Weapon Generator

[Composer99]

I've developed a simple weapon generator for my 5e house rule/fantasy heartbreaker project. It's involved standardising some elements of weapon properties. It allows you to mostly reproduce the 5e weapon table. The only real outlier is the whip, and, I suppose, the blowgun (since it won't be relegated to dealing 1 damage).

Design Goals
My design goals for this generator are as follows:

First, make weapons more homogenous, in and of themselves. All martial heavy/reach/two-handed polearms should do 1d10, all standard "hand" weapons should do 1d6 if they're simple or 1d8 if they're martial, all heavy/two-handed martial weapons should do 1d12, that sort of thing. I want to have fighting styles, weapon tricks, combat exploits/manoeuvres, monster damage resistances, and feats to give broader categories of weapon some solid differentiation.

Second, enable player and DM customisation of weapons. For instance, say you like the light scimitar (1d6 slashing, light, finesse) - great. If not, maybe you'd rather it be a heavier weapon. In that case, you take out light and, say, add mounted, to get 1d8 slashing, mounted (1d10), finesse. The greater homogeneity allows you to say, "I'm wielding a falchion/cestus/gladius/brass knuckles/whatever" without having to come up with detailed properties or special rules for any given weapon.

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Edit to add: Variances that go with this weapon generator
One of my house rules is an adaptation of the PF2 three-actions turn. Each creature can take two actions on its turn, which could be moving, attacking, hiding, that sort of thing. Creatures can still get bonus actions. (In fact, the desire to keep the bonus action component part of the action economy is why I went with two instead of three actions.) Pertinent to this thread, the loading property now means you have to take an action to load a weapon with that property instead of restricting the number of attacks you can make with such a weapon. Certain characters might be able to load a weapon as a bonus action, or even as part of making a weapon attack, if they possess some feature allowing them to do so.

(Yes, there are more implications from this change, but in the interest of modularity I'd like to keep them out of the scope of discussion.)

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Base Damage
The base damage for a weapon is 1d8.


Modifying Damage
You modify a weapon's damage die by adding properties. You can assign either an ammunition or thrown property, but not both, to a weapon, and no weapon can have more than one of either. A property with (R) can only be assigned to a ranged weapon, and a property with (M) can only be assigned to a melee weapon.

Increase damage die by 2 steps: Ammunition (very short range) (R)

Increase damage die by 1 step: Ammunition (short range) (R), Exotic, Heavy (note 1), Loading (R), Two-Handed (note 2)

Increase damage die by 0 steps: Ammunition (medium range) (R), Finesse (M), Mounted, Thrown (very short range), Versatile (M) (note 3)

Decrease damage die by 1 step: Ammunition (long range) (R), Light, Reach (M), Simple, Thrown (short range)

Decrease damage die by 2 steps: Ammunition (very long range) (R), Thrown (medium range)

Decrease damage die by 3 steps: Ammunition (extreme range) (R) (note 4)

Notes:
(1) A weapon must possess the two-handed property in order to possess this property.
(2) A weapon with this property may not possess the finesse or light properties.
(3) A weapon with this property may not possess the finesse or light properties.
(4) Only an exotic weapon can possess this property.

New Properties
The Exotic property refers to an exotic weapon, which requires expending build resources to gain proficiency. As such it deals extra damage.

The Mounted property causes a weapon to deal more damage when using it to make a weapon attack is riding a mount, not unlike how the versatile property allows a weapon to deal more damage when the weapon is held in two hands.

The Simple property is a replacement for having distinct simple/martial categories of weapon, emulating a weapon being simple.


Ranges

Very Short	30/60
Short	60/150
Medium	90/300
Long	120/450
Very Long	150/600
Extreme	180/900

Die Steps
1d4 - 1d6 - 1d8 - 1d10 - 1d12 - 2d6 - 2d8 - 2d10 - 2d12

(Note that the values above 1d12 would generally be not recommended, save for exotic weapons, perhaps.)


