The Expanded Weapons Table

I love playing martial characters. There’s a certain thrill to playing a proficient warrior that I don’t find captured in full casters like the wizard and sorcerer (though I love casters for different reasons!) Upon comparing a spellcaster with a martial character, however, the difference in player choice becomes readily apparent.

Spell lists often exceed 100 options and continue to receive support, while the PHB weapons table has stayed stagnant at roughly 30 options, even less so depending on a class’ available proficiencies. The expanded weapons table is an attempt to address this gap by providing martial classes with a plethora of options for character customizations, allowing martial characters to more effectively fill specific niche playstyles and roles. For instance, an arcane archer gnome may be frustrated that they’re unable to use a longbow. A compound bow might be the key to making such a character more competitive with her elven counterpart. Still the compound comes with a Strength requirement.

My goal is not to expand the power level of the game, but to expand the options available to players while preserving pre-existing game balance. The table also allows for a more expansive flavor to weapons, providing unique qualities to differentiate between additional weapon types; gone are the days of a longsword-wielding samurai!

A significant addition presented in this release is the Defensive weapon property. Weapons with this property allow dual wielders and grapplers to still benefit from a small bonus to AC at the expense of more damaging options. Defensive weapons are balanced around the fact that they deal less damage than non-defensive counterparts. For instance, a dual wielding ranger will need to decide between using a d6 shortsword or a d4 sai in his off-hand, essentially sacrificing offensive capabilities for more defensive capabilities.

I also created entries for more common objects. A torch was added to simple weapons, as it’s not uncommon to be caught in combat while wielding a lit torch in a dark cave. Alongside other common tools like the pickaxe and pitchfork, these new weapons allow for a more fleshed out approach to what would otherwise be improvised weapons.

The repeating crossbow forgoes the loading property at the expense of damage and martial proficiency, allowing for a crossbow that benefits from extra attack.

Finally, I’ve included some variant rules to expand class weapon proficiency. I recommend using these, as the original classes were created only with the original weapons table in mind; all classes, for instance, should probably have proficiency with torches! I would also recommend applying the additional monk proficiencies to the martial arts feature and making them monk weapons.

-Trent the Sewerman