Martial Arts Weapons - 5e

[furby076]

Is there a list somewhere of martial arts weapons? It can be refluff. For example, dagger would probably refluff to kukri

[ThurlRavenscrof]

It's in the wuxia section of the DMs guide

[Thrudd]

nitpick - all weapons are "martial arts weapons". Fighting with weapons is martial arts, no matter where you live.

You mean you want a list of weapons/words specific to East Asia and India, I suppose.

[lunaticfringe]

It's in the wuxia section of the DMs guide

Pg. 41. Kukri are not listed though. I'd refluff a Handaxe because they are more Choppy than Stabby, basically a machete. Make it a Slashing Shortsword if you want Finesse.

[Arkhios]

Pg. 41. Kukri are not listed though. I'd refluff a Handaxe because they are more Choppy than Stabby, basically a machete. Make it a Slashing Shortsword if you want Finesse.

So, why not just refluff Scimitar?

Light, Finesse, Slashing, 1d6.

[Ninja_Prawn]

So, why not just refluff Scimitar?

Light, Finesse, Slashing, 1d6.

I agree. Scimitar is my first thought for representing a kukri.

As to wuxia, yeah that's on DMG 41.

[lunaticfringe]

Yeah that works too I forget Monks can 'Finesse' all Monk Weapons.

[SaurOps]

It's in the wuxia section of the DMs guide

The sidebar both makes some sketchy suggestions and leaves out a number of potential weapons from any form of equivalence, like seven section staves, wind-fire wheels, and meteor hammers, among many others. Also, it's called a wuxia (a genre term specific to Chinese pre-20th century period films) section when it should just be a general martial arts genre section.

As for what weapons have sketchy suggestions, that would be the nunchaku (it's a good deal lighter than a conventional steel flail, so it actually might need its own entry as a distinct weapon dealing less damage but being light) and shuriken (throwing stars aren't even significant enough to qualify as war darts; they were a distraction at best, like caltrops except that you throw them more directly at someone). It also leaves tsurugi and dao out as possible longswords. The kanabo and tetsubo are also way more vague in designation in real life, to the point that you'd be better off not listing them on a one for one. You could make them as large or as small as you wanted them to be, going from mace to warhammer and greatclub to maul. Oni would probably be very fond of scaled-up mauls in this vein, for when you want to take the proverb "oni with a kanabo" literally.

[furby076]

I refluffed Sai for Dagger and Quarterstaff for Bo staff. Seems pretty safe

[SaurOps]

I refluffed Sai for Dagger and Quarterstaff for Bo staff. Seems pretty safe

Quarterstaff for bo works, definitely. Sai, however, were typically not sharpened for use as daggers; they were more like metal batons that you can use to disarm people slightly more easily, and their original use was a symbol of office rather than as a weapon. If the sai had been an actual weapon, it'd have been snatched up by the Japanese authorities in Okinawa just like all the other weapons were. Which left behind the farming implements - kama and nunchaku - and other miscellaneous objects.

[furby076]

Sai wouldn't be considered a piercing weapon? I had one as a kid, so definitely blunt object (yea...back when i was a kid you could have that stuff lol).

[Thrudd]

Sai wouldn't be considered a piercing weapon? I had one as a kid, so definitely blunt object (yea...back when i was a kid you could have that stuff lol).

In the real world, weapons can do more than one thing - so yes, in real life sai can have a point sharp enough to pierce things and be thrown (not far). But if you trained with them you know the vast majority of the way you fight with it is bludgeoning. Some of the motions that look like stabbing are actually using the tines and followed up with a weapon trapping maneuver. So yeah, it should probably be 1d4 bludgeoning damage (that's what they are in 3e). Maybe a special property that gives advantage on disarm attempts or something. Assigning weapons too many realistic details doesn't work for D&D. Combat is too abstract for it to make sense and it's too many things to keep track of.

PS -as far as I know, you can still have "that stuff" (martial arts/ancient weapons) in most places? Where is it illegal to have sai? I mean, don't carry them around in the street, but you can own them and bring them with to practice martial arts.

[SaurOps]

PS -as far as I know, you can still have "that stuff" (martial arts/ancient weapons) in most places? Where is it illegal to have sai? I mean, don't carry them around in the street, but you can own them and bring them with to practice martial arts.

Never. Actual weapons during the initial birth of Karate, however, would have been confiscated by the Japanese when they occupied or annexed it at various points in history, leaving them with only the aforementioned agricultural tools and repurposed objects. Swords, for one example on the other end of the spectrum, would have been right out, as guns also would have.

[polymphus]

Do you mean Monk Weapons, or something else?

[Thrudd]

Never. Actual weapons during the initial birth of Karate, however, would have been confiscated by the Japanese when they occupied or annexed it at various points in history, leaving them with only the aforementioned agricultural tools and repurposed objects. Swords, for one example on the other end of the spectrum, would have been right out, as guns also would have.

That is actually a myth or misunderstanding. Okinawans were never stripped of their weapons in any comprehensive way. First, Okinawan king Shoshin in the 1400's created an armory where weapons were gathered and required the nobility to live in Shuri after unifying the island under his rule. But the warriors were still allowed and in fact required/expected to train and be ready to fight with their swords and spears and bows. When the Satsuma invaded in the 1600's, they did not go around confiscating everyone's weapons (not many people had weapons to start with). They required the Okinawan nobility and warrior class (the guys who actually owned swords) to register in order to be allowed to carry their swords in public, and they were always allowed to keep their weapons at home. The ban was only on the ownership and sale of firearms (for those who didn't already have them). The Satsuma ruled in a mostly hand-off fashion, keeping the Okinawan king and nobility in-place and letting them basically run things the way they always had - except now Satsuma got a cut of the trade deals with China and elsewhere that prior they had no access to. By the time Okinawa was formally made into a full prefecture and the Ryukyu nobility dismantled, it was the 1800's and the samurai and ancient weapons were obsolete for actual warfare. There was never any inkling of Okinawan revolt or resistance to Japanese rule. Kobudo and karate were not intended to fight against samurai or any other military force.

Okinawan Kobudo is a mostly recreationist art - the weapons that are preserved in Okinawan martial arts are mostly there thanks to the efforts of Okinawan martial arts researchers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who went around collecting the various weapon skills from villages around the islands.
Most kobudo weapons are civilian self-defense oriented - they are the sort of thing that people would be able to easily carry around with them, concealed on their body, or unassuming implements like an oar, hoe or a staff. They were not replacements for swords and spears, nor practiced with the intent of rebelling against the Japanese or fighting against samurai. They were the weapons of people who never would have owned a sword or normal military equipment. They were mostly tools and weapons that common people were more likely to be able to carry conveniently or have on hand around the home.

Sai were a weapon common all around Southeast Asia and southern China. They are most definitely an "actual weapon", though one not really designed for battle but more for personal self-defense or law enforcement. Of course, there is no documentation of most of these weapons actually in use in combat.

A lot of what we were taught about kobudo and the origins of karate were nothing but stories, legends, and guesses. Historical fact and common sense shows some of the old stories aren't true.