Miscellaneous
Double Weapons: One thing I'm not sure how to fit in are double weapons, currently represented in 5e only in the Wayfarer's Guide to Eberron double-bladed scimitar. Those of you familiar with 3.X and PF (both editions) will well remember the variety of double weapons. I'm not quite sure where I want to place the property on the scale of damage die decreases. (I do know such weapons will be exotic, reducing the impact of any such decrease.)


Some Sample Weapons
Trident: 1d8 piercing, thrown (very short), versatile (1d10)

Scimitar: 1d6 slashing, finesse, light, mounted (1d8)

Greatsword: 1d12 slashing, finesse, heavy, two-handed (I would generally give swords the finesse property (edit to add: maybe not two-handed ones; will test))

Lance: 1d10 piercing, heavy, mounted (1d12), reach, two-handed, special; special you may wield this weapon in one hand while mounted (the reach makes up for the smaller base damage die; also, you could go either way on requiring that it still be used two-handed unless mounted; I probably would require that)

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Spoiler: Changelog

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10 July 2020: Corrected reach assignment; added potential qualifier to finesse assignment.
15 July 2020: Added restrictions to two-handed and versatile properties; removed "very short range" as an ammunition property; added qualifier to "extreme range" as an ammunition property; edited the lance sample weapon; added contextual information

[Yakk]

So in 5e, all heavy weapons are two-handed. All reach weapons (except the whip) are two-handed. There are non-labelled properties, like "pole weapon", which interact with feats. There are no finesse two-handed weapons (finess weapons are balanced around rogue sneak attack at level 1, and the fact that Dexterity is a better stat than Strength).

There is a Finesse ranged and thrown weapon (the dart). Here, Finesse acts strangely, in that as a Ranged weapon it should be Dex-only, but Finesse says "either strength or dexterity can be used to attack with it".

...

Why does reach increase the damage die?! Shouldn't it be "decrease damage die by 1"?

...

Next, let's look at existing 5e weapons.

Longbow (2 handed +1, heavy +1, very long range -2) d8
Heavy Crossbow (2 handed +1, long range -1, loading +1, heavy +1) d12

In 5e, the Heavy Crossbow is balanced with the fact that by the time you hit extra attack, you can get the crossbow expert feat to strip loading, and has 1d10 damage.

...

I think you might be over-valuing range. At least in a skirmish like 5e game, you don't often get to engage at extreme range. What more, just having an extreme range and a shorter range variant is a cheap cost; if they are 900 feet away you have time to swap weapons when they get closer.

Automatic Shotgun: (2 handed +1, heavy +1, very short range +2) for 2d8 damage.

I'd take that.

...

So, 5e did away with Exotic weapons for a reason, or more accurately did away with feat-taxes for superior weapons. You either make them so good that everyone is using a superior weapon, or so bad nobody is, or introduce itemization issues where superior weapons are a trap because you can never find a magic version of it (which leads to P2E runes or 4e/3e style magic-marts or similar).

[clash]

So shameless self-plug, but this is the custom smithing system I use for my own games. Most of it jives with the current weapons, but I have also rebuilt the entire weapon table using these guidelines. Feel free to use any of it to enhance your own system. Apologies for the formatting.

Spoiler: Smithing

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# Smithing #

When building a weapon, most weapons start with a base damage die of 1d8 and a base cost of 10gp. Below are a list of different types of properties a weapon can have. A weapon can only have one of each property installed on it. Each property affects the weapon's damage die and base cost in some way according to the tables below. As well, certain properties require a prerequisite property to already be applied to the weapon in order for it to added. Scroll down past the property types to see how specific and unique weapons are built.

**Note:** All weapons, once all properties have been added, have a minimum base cost of 1sp and a minimum damage die of 1, even if the properties would make it lower.

