Artful Weapons

[Bookwormav]

I have been thinking of exchanging the +1 or +2 systems in weapons to have a different art style to them instead, like how Skyrim had Orcish or Dwarven weapon types. I was wondering if anyone had already made something like this or has any ideas on how I should go about setting this up. Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks!

[GalacticAxekick]

In 5e at least, the weapons in the PHB describe many similar weapons from different cultures and moulds. The "club" (simple, light, bludgeoning, 1d4) includes batons, nunchucks and improvised bludgeons. The "scimiar" (martial, light, finesse, slashing, 1d6) includes true scimitars, cutlasses and wakizashi. Aesthetically different axes and hammers of dwarven make are still just axes and hammers, so there's no need to write new stats for them. They're already included in the system.

But more importantly, why do you want to replace +1s and +2s with "artful" weapons? What would the appearance actually accomplish? Skyrim's Orcish and Dwarven weapons aren't just for show. They're have different weight, different damage, etc. If you want to reflect this in your homebrew—not the aesthetics, but the effects—you might be on to something.

Perhaps elven weapons are all light, unless they have the "heavy" descriptor, in which case they're medium.

Perhaps dwarven weapons all have dice 2 points higher (1d6 -> 1d8, 1d10 -> 1d12), but go from light to medium or medium to heavy.