Part 3.
So there's a lot of weapons in an average D&D book, right? Tons of them. So how do you use them? Firstly, don't forget that weapons have non-combat uses, like all items. Udan-Adan said it better than I could. Battleaxes can cut down trees, daggers can cut a cheese wheel, swords can be used as levers if you're trying to pry open something, staves can be used to trigger pressure plates from afar.
Secondly, don't just let a default 'damage type' and an 'attack' action override your ability to role-play and creatively problem solve. Many historical (and modern) weapons were and are multipurpose, intended to do more than one thing. Work a dash of this into your gameplay, reward some creative thinking, and you're already priming your players to think of both weapons and monsters as real physical objects that interact, not simply blocks of numbers that modify their die rolls.
Seeing as I'm a hack, I've simply picked out the default 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons compendium and the table of default weapons from there. Links are there so you can see what the hell I'm talking about, so I've used them liberally.
Part 1: The easy stuff.
Not much to add here, is there? Remember that a dagger can be (in most cases) used to stab OR to slash, and that there's a lot of historical daggers. Check out a 20th century trench knife for a 'dagger' intended to be used in tight quarters, especially those that are also a set of brass knuckles. There's a bunch of other historical daggers, from the rondel dagger known for round grips and a cylindrical tang, to the somewhat phallic bollock dagger, to more specialised things such as the 'parrying dagger' or 'swordbreaker' intended specifically to be used in concert with another weapon. Rules-wise I wouldn't do anything crazy, but letting a player choose whether they're armed with a bichuwa or a cinquedea can add both some personal flavour and the possibility of a unique narrative or puzzle-solving use down the line.
Club: 1d4 bludgeoning.
Greatclub: 1d8 bludgeoning, two-handed.
Mace: 1d6 bludgeoning.
'Club' is possibly the broadest possible weapon definition in the world, and 'big club' isn't exactly a narrow category either. As with daggers, there's no need for major rules changes or alternative uses for either. Typically, a 'mace' is essentially a club, with a specially shaped striking head. I'd personally use the statline of a 'club' or 'great club' to refer to a caveman-looking lump of driftwood, and the statline of a weapon like a mace, maul or warhammer for something more interesting like a Japanese kanabō, Fijian totokia, Indian shishpar, 20th century trench club, or Maori patu.
Handaxe: 1d6 slashing, can be thrown.
So the actual lines between 'axe' and 'handaxe' are blurry as hell, so i'm interpreting this as a hatchet or tomahawk rather than an actual 'hand axe' which is more of a roughly shaped hand-sized rock. Essentially, I'd use this statline for any axe that can be reliably used as a thrown weapon. Something like say, a fransisca. The weight of an axehead lets the weapon both cut and bludgeon, which is handy if your party is fighting skeletons that don't have any skin or organs to cut! Plus, it's an axe. Cut down a sapling with it, or whatever. Shave, if you're crazy.
Quarterstaff: 1d6/1d8 bludgeoning.
There's lots of different names for them, from the Chinese gùn to Japanese bō or jō to the English... quarterstaff. There's long and short versions, modern and ancient, metal or fiberglass, specially carved or hacked off a tree. A staff isn't exactly a 'good' weapon as it lacks any hand-guards, specialized striking surfaces, grips, spikes or blades. They are, however, versatile. Staves can be used to strike or thrust, gripped at one end or by the centre, held like a spear, held like a baseball bat, used to block or parry, and used in one hand or two depending on their length. They're also highly practical out of combat- as levers, used to check the depth of a ford, used as a walking stick, or used to poke a dead body from 5-6' away to make sure it's not about to get back up again. It's also probably the least lethal weapon on this page, as it can reliably be used for leverage in grappling or to trip opponents, while also still being able to crack ribs if you go all-out. I do think 5e overestimates its base damage a bit, though, and pretty much any sort of padding will entirely ruin its ability to actually hurt.
Fun fact: this is actually the only weapon on this list I've ever used in a 'fight'. More than once.
Whip: 1d4 slashing, long reach.
I personally wouldn't call a whip a 'weapon' but obviously Wizards of the Coast didn't consult me for the 5e Player's Handbook. It's even less lethal than the quarterstaff above, but not in an effective way. Classic examples are bullwhips and stockwhips. Some, like the cat o' nine tails were intended to be used as punishment for convicts and sailors, whereas the sjambok was notorious in parts of Africa (including the Congo). There's a common thread here- none of these were intended to be used on any human capable of fighting back. A whip's very unlikely to pierce any sort of armour, and in many cases won't even pierce clothing. If a player wants to use a whip as a weapon, they've got three main options. Firstly, using it exclusively to cause minor pain & injury, or as an Indiana Jones style tool. Secondly, make it just somehow magical, like Castlevania's Vampire Killer whip. Thirdly, put weights or hooks on the end... at which point it stops being covered here and gets shuffled under flails.