## Simple Properties ##

Name|Die Level Change|Cost Change|Prerequisite|Description
---|:---:|:---:|---|---
Ranged|-1|+10gp|--|The weapon uses projectiles fired at a range of 60ft/300ft, therefore using a creature's Accuracy score.
Thrown|-1|0|--|Weapon is throwable at a range of 20ft/60ft, regardless of other properties. To note: a weapon that has the Thrown property requires training to use, otherwise the thrown attack is at disadvantage.
2-Handed|+1|+10gp|Not Thrown|The weapon requires two hands to use.
Heavy|+1|+10gp|--|All creatures have disadvantage using Heavy weapons if they do not have the appropriate training from the Strength Training Path.
Light|-1|-10gp|--|Small and easy to handle, making it ideal for fighting with two weapons and easier to carry for smaller creatures.
Cheap|-1|-20gp|--|The weapon is noticeably of inferior quality, in an effort to reduce costs.
Long|+1|-10gp|Not Ranged|The weapon has disadvantage on attack against creatures within 5ft of it, but doesn't give the Reach property on its own.
Finesse|0|+5gp|Not Ranged|The weapon can use the Accuracy modifier when making attack or damage rolls.
Mighty|0|+5gp|Ranged or Thrown|The weapon can use the Strength modifier when making attack or damage rolls.
Quickdraw|0|+20gp|--|The weapon can be drawn without an item interaction.
Hardened|-1|0|Ranged|Allows the ranged weapon to be used in melee combat, therefore using a creature's Strength score. When used in melee, the weapon does bludgeoning damage.
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## Moderate Properties ##

Name|Die Level Change|Cost Change|Prerequisite|Description
---|:---:|:---:|---|---
Long Range|-2|+20gp|Not Ranged and one of: Heavy, Super-Heavy, or Siege|The weapon uses projectiles fired at a range of 120ft/600ft.
Short Range|0|+10gp|Not Ranged|The weapon uses projectiles fired at a range of 30ft/150ft.
Versatile|0/-1|0|2-Handed|The weapon does one damage die less when being used in 1 hand.
Reach|-1|+10gp|Not Ranged|The weapon can attack any creature up to 10ft away.
Returning|0|+20gp|Thrown|The weapon returns to your hand after you throw it.
Retractable|0|+10gp|--|The weapon can be retracted or expanded for free once per turn. When retracted, it is not immediately recognized as a weapon.
Fire|-2|+50gp|--|Weapon or projectile damage is increased by 1d6 fire damage.
Frost|-2|+50gp|--|Weapon or projectile damage is increased by 1d6 cold damage.
Wind|-2|+50gp|--|Weapon or projectile damage is increased by 1d6 air damage.
Lightning|-2|+50gp|--|Weapon or projectile damage is increased by 1d6 lightning damage.
Earth|-2|+50gp|--|Weapon or projectile damage is increased by 1d6 earth damage.
Bane|-1|+10gp|--|Choose a specific creature type (such as: orcs, fiends, or arachnids). This weapon's damage die increases by 3 against that type of creature.
Armor-Piercing|-1|+10gp|--|This weapon's damage die increases by 2 against any defending opponent.
Double-Ended|-2|0|Not Ranged|When you make an attack with this weapon, you may, as a bonus action, make another attack with the other end of the weapon. Each end can be different damage types.
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## Complex Properties ##

Name|Die Level Change|Cost Change|Prerequisite|Description
---|:---:|:---:|---|---
Tripping|-1|+5gp|--|If the target takes damage from this weapon, they must succeed on a Resistance check against the weapon's appropriate Combat Aptitude score or else they fall prone.
Shoving|-1|+5gp|Not Ranged, Bludgeoning|If the target takes damage from this weapon, they must succeed on a Strength check against the weapon's appropriate Combat Aptitude score or else they get shoved 5ft away from the attacker.
Grappling|-2|+5gp|Not Ranged|If the target takes damage from this weapon, they must succeed on a Strength check against the weapon's appropriate Combat Aptitude score or else they become Grappled by the weapon. While grappled by the weapon, the target may repeat their Strength check as a action, breaking free on a success. If this weapon is grappling a creature, this weapon can only be used to attack the Grappled creature.
Super-Heavy|+2 dmg die|+20gp|Not Heavy or Not Light|A Super-Heavy weapon can only be used by a creature with appropriate training or else the attack cannot be made.
Keen|-1|+10gp|--|The weapon's or weapon projectile's critical range increases by 1 level.
Life-Stealing|-1dmg die|+50gp|--|When this weapon deals damage, the user receives temporary Hit Points equal to this weapon's damage die (rolled separately from the damage roll).
Death|-3dmg die|+50gp|--|Weapon or projectile damage is increased by 1d6 necrotic damage.
Radiant|-3dmg die|+50gp|--|Weapon or projectile damage is increased by 1d6 radiant damage.
Force|-3dmg die|+50gp|--|Weapon or projectile damage is increased by 1d6 force damage.
Silvered|-1|+50gp|--|This weapons is made of silver, useful for overcoming damage resistances and immunities of certain monsters.
___

