Question about heavy weapons.

[NOhara24]

Alright, here's the skinny.

I'm designing a full blade to be used by my character as soon as we get to a place that it can be made. It's a size up from a regular full blade, so that means it gets 3d8 damage. Wonderful. Now, I was thinking about making it out of platinum, and that would make it a "heavy" weapon, out of the Magic of Faerun. It says there that heavy weapons do damage as though they are a size a larger IIRC. The table listed only goes up to 2d8, though. My question is this:

What is after 3d8 on that table? Does it go to 4d8? 3d10? If someone could assist I'd be very grateful.

[Derjuin]

I'm not entirely sure of the wording on "heavy" weapons, but if it's just a size increase, you can use this chart (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/weapons.htm#weaponSize) or the weapon size change chart in the Dungeon Master's Guide, pg. 28. Both say it'd go up to 4d8.

VV Use that

[Darrin]

It says there that heavy weapons do damage as though they are a size a larger IIRC. The table listed only goes up to 2d8, though. My question is this:

What is after 3d8 on that table? Does it go to 4d8? 3d10? If someone could assist I'd be very grateful.

That table is a little more quirky than just increasing a size category... in fact, that sidebar doesn't mention increasing the damage by size at all. If you look at the table, it increases each die individually. So:

1d8 -> 2d6
2d8 -> 4d6
3d8 -> 6d6

This creates something of a conundrum if you're not sure whether to apply the size increase or heavy weapon property first... but fortunately with the fullbade, either method results in the same damage:

Size Increase, then Heavy Weapon:
2d8 -> 3d8 -> 6d6

Heavy Weapon, then Size Increase:
2d8 -> 4d6 -> 6d6

This gets considerably more complicated with a 1d10 weapon, such as a bastard sword, since a size increase goes from 1d10 -> 2d8, while the Heavy property goes from 1d10 -> 2d6. The "Increasing Weapon Damage by Size" progression (either from the PHB, Rules Compendium, or the Improved Natural Attack entry from the MM) essentially has two "tracks" of damage, one for Xd6 and another for Xd8. Getting onto the Xd8 Track is preferrable is most cases.

[NOhara24]

That table is a little more quirky than just increasing a size category... in fact, that sidebar doesn't mention increasing the damage by size at all. If you look at the table, it increases each die individually. So:

1d8 -> 2d6
2d8 -> 4d6
3d8 -> 6d6

This creates something of a conundrum if you're not sure wether to apply the size increase or heavy weapon property first... but fortunately with the fullbade, either method results in the same damage:

Size Increase, then Heavy Weapon:
2d8 -> 3d8 -> 6d6

Heavy Weapon, then Size Increase:
2d8 -> 4d6 -> 6d6

Holy crap, you're right. I missed the bit about "each die" getting an increase. So it would go directly to 6d6...that little discovery just made my day :smallbiggrin: Thank you, sir.