Making this thread because I read somewhere improvised weapons that are similar to another weapon can be classified as that weapon type, need to know what weapon some objects would classify as.

What would you say a yo-yo classifies as? I think like, a flail or something? You could sort of use it like one, no?

It's entirely up to DM what object is similar to a weapon to be treated as such, an exemple given; a table leg is akin to a club. .You could have for exemple a forge hammer be treated ass a warhammer, a broken bottle or a letter opener be treated as a dagger. Here are the rules for Improvised Weapons

Improvised Weapons

Sometimes characters don't have their weapons and have to attack with whatever is at hand. An improvised weapon includes any object you can wield in one or two hands, such as broken glass, a table leg, a frying pan, a wagon wheel, or a dead goblin.

Often, an improvised weapon is similar to an actual weapon and can be treated as such. For example, a table leg is akin to a club. At the DM's option, a character proficient with a weapon can use a similar object as if it were that weapon and use his or her proficiency bonus.

An object that bears no resemblance to a weapon deals 1d4 damage (the DM assigns a damage type appropriate to the object). If a character uses a ranged weapon to make a melee attack, or throws a melee weapon that does not have the thrown property, it also deals 1d4 damage. An improvised thrown weapon has a normal range of 20 feet and a long range of 60 feet.

Thanks, but like. Kinda moreso what the general opinion of people would be regarding the item to help with making the decision a bit for those who are unsure is what I'm looking for with this thread, aha.

A butcher's chopper knife as a handaxe

A large shard of wood as a javelin

A long branch as a quarterstaff

A well's rope and bucket as a flail

A farmer's fork as a trident

A strip of leather or wet towel as a whip

A icepick as a war pick.

A curtain or tent canvas as a net

A dismounted flute as a blowgun

An unlit torch as a club

A coin-full pouch as a club

A chain and manacle as a flail

As you can see we easily can come up with a veriety of objects that could be treated as a weapon, but YMMV as some DM miight  say that any given item isn't enought similar to a weapon to be treated as such despite other favorable opinions, hence why i said from the get go that it's entirely up to DM, it's subjective to personnal opinions.

Fair.

We had a home brew yo yo.  when it was spinning razor blades would come out when at the end of the string.   We ended up treating it like a sling but with less reach. But it would get 2 attacks, if it missed the first one it would get a second due to the speed at which the user can spin it around.

A light hammer that can be pulled back if the string is long enough. 

I'd think it to be something like a long-range weapon, maybe like a spear but not quite... Yet it's very interesting!

I would probably just treat a yo-yo as a standard improvised weapon. They’re not very well suited to being used as weapons, they’re kinda unwieldy, if it hits something it’ll mess up the spin and wouldn’t retract again, and the string isn’t very long, certainly no longer than a shortsword.

I mean, if you just want the anime "quirky weapon" bit, talk with your DM about reskinning an appropriate weapon stat to the look you want. Now, this would be a specialized custom item, not an off the shelf product, so you couldn't just pick up any random yo-yo or what have you and use it the same way.

I just shared it as a funny over the top example of a weaponized yo yo, not as an example of how it should work within the rules of D&D.

That was just general advice on if you want an esoteric/whacky weapon in 5e: find a weapon stat block you're proficient in that's close enough to your concept and just use it for stats while describing whatever it is you want to use. Obviously this doesn't let you have real "trick" weapons, but that's not really supported in 5e.

Quote from Winkwing >>

What would you say a yo-yo classifies as?

 A <50 gram wooden toy on the end of some light string? I'd say it classifies as an embarassment.

There is "bringing a knife to a gun fight" and then there is "bringing a piece of wet spaghetti to a gunfight."

Quote from Greenstone_Walker >>

Quote from Winkwing >>

What would you say a yo-yo classifies as?

 A <50 gram wooden toy on the end of some light string? I'd say it classifies as an embarassment.

There is "bringing a knife to a gun fight" and then there is "bringing a piece of wet spaghetti to a gunfight."

 

 Yeah, the story that the yo-yo was originally a weapon seems to have been invented by a toy company as a sales gimmick.  If you whipped one around a lot to build up momentum before clonking someone on the head, you might hurt them but the yo-yo probably wouldn't survive, either.

False.

A yo-yo can not only survive smashing into a skull quite a few times, but you can also attach razor blades or stuff on it to put in some slashing on it too.

Totally not speaking from experience from when I was like 7 or something hahahahaha.