Should a weapon be statted based on "realism" or "balance"?

[diaglo]

all weapons should do 1d6 damage for PCs.

 

[jasper]

no new weapons. because there is plenty of stats for weapons already. Just find a close match slap a new label on it.

 

[francisca]

Balance.

But not in the d20 way of reckoning. I mean "in a way that fits the game and doesn't screw it it up" manner, not how well it fits a set of arbitrary forumulae.

 

[Aaron L]

Realism, and make it simple, martial, or exotic to balance it. Equipment balance is roughly kept with the wealth by level guidelines. But I really cant think of many real world weapons that havent been modelled pretty well so far. Maybe that Indian whip sword I just read about the other day, urumi, though I was thinking that spiked chain stats would work.

 

[Thanee]

Both.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Umbran]

My initial thoughts and inspiration would be done in terms of realism, but my final design would favor balance over realism.

I've done this before, and I almost always end up realizing that picking the current weapon that's closest is good enough for my players.

 

[swrushing]

IMo for fantasy characters, the "weapon" is more often than not a statement about the character not an analysis of historical weapon and combat specifications.

dwarves use axes because its cool for a dwarf to use an axe.
one human uses a greatsword and another uses a foil because that says a lot about the character and style with the two handed guy likely being brutish and muscle-guy and the foil guy being slick and dashing.

So, IMO, let the "type of weapon" be a flavor bit, hardly mattering more than hair color or speech pattern.

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

I went with option three, but honestly realism has very little place, especially when making decisions regarding game balance. If there is an option that is clearly better than the rest, players will pick it. On the other side of the coin, if a weapon is too weak, no one will ever use it. I'm more interested in giving my players options rather than pigeonholing them into one particular type of model.

 

[Mallus]

Can you stat a weapon 'realistically' in a combat system as abstract as D&D's? I mean, it ignores all the factors that led to the vast profusion of different ancient weapons. Weapons evolved in response to the specifics of armors, tactics, etc. that don't functionally exist in the system. The best (and I use that term incincerely) D&D had was the old 'weapon vs. armor class table' that virtually no-one used back when it was actually part of the rules.

Weapons should (in fact, can only be, given the combat resolution mechanics) be statted for balance. And any special properties given them should model cinema, not real world combat.

 

[Imperialus]

the only new weapon I ever made was a boar spear... Exact same stats as a longspear just without the reach and it could be used in 1 hand. It was mostly made for a spearweilding fighter concept that none of the available weapons really seemed to allow for.