D&D (2024) What, exactly, is a 5e "scimitar"?

[John R Davis]

2 of the 4 players in my 1st AD&D are proficient with them and use them regularly.
I think they look kinda cool.
Not sure I recall anyone in the 5th ed group I'm in using one?
In our PF game 4 out of 5 pcs use them. They are a crit seekers dream

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

If I give a look at the source of all my D&D knowledge (BG 1-2) it is the same thing as a ninjato/wakisashi

I would remove the scimitar and put in the box as the short sword (given that there's no real need to have different damage type in 5e) and put it another weapon, like the chakram with 1d6 S, finesse, thrown, light.

Or just write curved blade so it encompass most of those like the shamshir, kukri, falcata, scimitars etc

 

[Umbran]

What, exactly, is a 5e "scimitar"?

It is a weapon that does 1d6 slashing damage, that has the light and finesse properties. That is exactly what it is.

Anything else we ascribe to it is inexact.

What kind of "scimitar" the 5e Weapons Table is statting is less clear.

What kind of any weapon the 5e weapons table is presenting is unclear. That's a feature, not a bug. The tables are the abstract game-balanced elements. The flavor elements don't need to be officially listed. The game is not historical, and does not need to adhere to a set of weapon stats adhering to some particular historical weapon.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Two completely different things that appeal to me:

1. On one end of the spectrum, I really like how Dungeon World does weapons: your damage die is based on your class, and you describe whatever you want.

2. At the other extreme, I love how Conan, in the original stories, masters a wide range of weapons from all over the world. And he has to, because he is constantly losing/breaking/discarding weapons.

Not that this would fit D&D, but I would enjoy a system with two features:

You track proficiency in different weapons, with different types being connected on a chart. So if some kind of exotic sword is two steps removed from long sword, and you are expert in long sword, you use the new weapon at long sword -2.

Second, weapons have both a quality and condition rating. It’s condition determines penalties/bonuses, you can never improve its condition above its quality, and as condition drops too low it can reduce quality or break completely.

The result I’m looking for is that instead of keeping that +1 weapon for multiple levels, until you find a +2 weapon, you frequently find upgrades, but those upgrades don’t last.




Or Dungeon World.

 

[Blue Orange]

It's a curved sword. If you're putting it in a Near Eastern-inspired setting, it's a scimitar. If you're putting it in a pirate-inspired setting, it's a cutlass. If you're putting it in a Skyrim-inspired setting, it's what those guards from Hammerfell used to use before they took an arrow to the knee.

Too much granularity makes the game difficult to follow; if we tried to list every weapon people used across the world from the Bronze Age through the Renaissance we'd have a table 10 pages long. The last time someone tried to do this was in 1e, with polearms, and the resultant profusion of bill-guisarmes, fauchard forks, and bec de corbins was a geek in-joke for the next 20 years.

 

[Blue Orange]

It’s a curved sword that’s light enough to dual-world. Beyond that, the description is pretty much up to the player or DM.

I know this was a typo, but I love it! The sword can be a cutlass or a scimitar depending on what world you're in.

 

[Cadence]

How good was the Palladium Compendium of Weapons, Armor, and Castles in terms of accuracy on stuff like this?

 

[Yaarel]

It’s a curved sword that’s light enough to dual-world. Beyond that, the description is pretty much up to the player or DM.

I know this was a typo, but I love it! The sword can be a cutlass or a scimitar depending on what world you're in.

The longsword is mainly 1400s, while slightly earlier and slightly later.

But there are precocious examples of it from the 1100s on. These medieval specimens are normal swords, but experimentally made longer to suit the preference of certain individuals.

In other words, these are "long swords", but not yet "longswords".



Similarly, there might medieval "falchions" that are precocious examples of cutlasses, that happen to be small and thin to suit the preference of certain individuals. These might even be gracile enough to function as an offhand weapon, even if they were never used this way. Even among the later modern cutlasses, only the smaller thinner ones would be useful as an offhand weapon.

So the flavor of a 5e "scimitar" can be medieval weirdness. Where the viewers perceive it as falchion but notice its wielder has a strange version of it.



My impression is, in Europe, two-weapon fighting is modern, and evolving from Renaissance streetfighting. As far as I know, there are no medieval mentions of it. But the modern styles show it is possible to use medieval weapons for two-weapon styles.

Note, it is possible to fight with two rapiers, two katana, two viking-knightly swords. These are not normally offhand weapons. They are agile ("finesse") but not offhand ("light"). Those individuals who use two of them are remarkable, and it is more like a D&D feat than a weapon property.

 

[Yaarel]

Huh... To me, the 3rd and 4th ones from the left seem to be demonstrating cutting actions. Piercing in the 3rd and slashing in the fourth. The lines representing the cut.

The illustrations come from the decorations in illuminated manuscripts. Some illuminations make a point to portray something realistically, while others are strictly decorative and distort stylistically.

The lines interrupting two of the images of falchions, are probably to signify where something else in the drawing is eclipsing the full view of the falchion.



Heh, note how the infamously wrong D&D "ring mail", derives from completely misunderstanding a stylistic representation of chain armor.

 

[pukunui]

5e goblins use scimitars.