D&D 4E Weapon variety in 4E

[HP Dreadnought]

Forget the lame spellcasters and their possibly limited set of options!!

(just kidding. . 'not enough spell options' thread was at the top when I posted this. . . and the topics are similar. . .)

Let's talk about weapon variety in 4E!


One of the problems with 3.x, and really every edition to this point, has been that there are really only a small handful of weapons that are worth using from a mechanical perspective.

In 3.x at least, they attempted to address that by creating feats for the use of specific weapons to bring them up to par, but even that doesn't work because then you have to take a feat to make a weapon as good as another one that works "off the rack."

One of my big hopes for 4E is that they ensure a wider variety in weapons that are worthwhile to use.

Axe, hammer, spear, mace, dagger, and more should be just as worthwhile weapons as a sword - even if maybe they are better in some situations and not as good in others. That's the whole reason we have so many different weapon types in reality. You have different tools for different jobs.

Who wouldn't rather see a fighter-types good weapon options include a dozen different melee weapons and a half dozen ranged weapons?

Anyway. . . here's hoping they do something for that in 4E.

 

[NewfieDave]

I expect many Fighter Powers to be linked to weapon type.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Check out one of the earliest 4e design and dev articles

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drdd/20070816b

“I’m playing a 3rd-level human fighter named Graelar.”

“Cool. Is he weapon and shield or two-hander?”

“He’s sword and board, man.”

“Longsword?”

“Yeah. I thought about going high Con and using a hammer, but I wanted to start with the chance to make a couple of attacks, so I’m using rain of blows as my good weapon attack, and I went with high Wis so that I can switch to the better oppy powers later.”

“My elf fighter uses a spear. I like the speed and the option to go past AC. But you’ve got the fighter covered. I’ll play a halfling rogue.”

The names and destinations of the powers mentioned above might have changed by the time the game is in your hands. What won’t change is that fighters care about which weapons they use much more than other characters. Other character classes have specific weapons and weapon types that they tend to rely on while still maintaining access to a larger chunk of the weapon chart. The fighter is the only current 4th Edition class with capabilities that depend on the weapon they have chosen to train the most with. Even at 1st level, a fighter who uses an axe has a different power selection than a fighter who relies on a flail or a rapier or a pick. In the long run, fighters can diversify and master powers related to a few different weapons, but most will opt to focus on the weapon that suits their personal style, helps their interactions with the rest of the PCs in the group, and carries all the magical oomph they’ve managed to acquire.

Many fighters will opt for swords. Swords have the most flexible assortment of powers. In a fighter’s hands, the longsword is the queen of the battlefield and the greatsword is the queen’s executioner. But each of the other significant melee weapons offers the fighter unique advantages and opportunities. For the first time, you’ll be able to say “I’m an axe fighter” or “I’m a flail fighter” and that will mean something cool.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Bohemian ear-spoons?

 

[fnwc]

Bohemian ear-spoons?

Just think of my surprise when I realized that my cleric shouldn't have been able to wield a lucerne hammer, which was in fact, not a hammer at all (back when clerics could only use bludgeoning weapons).

 

[Lord Zack]

I think different weapons will be used more often because of they're special abilities, like the War pick has high crit and versatile. So two weapons might have the same damage but still end up being completely different because of special abilities.

 

[kennew142]

Bohemian ear-spoons?

I'll never forget a campaign I was running in the Army back in the late 1980s. Using random treasure generation, I gave the party a +3 Bohemian Ear-Spoon. They carried it around for months (real time) without using it - until they encountered an iron golem. They were really thankful then that they hadn't sold that goofy pole-arm. It was the only thing they had that could damage the thing!

 

[Brother MacLaren]

3E was absolutely amazing at balancing the weapons. Coming from BECMI, where the "Normal Sword" was simply the best weapon, and 2E, where the longsword was almost always the best weapon, I saw the system as fantastic at achieving balance. I saw PCs using the reach weapons, tricksy weapons, high-crit weapons, wide-crit-range weapons, high-base-damage weapons, throw-able weapons, bludgeoning weapons, slashing weapons, piercing weapons, and so on.

1-handed martial weapons -- NOTHING is clearly the best or clearly inferior. Everything is better in some ways and worse in others. 2-handed martial weapons -- only the greatclub is clearly inferior, and, you know, I'm okay with that.. Polearms -- glaives do more damage, while ranseurs, guisarmes, and longspears have special abilities.

3E was just a really, really good system with minimal complexity in this regard. Certain weapons were better in certain cases, as they should be, and certain weapons let you do special maneuvers, as they should. If 4E wants to add more complexity to differentiate the weapons further, they can, but I don't see the need.

 

[Rechan]

All I hope is that I can use a polearm to be a badass.

 

[Zaruthustran]

I agree that 3E's weapons were fantastic. Enough variety to be interesting, but close enough that the differences weren't extreme.

That said, I didn't like how a scimitar was as different from a longsword as it was from a longbow. Meaning, not at all (they all counted as "martial weapons") AND as different as can be ("Weapon focus: scimitar" gave no benefit to longbow or longsword).

That's kind of silly. A longsword and a scimitar are both sharp one-handed blades. If you spend time learning how to be good at swinging a sword, it really should apply to any one-handed bladed weapon.

Maybe what I'm looking for is basic "weapon focus" applying to all weps of a certain category (any sword, any impact weapon, any crossbow) and "greater weapon focus" applying to only a certain type of weapon (just scimitars, just flails, just heavy crossbows).