3.0 Weapon Categories

[The Viscount]

When looking at some 3.0 books, I was struck by the fact that weapons are not classified as light, one-handed, or two handed. Instead there is this categorization by sizes. Could someone explain what they mean, and how they would convert, if at all to 3.5?

[KillianHawkeye]

It was pretty simple, actually. The weapon size corresponds to the size of the creature wielding it rather than the weapon's size as an object.

Basically, it worked like this:
If the weapon's size matched the creature's size, it's a one-handed weapon.
If the weapon's size was smaller than theh creature's size, it's a light weapon.
If the weapon's size was one larger than the creature's size, it's a two handed weapon.
If the weapon's size was two or more sizes larger than the creature's size, it was unwieldable.

So, for example, a human (Medium creature) could wield a longsword (Medium weapon) in one hand, while a halfling (Small creature) would need two hands to wield the same weapon. A halfling could not wield a greatsword (Large weapon) at all, because it was too big. A shortsword (Small weapon) is considered a light weapon for the human, but it's a one-handed weapon for the halfling.

Any questions?



The reason they did it that way was so they could use one weapon chart for all sizes of creatures. In 3.5, they decided to go the other way and have the weapons set in handedness and just have larger or smaller versions of specific weapons.

If you need to convert a weapon from 3E to 3.5, just figure out the handedness as if it was a Medium creature, then use the rules for different size weapons if you need a smaller or bigger one.

[The Viscount]

Thank you. That's very helpful, actually. Good to know.

[KillianHawkeye]

No problemo!

[ericgrau]

3.5 basically does the same thing except that it gives a -2 to attack rolls for a weapon wielded by a wielder of a different size. For example a halfling wielding a medium longsword can still do so in two hands in 3.5, but he takes a -2 to hit because the longsword is medium and he is small. IIRC 3.0 does not have the -2.

[KillianHawkeye]

3.5 basically does the same thing except that it gives a -2 to attack rolls for a weapon wielded by a wielder of a different size. For example a halfling wielding a medium longsword can still do so in two hands in 3.5, but he takes a -2 to hit because the longsword is medium and he is small. IIRC 3.0 does not have the -2.

That's correct, the 3.5 rules introduced the concept of wrong-sized weapons. But really, the difference is mostly in how it's written. That's why converting between them is so simple.