Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8240876" data-attributes="member: 82106">The root of the problem is that these games are pretty abstract. What is a trident? It is a FISH SPEAR, and why does it have 3 tines? Because it is hard to aim at fish and hit them, so 3 tines has 3 times the chance of spearing a fish! In a melee, it really doesn't have an advantage, it is simply a bit more cumbersome version of a spear, which has only a very marginally higher chance of hitting something, maybe. Certainly it isn't worth a +1, and certainly being stuck by 2-3 tines is not really worth some extra damage. On top of that, the slight cumbersomeness cannot really be accounted for in D&D's abstract system. So, realistically the best option would be to simply call it a spear and be done with it.In fact, in my own game, loosely based on 4e, this is pretty much what I did. There are only about 8 weapons. EVERYTHING is simply, mechanically, one of those 8 weapons. Now you are quite free to call your spear a 'trident' and nobody can get huffy about it. No more hair-splitting on different weapons, no more mysteriously I'm a guru with a hand axe but I cannot even pick up a slightly bigger battleaxe and hit the side of a barn, etc. What a savings of headache. In the lists of treasure and equipment there are a vast array of different types of weapons, etc. Yet nobody ever has a problem with them, mechanically. Nothing new need ever be added in that regard. Less is More.</blockquote>

Verification