Battleaxe: 1d8/1d10 slashing.
Greataxe: 1d12 slashing. Two-handed.
Axes are a highly effective tool, and a versatile weapon. There's a bunch of different kinds so a quick wrap up is difficult, but you could see anything from a double-bit utility axe to the bearded axe, to the aforementioned francisca. Greataxe is a more 'gamey' term for a dedicated two-handed axe. Some real world examples include the bardiche, Dane axe or pollaxe; however some variants of these should really be considered polearms. A video-game style greataxe can exist in your setting, but any character using one really should have superhuman strength. No matter the size, most axes can be used to cut with the blade OR strike with the back of the head. Some like the bardiche have long sweeping spikes at the top or bottom of the head, allowing for thrusting strikes. The 'beard' that gives the bearded axe its name can be used to assist in parrying and hooking enemies or their weapons, or can allow the wielder to shift their grip under the blade and use the axe like a push dagger or ulu.
Flail: 1d8 bludgeoning.
Oh boy, the flail. A 'typical' flail seems to be what the compendium stats are going for, but there's some doubt that those were ever used in real combat. If you look at historical flails, you've got everything from 'peasant flails' to the Chinese three-section-staff and meteor hammer to Japanese nunchaku. Let's break these into groups.
Chain Staves: Two section staff, peasant flail. Swing the stick, hit with the dangly bit. For stats, I'd use the closest non-chain polearm. These are the common real-life ones!
Chain Staves: Two section staff, peasant flail. Swing the stick, hit with the dangly bit. For stats, I'd use the closest non-chain polearm. These are the common real-life ones!
Chain Clubs: Nunchaku, Kusari-fundo, a length of bike chain with a fishing sinker on the end, Meteor hammer, or 'classic' chain flail. Same pros and cons as above, but smaller enough to hold in one hand. I'd use a mace statline for a smaller one, or a warhammer statline for a bigger one.
Crazy Fantasy Stuff: Say, the Witch King's flail from the Lord of the Rings movies. (Credit to Stelter Creative for the image! That's some amazing work.) Use the statline for whatever greataxe or massive warhammer you want at this point, reality has no bearing.
Bladed Flails: I'd list kusarigama, urumi, any sort of chain or bladed whip, and some things like the Chinese rope dart. They're not quite the same, but a lot of the same pros and cons apply, as well as some unique ones (like the ability to throw and retrieve a rope dart).
All of these chain weapons have a similar property: the user stopping the section they hold does not necessarily stop the striking end of the weapon. Start swinging a flail then bring your arm to a halt, and the striking portion will continue to move through. On the positive side, that means that a weapon or shield intercepting the swing doesn't necessarily stop the weapon from impacting. On the negative side, this makes it hard for the wielder to stop the weapon once they've started an attack. In play, I'd give the weapon a chance to wrap around guards and shields to deal damage, but also a chance to injure the user on a missed attack. Depending on the length of the chain or rope, you could also use it to garrote an unsuspecting victim, trip someone up, or even restrain them if you can keep them still for a bit.
Warhammer: 1d8/1d10 bludgeoning.
War Pick: 1d8 piercing.
Maul: 2d6 bludgeoning, two-handed.
Despite what D&D tries to tell you, real warhammers don't weigh all that much. The Forgotten Realms wiki treats warhammers as miniature sledgehammers or combat-adapted mallets. A medieval warhammer, on the other hand, looked more like this. Compared to a mace, they have a much smaller striking head, and many actually had a spike or hook on the rear, similar to a war pick. Like a halberd, a war hammer or pick was often a multipurpose tool designed to pierce or crush through heavy armour. A 'maul' on the other hand is essentially a tool rather than a weapon, but a tool like a splitting maul or a spike maul would do serious damage to a human... if they stood still long enough to get hit. If you have someone with superhuman strength that can swing that, however, then go for it! No matter the size of the hammer, it's probably going to be intended as a tool for a specific purpose, a tool for multiple purposes, or a weapon for multiple purposes. Pierce armour with one side of the hammer, then spin and hit with the other side to smash apart a skeleton.
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