One change that I feel will be fairly controversial is the change to how medium armor as a whole works. Like Simple and Martial weapons, I view Exotic weapons perhaps a bit differently: rather than something made by a different species with different limb arrangements or an altogether different size, I view them as ones that aren't common to the general setting or, like the trident (which became an Exotic weapon), weren't really used as weapons outside very specific situation. I opted for the Exotic category so they can be added or ignored with ease, if so desired. At least when they don't just shove them all into Martial, with maybe one or two here and there in Simple. Probably one of the most common bits of homebrew weaponry, the Exotic Weapon category. I mean, you still can, but all it would do is prevent you from using a shield. On that note, Versatile was reworked into Medium it works pretty much identically, but as it's now a weight classification, not everything benefits from being two-handed. I reworked the two properties to actually be tied to a weapon's weight, though by and large, Light weapons remained Light and Heavy weapons remained Heavy the only two exceptions were the longbow, which at 2lbs really showed how arbitrary the classification was, and the scimitar, which became Medium to better differentiate it from the shortsword. That and WotC probably didn't want Simple Weapons to be able to qualify for Great Weapon Master despite feats, ostensibly, being optional. Which is why a 10lb greatclub isn't Heavy, while the 6lb greatsword is, despite them being of roughly similar dimensions. In the PHB, the Light and Heavy properties have, rather counterintuitively, nothing to do with an item's weight and everything to do with its perceived bulk. There's a couple weapons that avoided this reorganization, but they're more the exception. Meanwhile, Martial weapons are martial because, well, they're weapons of war and often (but not always) require more training to be effective with. To me, Simple weapons aren't simple because they don't require as much training, but because they're the weapons of the common man the kind of thing your average person might own. I'm a historical weapon nerd at heart and I have a view on the nature of Simple and Martial weapons that probably differs from most people. While I go over everything I've changed from the PHB on a case by case basis at the end of the document, what I don't really go into are some of the more impactful changes: rearranging the weapon tables a bit, how I changed the light, heavy, and versatile properties, as well as a change to how medium armor functions that I think will prove somewhat controversial. The tiny difference between 1d6 and 2d3 can really change the feel of something. Where I had more success was injecting a bit more personality into weapons by introducing two new die types: the d3 and d5. I wasn't as successful as I'd like, but I at least kept the new properties in the single digits, so I'll count it as a partial win. I had one overarching goal with this revision: give everything a purpose and make sure the various weapons feel a little more unique.Īll while keeping new weapon properties to a minimum, as my main complaint with some of the other revisions out there is they always seem to add what feels like two dozen new properties. Like, why is padded armor a thing? As it appears, it has zero reason to exist, because it's just inferior leather armor. Of the 28 melee weapons, you could eliminate 10, or just over a third, of them without losing anything mechanically.Īnd then there's the nonsensical armor. Or the fact that the mace and greatclub both are made redundant by the quarterstaff?Īnd those are just the two biggest offenders. At their core, they aim to fix the biggest issue with the tables, particularly the weapon table: redundancy.īy which I mean, why do the glaive and halberd have the exact same. The Weapon and Armor tables as they appear in the Player's Handbook are, to be perfectly blunt, incredibly lacking and filled with a lot of nonsensical design decisions.Īnd the opinion of quite a few others, given how many people revise, rework, or expand the tables to better fit their view of how they feel they should be.
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