D&D 5E The fall from grace of the longsword

[Zardnaar]

I love the history of medieval weaponry, but it's clear to see that in D&D terms it's hard to model that history well - more than 500 years of weapon technology is shoehorned into a single table, a lot of weapons are somewhat imbalanced with regards to their real effectiveness, and some of the armour types never actually existed...

To make to more historical:
- remove studded leather entirely
- rename the Great Axe as the Bardiche
- rename the Great Sword as the Longsword
- rename the Longsword as the Arming Sword
- split Staves - the Quarterstaff is 2 handed, the 1 handed variant is the Jo
- split the warhammer, making the 2 handed variant the Lucern Hammer or Bec De Corbin
- introduce another polearm in the form of the widely used Billhook
- reduce the effectiveness of crossbows in relation to longbows greatly at range, but keep the crossbow devastating up close
- make plate armour almost invulnerable to most weapons, apart from those specifically designed to deal with it (eg Bec De Corbin)
- have multiple forms of shield, with different levels of defensive (and offensive) capabilities
- properly model the effects of wearing a Helmet (of various sizes)
- change the effects certain weapons have when used on horseback - and when used against mounted knights


and so on...

But this would make it fiddly again, and fiddly was the domain of 3/3.5E - 5E is all about tidiness.

In other words, leave it alone, 5E benefits greatly from its speed of play. Let's keep it that way.

Well 5E has a 16th century tech level, 1E had 14th century. Either way its after swords were on the way out.

 

[evilbob]

It's stuff like this thread necro and subsequent posts that really bring into focus what this community seems to love above all else - what truly brings us all together: arguing over minutia.

God I love ENWorld.

 

[AmerginLiath]

Which begs the question why people would use and enchant longsword instead one of the clearly better one handed weapons?

Enchanters got a good bulk deal on longswords at Costco.

 

[Derren]

I am amazed that after 3 years the discussion can continue like nothing happened.

 

[CM]

I am amazed that after 3 years the discussion can continue like nothing happened.

I never understood why thread necro was frowned on when the topic is evergreen.