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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Storyteller01" data-source="post: 1952054" data-attributes="member: 20931">...And given that a human can wield a knife with a 3" handle without penalty in combat, both in real life and by the RAW (since it was made for a Medium critter). If I inturrpret the arguments correctly, a human using this style of pocket knife would not accrue a penalty, provided he is proficient with simple weapons, and it was made for a Medium creature. Don't forget, you left out half of that paragraph. The above I added to help further my arguement. <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=":)" />How short does a small shortsword grip have to be? By your example, the average hand of a 3 year old is about 10.5 cm. That's just over    4 " (30 cm in a foot, 3' 4" in a meter [100 cm]). Average hand width for an adult (small creatures are fully developed by this time, unless WotC figures small creature dimensions diffenetly) is 2/3 the length per art and anatomy teachings. That puts the width at roughly 2 1/2", closer to 2 2/3". Add enough room for hand variance and grip manipulation (few weapons use a baseball style grip) and you have a handle with a length of 2 3/4 to 3 inches, being conservative. We can assume the the width would be about a 1/2", MAYBE less. I have described a real life stilletto weapon (piercing, mind you) with a 1/2 inch wide 4" long handle, made for humans. Is that extra 1 1/4 inch of length so devastating as to accrue a -2 penalty for a halfling? Can a creature capable of lifting 60 lbs be so thrown off by that extra ounce or so of metal? Why can a human wield a pocket knife or stilletto with comparable dimensions with no penalty but suffers a -2 penalty when using a Small weapon with the exact same dimensions? There as examples of work knives with 3" handles existing in the medival era, as well as viking villages (they did have a home port, you know...). These are made for a Medium creatures. Do these weapons gain a -2 to hit? Are they improvised weapons? Or do Medium creatures use them without penaly...(Check reports of bar fights if you believe these are rediculous examples. People have even used box cutters and the razor blades for said cutters without the handle. Also remember, we carry pocket knives for much the same reason they carry daggers: it's an effective tool and weapon in a crunch. They're also easily hidden).Last arguement, and I'm out (for real this time): Why does it take magic or hundreds of manhours worth of work to give a weapon a +1 to hit, but the variances in a medium dagger and a small shortsword accrue a -2 to -6, per Hypersmurf? Remember, daggers made for combat are not made to be thrown (for those who use the range increment for their rebuttal).Those beings that can throw them have trained themselves to adjust their grip and release point to accommadate the weight (halflings are very good at this, per their +1 bonus to hit with thrown weapons). If humans and small folk can do this at range, in combat, with their respective daggers or hand axes (weapons not designed to be thrown are being used against moving, armored targets), why is this weight adjustment with similar melee weapons (small short sword to dagger, etc)  so different or difficult?</blockquote>

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