Resizing Magic Weapons (aka the Telescoping Sword)

[Mercule]

Okay, a weird thought occured to me last night.

In 3.5, weapons now have sizes. Halflings use a small longsword while humans use a medium longsword, etc.

The biggest complaint I've heard about the new weapons rules, from a balance/mechanic point of view, is that this really screws the wee folk, especially as they advance in level, because it's pretty rare to run into a goblin with a +3 Vorpal longsword (or whatever).

Well, my thought is this: There have always been things that, if mundane, are only usable to characters of a certain size. Things like boots, armor, rings, etc. are all size dependent. These already have a mechanism to keep the wee folk from getting screwed in treasure division -- they resize.

I know, at first blush it seems silly that a 1 foot long sword used by a halfling would become 7' long if a stone giant picks it up. Really, though, is that any sillier than the idea that a ring that said giant is wearing -- a ring which, while on the giant's finger is bigger than the halfling's belt -- would resize to fit the halfling?

Thoughts?

 

[Greatwyrm]

Of course, you could just house-rule it that way. However, I'm not sure that someone making an item for a specific person would really be that concerned about the weapon resizing itself. If I made a sword for a medium sized client, what do I care if his halfling butler picks it up and gets a -2 penalty.

You could also make auto-resizing a weapon enhancement. Probably a +1 value or a fixed amount. That way, if he wants his halfling butler to be able to wield the sword well, it's on his nickle.

 

[Mercule]

Of course, you could just house-rule it that way. However, I'm not sure that someone making an item for a specific person would really be that concerned about the weapon resizing itself. If I made a sword for a medium sized client, what do I care if his halfling butler picks it up and gets a -2 penalty.

And why would they care about it for a specific suit of armor or a specific ring? Yet, there you have it, magic armor and rings _all_ resize.

 

[frankthedm]

Thunder... Thunder... Thundercats HO!

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Personally, I'd see making the weapon not resize as a security feature-- you'd pay extra to have the weapon not adjust itself to the hands of those who slew you.

I certainly wouldn't commission a sword to resize itself specially. It seems to me that if I were to die, I'd want to leave the blade to my children, who would (normally) eventually grow up to be the same size category as myself.

 

[Mercule]

I certainly wouldn't commission a sword to resize itself specially. It seems to me that if I were to die, I'd want to leave the blade to my children, who would (normally) eventually grow up to be the same size category as myself.

Oh, absolutely.

The real question, though, isn't "should magic weapons resize?", but "Why does it make any more or less sense that magic weapons resize than that magic armor (rings, boots, whatever) resizes?"

Personally, I think the idea of armor resizing is absurd, as is a weapon resizing. I just happen to think it's even more ridiculous that weapons play by different rules here than _every_ other magic item. What gives?

 

[Bulak]

The real question, though, isn't "should magic weapons resize?", but "Why does it make any more or less sense that magic weapons resize than that magic armor (rings, boots, whatever) resizes?"

Short answer: It doesn't.

Long answer:
Because it's easier to picture something resizing to fit your body. A halfling could easily pick up a medium-sized longsword (using two hands), while he could not wear a medium-sized armor without having BIG problems.
But that's all flavor and stuff... now for game-mechanics:
Say you have a halfling who wants to wield a longsword, using two hands. He buys a masterwork medium-sized longsword and kicks enough ass to upgrade it. He gets his +1 medium-sized longsword and as soon as he touches it... poof... it resized to a small sword.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

He'd still be able to wield it two-handed. It is, after all, a longsword.

 

[Kestrel]

Thunder... Thunder... Thundercats HO!

hehe...beat me to it.

this was the first thing I thought of when I read this thread title.

So...the sword of omens in its smallest form is a longsword when used by Snarf, but Lion-O can resize it to a longsword by chanting the magic words

 

[Bulak]

He'd still be able to wield it two-handed. It is, after all, a longsword.

My mistake. I should've gone with short sword.