Weapon Size?

[171akup]

I am getting some campaigns from books to put into mine and I have noticed that when a hostile enemy has a weapon, be it a small or large creature the weapon damage is always for a medium size creature and it states that improper sized weapons take a -2 penalty. But the hostiles don't take such a penalty. So what I would like to know is should I reduce or increase the weapon damage to fit the creature or change they're attack to calculate in for the penalty. Also why was it written like that in the first place? :smallbiggrin:

[Alex12]

Without knowing which books you're drawing these dudes from, I'm not sure what the reasons might be, but I'm pretty sure that that isn't the general case. Which books are you using?

If they definitely don't have either the appropriate penalty or the appropriate-sized damage dice, then definitely fix that. In general, I'd assume that most sapient creatures are going to use appropriately-sized weapons when possible (or at least weapons that they can use without penalty: the guy with Powerful Build using a Large weapon is definitely not a mistake)
That said, there are instances where a foe (or a character) might use inappropriately-sized weapons. Those instances mainly boil down to availability, since a weapon that you take a penalty with is typically better than no weapon at all (aside from Monk-types and natural weapon users). If Grug the goblin just escaped from orcs, I'd expect him to have Medium gear because that's all he managed to steal on the way out.

[171akup]

Without knowing which books you're drawing these dudes from, I'm not sure what the reasons might be, but I'm pretty sure that that isn't the general case. Which books are you using?

If they definitely don't have either the appropriate penalty or the appropriate-sized damage dice, then definitely fix that. In general, I'd assume that most sapient creatures are going to use appropriately-sized weapons when possible (or at least weapons that they can use without penalty: the guy with Powerful Build using a Large weapon is definitely not a mistake)
That said, there are instances where a foe (or a character) might use inappropriately-sized weapons. Those instances mainly boil down to availability, since a weapon that you take a penalty with is typically better than no weapon at all (aside from Monk-types and natural weapon users). If Grug the goblin just escaped from orcs, I'd expect him to have Medium gear because that's all he managed to steal on the way out.

Well I noticed it in The Sunless Citadel and Tomb of Horrors.


Also a large creature from Forge of Fury has a greataxe and the damage on it is in the large but it says 2d8 which is for a large bastard sword and a greataxe is a 3d6.

So in conclusion is this all just a major amount of minor mistakes from a pretty large and famous company. Also what is there proof reading part of the company like if this is the case. :smallbiggrin:

[Alex12]

Well I noticed it in The Sunless Citadel and Tomb of Horrors.


Also a large creature from Forge of Fury has a greataxe and the damage on it is in the large but it says 2d8 which is for a large bastard sword and a greataxe is a 3d6.

So in conclusion is this all just a major amount of minor mistakes from a pretty large and famous company. Also what is there proof reading part of the company like if this is the case. :smallbiggrin:

Ah, I think I see the problem. You're looking at 3.0 sources, not 3.5 sources. Now, they're very similar in many ways, but 3.0 and 3.5 did weapon sizes differently. I don't have a 3.0 PHB, but Google let me figure out how it worked. Basically, in 3.0, all weapons of a given type were a given size, and how they were used (one-hand vs two-hand and so on) depended on your size vs the weapons size. Someone with more 3.0 familiarity can probably explain this better than I can, but I bet that's the problem, that it's a 3.0-to-3.5 transition problem, rather than a proofreading problem.

[171akup]

Ah, I think I see the problem. You're looking at 3.0 sources, not 3.5 sources. Now, they're very similar in many ways, but 3.0 and 3.5 did weapon sizes differently. I don't have a 3.0 PHB, but Google let me figure out how it worked. Basically, in 3.0, all weapons of a given type were a given size, and how they were used (one-hand vs two-hand and so on) depended on your size vs the weapons size. Someone with more 3.0 familiarity can probably explain this better than I can, but I bet that's the problem, that it's a 3.0-to-3.5 transition problem, rather than a proofreading problem.

Ok I just saw that Sunless Citadel is 3.0 but Tomb of Horrors says it is 3.5. Also what is with the 2d8 Great Axe? :smallbiggrin:

[Alex12]

Ok I just saw that Sunless Citadel is 3.0 but Tomb of Horrors says it is 3.5. Also what is with the 2d8 Great Axe? :smallbiggrin:

Looks like the 2d8 Large Greataxe still works, actually. (https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD3e:Weapons)

Dunno about Tomb of Horrors, since I'm having trouble even finding the official 3.5 version of that module in a form I don't have to pay for.

[Andezzar]

In 3.0 weapon size was compared to the wielder size which got you the usage:
weapon one size smaller than wielder: light weapon
same size: one-handed
weapon one size larger than wielder: two-handed

So a longsword for a large creature effectively was a Greatsword for a medium one (2d6, two-handed use)

IIRC if the weapon was smaller or larger it couldn't be used.

I cannot find a greataxe or 2d8 in Tomb of Horrors.

[171akup]

In 3.0 weapon size was compared to the wielder size which got you the usage:
weapon one size smaller than wielder: light weapon
same size: one-handed
weapon one size larger than wielder: two-handed

So a longsword for a large creature effectively was a Greatsword for a medium one (2d6, two-handed use)

IIRC if the weapon was smaller or larger it couldn't be used.

I cannot find a greataxe or 2d8 in Tomb of Horrors.

That explains alot for me. Also if I were to convert these 3.0 adventures to 3.5 how much would need to be changed because I will definitely change the weapon sizes.
Also if FYI "Also a large creature from Forge of Fury has a greataxe and the damage on it is in the large but it says 2d8 which is for a large bastard sword and a greataxe is a 3d6.",so as you can see I said Forge of Fury for the greataxe not Tomb of Horrors.

[Florian]

That explains alot for me. Also if I were to convert these 3.0 adventures to 3.5 how much would need to be changed because I will definitely change the weapon sizes.
Also if FYI "Also a large creature from Forge of Fury has a greataxe and the damage on it is in the large but it says 2d8 which is for a large bastard sword and a greataxe is a 3d6.",so as you can see I said Forge of Fury for the greataxe not Tomb of Horrors.

Don´t worry all too much. WotC stat blocks are notorious for containing tons of errors and a lot of them don´t really hold up to close scrutiny, especially if class levels are involved. You could spent entirely too much time on hunting those errors down and correcting them, but there´s too little actual gain involved in this.

You can actually run those modules without changing anything and what changes are necessary can be done on the fly. Replace basic monsters straight out of the monster manual and don´t worry about enemies with class levels, just keep them as they are.