Question about Racial Weapons

[ChaosStar]

Is a half-breed who was raised around one of their parent races able to have the Racial Proficincy for that races weapons? For example would a Watcher(Dwarf/Gargoyle) who was raised in a community of Dwarves and Watchers be able to wield a Dwarven Waraxe without needing the Exotic Weapon Proficincy feat?

[Fizban]

The waraxe familiarity is a specific dwarven racial ability, if the race you're looking at doesn't have the ability, then it doesn't have it. There's the Improved Weapon Familiarity feat, which gives you familiarity with all weapons that include your race in the name, but unless your half-breed's race is actually Dwarf (Watcher) then it's still not going to help.

[zergling.exe]

To put it another way, a race does not have proficiency for growing up with a weapon. They are proficient because they were born to the race. Even a group of primitive elves that cannot work metal and have never seen one are proficient with rapiers for instance.

[Fizban]

Well, until someone writes another subrace for that specific group of elves for that very reason. Which is the point: fluff will describe all sorts of stuff as social learning, but at the end of the day the mechanical abilities are tied to birth and don't care where or how you were raised unless you get the DM to alter your stats. Some will do so easily, some not.

I could swear there was an official "half-human elf" version of Half-Elf that got the proficiencies but I can't seem to find it. Would make a nice precedent to have on hand.

[DarkSoul]

On the other hand, if it makes sense you can always talk to your DM about it. Your example would be justification for allowing the race to be proficient in the dwarven weapons, while zergling.exe's example is justification for the elves to not have proficiency in the rapier.

[Extra Anchovies]

I could swear there was an official "half-human elf" version of Half-Elf that got the proficiencies but I can't seem to find it. Would make a nice precedent to have on hand.

That's the "Example Modified Race: Half-Human Elves", DMG p. 171.


Half-human elves are half-elves raised by elves rather than by human society.
Half-human elves have all the half-elf racial traits described on page 18 of the Player’s Handbook, with the following exceptions.
• Half-human elves have no racial bonus on Diplomacy and Gather Information checks.
• Half-human elves have the same weapon proficiency as elves. They receive free Martial Weapon Proficiency feats for the longsword, rapier, shortbow, and longbow. Living among people who esteem the arts of swordplay and archery, almost all half-human elves are familiar with these weapons.
• Favored Class: Wizard. Half-human elves lack some of the flexibility of half-elves who are raised by humans.

[sonofzeal]

There's Rules As Written, but any decent DM will allow common-sense variations. Approach it from the perspective of, "hey, this is what I want to play and I'll do it anyway, but wouldn't it make more sense if we swapped ____ for ____?"

[Fizban]

That's the "Example Modified Race: Half-Human Elves", DMG p. 171.
Ah, thank you, right under my nose of course.

[NerdHut]

There's Rules As Written, but any decent DM will allow common-sense variations. Approach it from the perspective of, "hey, this is what I want to play and I'll do it anyway, but wouldn't it make more sense if we swapped ____ for ____?"

That's my take. As another example, by RAW, I have yet to find any two-handed warhammers that aren't exotic. But it logically makes sense that a large version of the warhammer in PHB would function exactly like a two-handed weapon for a medium creature. Still, it's something to bring up to the DM. The DM will always give the final ruling on anything, even that which is specifically addressed in the books.

[bekeleven]

That's my take. As another example, by RAW, I have yet to find any two-handed warhammers that aren't exotic. But it logically makes sense that a large version of the warhammer in PHB would function exactly like a two-handed weapon for a medium creature.
With a -2 to attacks, I think that is how it works by RAW.

[Gemini476]

As another example, by RAW, I have yet to find any two-handed warhammers that aren't exotic. But it logically makes sense that a large version of the warhammer in PHB would function exactly like a two-handed weapon for a medium creature.

That's how it worked in 3.0, and the DMG has some variant sidebars on the topic somewhere - I don't remember where, though, so you'll have to look it up in the index.