No small weapons - I'm okay with this

[Mort_Q]

Because a halfling fighter doesn't do as much damage as a human fighter.

Have we seen anything that confirms this for 4e?

That's not true. SRD on encumbrance

Fair enough. We generally never bothered with the encumbrance rules. I was thinking more along the lines of STR checks.

 

[Kordeth]

Have we seen anything that confirms this for 4e?

It's implicit in the weapon size limits. A halfling who wants to sword-and-board is stuck with a shortsword (or an equivalent-sized weapon), which does less damage than a longsword. A halfling who wants to go two-handed is stuck with a longsword or equivalent versatile weapon, which (presumably) does less damage than a greatsword.

 

[frankthedm]

Anyone else suspect halflings are losing reach weapons in 4E?

 

[UngeheuerLich]

It was one of the 3rd edition improvements, that didn´t improve anything... as much as i liked shord people using great axes... it was a PITA to make appropriate treasure... What i did was essentially let my players chose what they call it and use it as they like...

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

How do we know [small] can't be applied to any weapon? For example, "greatsword [small]" is one that a halfling can use, while "greatsword" can only be used be mediums.

Frankly, despite the realism impact, I'd be tempted to do away with weapon sizes between small and medium characters just to simplify the game. There are shortswords (that do 1d6 and can be used off hand), longswords (one handed 1d8) and greatswords (two handed 2d6) -- all can be used equally by humans and halflings alike. Realism be damned; it makes the game simpler and ensures PCs all have equal access to options (sorta BECMI in that approach).

Racial choice is then about options, background, and flavor, not about being more or less effective in combat.

 

[Mort_Q]

It's implicit in the weapon size limits. A halfling who wants to sword-and-board is stuck with a shortsword (or an equivalent-sized weapon), which does less damage than a longsword. A halfling who wants to go two-handed is stuck with a longsword or equivalent versatile weapon, which (presumably) does less damage than a greatsword.

A halfling that wants to use a two-hander is making a suboptimal choice. It makes a lot of sense for a halfling to not take a fighting style that requires it to use bigger weapons to do more damage.

They can't hit harder that a medium, but they certainly have an advantage in getting their dagger into your spleen.

 

[Kordeth]

How do we know [small] can't be applied to any weapon? For example, "greatsword [small]" is one that a halfling can use, while "greatsword" can only be used be mediums.

Because that's basically the exact same weapon size system that 3.5E has, which the article says they're moving away from.

Frankly, despite the realism impact, I'd be tempted to do away with weapon sizes between small and medium characters just to simplify the game. There are shortswords (that do 1d6 and can be used off hand), longswords (one handed 1d8) and greatswords (two handed 2d6) -- all can be used equally by humans and halflings alike. Realism be damned; it makes the game simpler and ensures PCs all have equal access to options (sorta BECMI in that approach).

Well, they've already done away with slower speed for Small characters, and I'm pretty sure we worked out from the halfling paladin's stats that the size bonus to AC and attack rolls are gone, too, so I say sure, why not?

 

[jaelis]

Anyone else suspect halflings are losing reach weapons in 4E?

Probably right, though there might be a [small] reach weapon or two. (Perhaps the spiked chain or whip?)

But I'd be OK with that... they are smaller after all, it always seemed a bit odd to me that 3.5 halflings had just as good a reach as humans did.

 

[Kordeth]

A halfling that wants to use a two-hander is making a suboptimal choice. It makes a lot of sense for a halfling to not take a fighting style that requires it to use bigger weapons to do more damage.

Err, right, which is why a halfling fighter does less damage than a human fighter. In both categories, the human can use a bigger weapon than the halfling can and thus inflict more damage.

They can't hit harder that a medium, but they certainly have an advantage in getting their dagger into your spleen.

What advantage does a halfling fighter have in sticking a dagger into your spleen, exactly? Assume for the moment that both fighters have the same Strength and are the same level.

 

[Mort_Q]

Err, right, which is why a halfling fighter does less damage than a human fighter. In both categories, the human can use a bigger weapon than the halfling can and thus inflict more damage.

I was mostly just trying to convince myself. When you first posted that I was assuming there was a formal rule regarding small fighters that I had missed.

What advantage does a halfling fighter have in sticking a dagger into your spleen, exactly? Assume for the moment that both fighters have the same Strength and are the same level.

Small hands? Easier to slip past your defenses? Don't know... makes sense to me though. It's a DEX thing.