  Well tools are often weighted different making them harder to use in combat.  You could give a tool a minus to hit, make it slower to use, and/or a minus to defense.On weapon reach, your description has an answer.  Make the reach the negative modifier for close in attack.  For example a reach x weapon attacks with no penalty at range=x-1, a -x penaly at range=x-2; and a -2x at range=x-3. etc.  In your example a great sword has a reach of 4 and a dagger 2.  Say close in fighting is range 1 (range 0 is wrestling).  The great sword would then suffer a -(3x4) or -12 at this close range and the dagger nothing.  If the opponents were wrestling the great sword wielder would suffer -16 and the dagger wielder -2 and a martial artist using bare hands no penalty.  (All modifiers assuming using a d20, 5% increment curve).  The reach ideas can also be used in tight spaces, i.e., a 5' corridor may be a range 2 size space so using a dagger suffers no penalty but a greatsword suffers a -4.  You may want to play with the numbers and steps, e.g., I might suggest bare hand reach 0, dagger reach 1, short sword reach 2, long sword reach 3, great sword reach 4, staff/ bec de corbin reach 5, and halberd, polearm reach 6.  A backstab, city crowd or 3' corridor a size 1 space, a 5' corridor or fighting in tight formation (legionnaire style) a size 2 space, a 10x10 room a size 3 space, a 10' corridor a size 4 space, etc.I've used this approach to reach for about 14 years, it works very well.  Once players know the penalties they switch from their great sword outside to a shorter weapon when in the typical 5' corridor.  Playes now have more than one weapon they use and consider useful.  Daggers are still regulated to close in fighting or assassination, not a primary weapon but one to have handy.  Great swords etc. are still useful outside or in big rooms but are not used in a typical corridor.  The short sword now has a role supported by game mechanics, and the role it often found in history as well.  You can even use this to reflect real world tactical use of weapons.  For example, the Romans choosing the gladius (short sword) to fight in formation without penalty and the phalanx (reach 5-6 weapons in a size 2 space) can be seen as having a penalty for attacks in anything other than attacks in the forward direction, hence the advantage of the legion over the phalanx on rough terrain but the advantage of the phalanx over other formations on even terrain where maneuver allows the phalanx to keep the enemy to its front.Another differentiator is speed of use, which could be subsumed in reach as size usually correllates to speed of use.  Faster weapons get more attacks so you can get more stabbity witha dagger. Just some ideas.   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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