Weapons in bad condition....

[tennyson]

Hi Everyone,

If my PCs were to find an extremely rusted and battered shortsword (or any other weapon for that matter) that's been abused over the years, would it affect the damage and/or the chance to hit?

Would the weapon be more susceptible (sp?) to breaking or not performing as well? Thanks!

 

[hong]

DM's call. A -1 to attacks and damage seems appropriate, I'd say.

 

[Li Shenron]

Whatever specific penalties it might have it would be a house rule, unless the upcoming Arms & Equipment Guide includes something on the subject. Your DM can come up with something reasonable, but I don't remember any WotC book talking about this issue.

 

[dcollins]

You could certainly say it had already taken hits in the past, and therefore had fewer hit points than normal for a short sword.

 

[Kyramus]

personally I would lower the hardness and hp for taking damage and wear and tear over the years.

If the HP is half of it's original, then I apply a -1 to damage. Just because it looks funky doesn't mean you don't know how to use it. It probably does less damage though.

For example. A baseball bat right out of the store. You swing and whack someone over the head. it hurts. A baseball bat riddled with worm holes. You swing and whack someone over the head. It'll hurt, but preobably not as badly and if you score a critical hit, the bat needs to roll fort save or break.

 

[hammymchamham]

In general, I would lower the HP's to around half but not the hardness. I'd also do the -1 to hit and -1 to damage.

 

[tennyson]

personally I would lower the hardness and hp for taking damage and wear and tear over the years.

If the HP is half of it's original, then I apply a -1 to damage. Just because it looks funky doesn't mean you don't know how to use it. It probably does less damage though.

For example. A baseball bat right out of the store. You swing and whack someone over the head. it hurts. A baseball bat riddled with worm holes. You swing and whack someone over the head. It'll hurt, but preobably not as badly and if you score a critical hit, the bat needs to roll fort save or break.

That's a good suggestion. I like the idea of the fort save on a crit.

 

[RedSwan78]

This could all be cleared up with a Mending spell, yes?

 

[Conaill]

Yes, rust, abuse or damage could all be cleared up with a simple Mend spell.

Shoddy or simply inferior construction is a different matter though. For example you might have a culture that uses bronze instead of steel swords, and you may want to assign a -1 to better illustrate the superiority of steel weapons. And no amount of Mending is going to change that.

Similarly, you might want to allow a weaponsmith who needs to outfit an army in a hurry to Craft lower quality weapons in a reduced time, for a -1 or -2 tradeoff. I think it's nice to have some more non-magical variability in the game...

 

[Taloras]

I dunno bout you guys, but my DM ruled that it had a +1 to damage, -1 to hit. The rust seemed to hurt more. I didnt argue, as i was the only one still standing when i found it (first level gladiatorial arena....rusty greatsword works a lot better than a shortsword)