D&D General Weapons should break left and right

[Micah Sweet]

Most modern DnD never goes above about Level 12. Surely some people play up to 20th but unfortunately I have yet to experience it

So just a few weeks of time in-setting then, at best?

How would many encounters per day make you level faster? That would just slow down reaching the story milestones that level the party up

If "story milestones" are your chosen method of advancement.

 

[DrJawaPhD]

So just a few weeks of time in-setting then, at best?

This is very DM dependent and how they structure the story events. My campaigns would tend to be a year or two of in-game time to reach Level 12 (as an arbitrary example, not a max level) since individual adventure arcs often have weeks of downtime between them to give PCs time for crafting, base-building, shopping, or whatever other shenanigans they want to incorporate

If "story milestones" are your chosen method of advancement.

Well you were talking about modern DnD, so yeah, story milestones are the standard choice

 

[Maxperson]

Most modern DnD never goes above about Level 12. Surely some people play up to 20th but unfortunately I have yet to experience it

How would many encounters per day make you level faster? That would just slow down reaching the story milestones that level the party up

There are no story milestones for leveling if you are using encounters for experience like that. It's one or the other usually. If someone is using both, then I have no idea how much faster it goes.

 

[Micah Sweet]

This is very DM dependent and how they structure the story events. My campaigns would tend to be a year or two of in-game time to reach Level 12 (as an arbitrary example, not a max level) since individual adventure arcs often have weeks of downtime between them to give PCs time for crafting, base-building, shopping, or whatever other shenanigans they want to incorporate


Well you were talking about modern DnD, so yeah, story milestones are the standard choice

How do you do that when you're not running an adventure path (like the new starter set, for example)?

 

[Hussar]

I think most players gravitate towards swords because they tend to get the best damage, and also because Highlander, King Arthur, etc. Swords dominate pretty much all of fiction, so of course players are going to prefer those.

The magic items fitting that mold is also because of pretty much all of fiction being dominated by swords, so the DMG random tables, DM creations, etc. just reinforce what the players are already predisposed towards.

It takes a lot of effort to break that mold, and you really need players who are on board and want the mold to be broken.

Totally agree. Which, if you scroll back a few pages, is exactly what I said that apparently is extremely contentious.

But, apparently, we're both completely wrong and in home games no one ever used a sword. DM's always changed every single sword in a module to another weapon. I guess. That seems to be the story that's getting told here.

 

[Lanefan]

Here's the thing I've never understood about weapon upkeep in TTRPGs:

You've got a long sword. The long sword must be kept sharp. You have a whetstone. You must sharpen the sword with the whetstone.

So what exactly is the act of sharpening the weapon supposed to be in the game? Are you the player supposed to say "I sharpen my sword?" How often are you supposed to say this? Is the DM supposed to check every game session? Every other session?
How long does it take for a sword's sharpness to wear off? Every battle? Every fifth battle? What happens if the player says "Hey DM, assume I sharpen my sword after every battle so I don't have to intone the precise words?"

If the player has "Whetstone" listed on the character sheet, that's enough for me to assume said whetstone is being used at camp each night, or (even more likely) each morning while waiting for the casters to do their praying and studying.

And if said player tells me the character is sharing the whetstone around, the party's covered.

 

[Lanefan]

But if a majority of people houserule them out, why should future editions keep them in? Or at least not heavily modify those aspect/rules.

Because - and to repeat - it's immensely easier to take things out than to add them in.

And sure: if it's not working for most, modify it such that it has a better chance of working and-or label it as optional.

Knocking it out entirely isn't the answer, though, as there's going to be those as wants it kept and expecting them to reference an older version of the game just for this doesn't make their lives any easier.

 

[Lanefan]

Totally agree. Which, if you scroll back a few pages, is exactly what I said that apparently is extremely contentious.

But, apparently, we're both completely wrong and in home games no one ever used a sword. DM's always changed every single sword in a module to another weapon. I guess. That seems to be the story that's getting told here.

Well, not quite. In my case, it's more that we (a fellow DM and I, in turns and stages) did the work to expand out the magic item table to include gobs of different weapons and - independently - gobs of properties and abilities to add to those weapons.

The right-hand side of the main table on this page...

www.friendsofgravity.com/games/commons_room/dm_stuff/dm_items.html

...has the result, if you're interested. Each weapon at each '+' level has a rarity rating (the odds of finding one, based on the entire table). The most common magic weapon is Dagger, followed by Longsword and then Mace, Shortsword, and Shortbow; with Quarterstaff, 2-Handed Sword, Crossbow and Longbow the other most common.

That table just gives the root enchantment, from +0 to +5. The second big table - scroll way down - gives the different properties for weapons and armour, along with the odds of there being any in addition to the root enchantment.

And yes, online dice rollers are my friend when trying to roll some of those stupid-big wacky die sizes!

 

[Hussar]

Yes, but do we have definitive evidence of of how often medieval (or other premodern cultures) bow strings snapped? If we don't, any attempt to model breakage is base entirely on vibes.

The issue isn't really bowstrings snapping, although that can happen. The larger issue is that if you keep the bow strung for extended periods of time, the bow itself breaks. Or, you weaken the bow and the string stretches. IOW, keeping a wooden bow strung for extended periods of time is a bad idea.

 

[Hussar]

Well, not quite. In my case, it's more that we (a fellow DM and I, in turns and stages) did the work to expand out the magic item table to include gobs of different weapons and - independently - gobs of properties and abilities to add to those weapons.

The right-hand side of the main table on this page...

www.friendsofgravity.com/games/commons_room/dm_stuff/dm_items.html

...has the result, if you're interested. Each weapon at each '+' level has a rarity rating (the odds of finding one, based on the entire table). The most common magic weapon is Dagger, followed by Longsword and then Mace, Shortsword, and Shortbow; with Quarterstaff, 2-Handed Sword, Crossbow and Longbow the other most common.

That table just gives the root enchantment, from +0 to +5. The second big table - scroll way down - gives the different properties for weapons and armour, along with the odds of there being any in addition to the root enchantment.

And yes, online dice rollers are my friend when trying to roll some of those stupid-big wacky die sizes!

Now, would you say that what you've done here would be how AD&D was commonly played? That many tables would have systems like this in place?

There's a considerable difference between, "Hey, this game that I've been playing non-stop for forty years? Yeah, this is what I came up with" and "Many D&D groups ignored the DMG and the modules, coming up with massive bespoke lists of magical weapon generation."

Did some people? Oh sure. But, again, all I said was that D&D in various incarnations, favors swords over other weapons. Is this actually a contentious point? Seriously? ((Oh, and I did repeat John Clement's of The ARMA points about swords being the weapon of last resort.))

For the samurai however, the sword was but one of three major weapons along with the bow and arrow and the yari (thrusting spear). We should consider that, despite their later acquired reputation for swordsmanship, the samurai's primary weapon was, in fact, not the sword. The sword really did not even become a premier weapon of samurai culture and reach its cult status until the mid to late 17th century when the civil warring period ended. It is something of a myth that every individual Japanese samurai was himself an expert swordsman (no more true than every wild West cowboy was an expert gunfighter). After all, the expression so associated with bushido is "the Way of the horse and bow", not "the Way of the sword." Besides, unlike knightly chivalric tales and combat accounts, the majority of single combats between samurai described in feudal Japanese literature took place with daggers not swords.

From here: https://www.thearma.org/essays/knightvs.htm

But, hey, what do I know?