Talk:Elaborate Weapon Design (5e Variant Rule)

Testing this out.

Club

• 1d4 gives a base value of 40 gp.
• bludgeoning, no adjustment
• light, +50% = 60 gp.
• No adjustment for being a simple weapon. (If it was martial, it would cost 30 gp).
• It weighs 2 lbs, so adjusted by 2%. Final cost is 58 gp 5 sp.
• Seems a bit expensive.

Am I right in saying the only balancing factor is cost? Marasmusine (talk) 13:10, 12 December 2016 (MST)

Are there any other balancing factors in the original weapons? They appear to be entirely arbitrary to me. (Also, yes, weapons do tend to be much more expensive under this rule. In my games, I also tend to hand out far less money in general.) --Kydo (talk) 17:34, 12 December 2016 (MST)

It seems to be that the costs are of least importance ('cos once you're off the starting line, you can afford any of them), and are set to be roughly what real-world values would be, rather than a balancing factor. The PHB balancing factor is the give-and-take of weapon properties on average weapon damage.

This variant flips that around, and makes cost the balancing factor, which is fine, I was just surprised at the high values. I tried it on the club (you suggested we could "rebalance the value of the PHB weapons") because it's a simple piece of shaped wood.

I'm okay with the costs in comparison with other weapons using this variant, but it seems high in comparison with the rest of D&D economy as presented in the PHB. That club costs more than a rowboat.

Have you considered more of an exponential increase in cost with the base damage? Such that 1d4 is very cheap but 2d12 is very expensive (1,000 gp or more). Also perhaps, have the cost based on average damage then let the DM choose exactly what die are used?

One more thought, sorry:) There's a value adjustment when comparing average damage to simple/martial. Should there be another adjustment for comparing damage to handedness? A light weapon is +50%, but I feel a 2d12 light weapon should be punished with a higher adjustment (and conversely a 1d4 weapon could have a lower %). This is just from the relationship between mass and damage.

Anyway, just thoughts, it's a variant rule so you can do as you wish :) Marasmusine (talk) 10:27, 15 December 2016 (MST)

Pardon me for the intrusion.

• Can one add more dice to a weapon beyond the first two?
• How do additional damage types effect damage numbers?

Beyond damage type of course.

Oh, one more thing.

8:11 16 November 2018