The fact that the scimitar was also demoted to a d6 weapon is more proof that the arming sword is a shortsword in 5e.
It's also a light finesse weapon, which means it's just a different weapon than the 3e weapon (which was not light, and was not usable with weapon finesse; I suspect they decided that Drizz't needed to be a more easily legal character). Not that the word scimitar has a clear real world definition other than 'curved sword of middle eastern origin'.
The wrongly named longsword of the 2e and 3e days has left the building. The world has been corrected, and more proper terminology is now used.
Light weapons are only a thing in 5e for DW purposes. That's why Scimitars and Arming Swords were demoted to d6s...so a character can DW the two most popular fantasy tropes, out of the box, without resorting to needing a feat.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
The wrongly named longsword of the 2e and 3e days has left the building. The world has been corrected, and more proper terminology is now used.
The problem is that in the real world there is a class of weapon between a shortsword and a hand-and-a-half sword, and it simply doesn't exist in 5e.
Actually, it's the long sword. It stands in for any sword that fits the category.
Are you a samurai wielding a katana in both hands? Longsword stats.
Are you a John Snow with his bastard sword? longsword stats.
Knight with a one handed sword and shield? Longsword
Scottish berserker with targe and baskethilted claymore? Longsword stats.
Same way the "rapier" can be any number of actual rapiers, or estocs. Same was a "short sword" can be a gladius or smallsword. Or a scimitar might be a sabre or wakizashi.
It's only if you start getting into weird stuff like the shotel that it becomes tricky.
The wrongly named longsword of the 2e and 3e days has left the building. The world has been corrected, and more proper terminology is now used.
The problem is that in the real world there is a class of weapon between a shortsword and a hand-and-a-half sword, and it simply doesn't exist in 5e.
Well, an Arming Sword would be a 1d8 Str weapon. That would be a slashing rapier without finesse, or a Longsword without versatile. If 5e put a bigger spread on their weapons, there would be room for another category or two of weapons in the middle there. It would also help give melee characters a little more too.
Like, instead of weapons capping at 1d12 for a Greataxe and 2d6 for a Greatsword, if a Greataxe did 4d4 and a Greatsword did 2d8, and stuff like Brutal Critical worked on all dice to encourage Greataxes over Greatswords... then a Longsword could do 2d4/2d6 and an Arming Sword could do 1d10.
We didn't see rules for tactical miniatures until they showed up in the revised version of 2nd edition AD&D.
That would be because the authors were old-time wargamers and considered such things too obvious to need spelling out. Consider the origins of the rust monster. That makes no sense -- unless using miniatures was just an obvious part of playing the game. Likewise maps were very important to early D&D; a lot of things, such as the space-filling nature of fireballs and the ability of lightning bolts to bounce back at the caster, are really impossible to resolve using theater of the mind, indicating that a tactical map of some sort was expected.
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It's also a light finesse weapon, which means it's just a different weapon than the 3e weapon (which was not light, and was not usable with weapon finesse; I suspect they decided that Drizz't needed to be a more easily legal character). Not that the word scimitar has a clear real world definition other than 'curved sword of middle eastern origin'.
The wrongly named longsword of the 2e and 3e days has left the building. The world has been corrected, and more proper terminology is now used.
Light weapons are only a thing in 5e for DW purposes. That's why Scimitars and Arming Swords were demoted to d6s...so a character can DW the two most popular fantasy tropes, out of the box, without resorting to needing a feat.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
The problem is that in the real world there is a class of weapon between a shortsword and a hand-and-a-half sword, and it simply doesn't exist in 5e.
Actually, it's the long sword. It stands in for any sword that fits the category.
Are you a samurai wielding a katana in both hands? Longsword stats.
Are you a John Snow with his bastard sword? longsword stats.
Knight with a one handed sword and shield? Longsword
Scottish berserker with targe and baskethilted claymore? Longsword stats.
Same way the "rapier" can be any number of actual rapiers, or estocs. Same was a "short sword" can be a gladius or smallsword. Or a scimitar might be a sabre or wakizashi.
It's only if you start getting into weird stuff like the shotel that it becomes tricky.
Well, an Arming Sword would be a 1d8 Str weapon. That would be a slashing rapier without finesse, or a Longsword without versatile. If 5e put a bigger spread on their weapons, there would be room for another category or two of weapons in the middle there. It would also help give melee characters a little more too.
Like, instead of weapons capping at 1d12 for a Greataxe and 2d6 for a Greatsword, if a Greataxe did 4d4 and a Greatsword did 2d8, and stuff like Brutal Critical worked on all dice to encourage Greataxes over Greatswords... then a Longsword could do 2d4/2d6 and an Arming Sword could do 1d10.
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That would be because the authors were old-time wargamers and considered such things too obvious to need spelling out. Consider the origins of the rust monster. That makes no sense -- unless using miniatures was just an obvious part of playing the game. Likewise maps were very important to early D&D; a lot of things, such as the space-filling nature of fireballs and the ability of lightning bolts to bounce back at the caster, are really impossible to resolve using theater of the mind, indicating that a tactical map of some sort was expected.