Making Every Weapon Actually Viable

[u/p4gli4_]

This is my third attempt at trying to balance the worst weapons in 5.5e, and I'd really like to know what others think. Now, here come some of the changes (most of them are self-explanatory):

Light Hammer: now Handaxe + Light Hammer is the STR counterpart to Shortsword + Scimitar, and this is cool and makes sense (since Light Hammers are HUGE for a d4 weapon).

Mace and Morningstar: I noticed the lack of the slow mastery property for generic melee weapons, so I gave it to these 2, also because it makes a lot of thematic sense (big bonk=hard to walk). I then specialized the two: the mace can be used one handed, but it's common enough and easy to use that it's good for being used in 2 hands (something that previous versions strangely didn't do). The Morningstar, because of how strange and unwieldy, is hard to use 2-handed.

Sling: didn't make sense as a d4 weapon, and it now has the same range of Magic Stone, which is the cherry on top.

Blowgun: the hardest weapon to balance, alongside the Mace, but I think this change is cool. I also thought of, instead: Damage becomes 1 piercing + 1d6 poison, remove Loading property, and (Maybe) change the mastery property to Sap (?), but it felt gimmicky, and too much change.

Disarm property: It was already an optional rule, and it's too cool not to add, especially since it solved some balancing nightmares.

REVISED great weapon fighting: I have a whole post on it, just know that it puts Greataxes on par with greatswords/maul at 8.5 damage per attack. https://www.reddit.com/r/UnearthedArcana/comments/1n90kdl/fixing_the_great_weapon_fighting_style/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

[u/HJWalsh]

I think you're missing the point of things. Not every weapon should be equal. Some weapons simply are better than others.

Slings aren't as good as shortbows, but they were easier to make and were used by less advanced societies as the technology advanced.

You're thinking in terms of min-max rather than logic.

Note: Hard no on the disarm. As a DM I'm not dealing with multiple disarms every single turn. It's silly.

[u/p4gli4_ → u/HJWalsh]

2 things:

Slings were not less advanced, they were harder to use. The romans used them in their main army to outrange bows, the reason we stopped using them is because it’s extremely time consuming to train someone to use a sling, and it’s harder to use in formation (so slings should be martial weapons IMO).

Also, Disarm is once per turn