## Extraordinary Properties ##

Name|Die Level Change|Cost Change|Prerequisite|Description
---|:---:|:---:|---|---
Siege|0|x20gp|Not Thrown|This weapon gains many effects useful for attacking structures: weight increases by +1000 lb, damage dealt is 10x the weapon's damage die, range for Ranged weapons increases by 4x the weapon's current range, size is increase to Large. If the weapon is Ranged, it must be reloaded as an action.
Massive|0|x2gp|Siege|This property expands on the existing Seige properties: weight, damage dealt, and range are all doubled, plus, the weapon's size is increased to Huge.
Prismatic|-4|+100gp|--|Weapon or projectile damage is increased by 1d6 of your choice of damage type each time the weapon deals damage.
Vanishing|0|+50gp|Ranged|The projectile of this weapon vanishes after coming to rest.
Ever-Sharp|-3|+75gp|--|When this weapon deals damage, the target starts to bleed out, taking this weapon's damage die in damage at the start of each of its turns. A creature within 5ft of it may use its action to stop the bleeding to end this effect. This condition can also be healed by any ability that can cure disease or poison.
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Spoiler: Basic Weapon Examples

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## Basic Weapon Examples ##

**Dagger:** Thrown, Light, Finesse

* Damage Die: 1d8 -1 -1 +0 = 1d4 dmg
* Cost: 10gp +0 -10 +5 = 5gp

**Rapier:** Finesse

* Damage Die: 1d8 0 = 1d8
* Cost: 10gp +5 = 15gp

**Dart:** Thrown, Light, Mighty, Cheap

* Damage Die: 1d8 -1 -1 +0 -1 = 1d4
* Cost: 10gp +0 -10 +5 -20 = -15gp, but all weapons have a min cost of 1sp.

**Greataxe:** 2-Handed, Heavy

* Damage Die: 1d8 +1 +1 = 1d12
* Cost: 10gp +10 +10 = 30gp

**Light Crossbow:** Ranged, 2-Handed

* Damage Die: 1d8 -1 +1 = 1d8
* Cost: 10gp +10 +10 = 30gp

**Longbow:** Long Range, 2-Handed, Heavy

* Damage Die: 1d8 -2 +1 +1 = 1d8
* Cost: 10gp +20 +10 +10 = 50gp

**Heavy Crossbow:** Ranged, 2-Handed, Heavy, Mighty

* Damage Die: 1d8 -1 +1 +1 0 = 1d10
* Cost: 10gp +10 +10 +10 +5 = 45gp

**Hand Crossbow:** Short Range, Light

* Damage Die: 1d8 0 -1 = 1d6
* Cost: 10gp +10 -10 = 10gp

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## Exotic/Custom Weapon Examples ##

**Spiked Chain:** 2-Handed, Heavy, Finesse, Reach, Tripping, Versatile

* Damage Die: 1d12 +1 +1 +0 -1 -1 +0/-1 = 1d12(1d10 with one hand)
* Cost: 10gp +10 +10 +5 +10 +5 +0 = 50gp

**Chakra:** Finesse, Thrown, Light, Returning

* Damage Die: 1d8 +0 -1 -1 +0 = 1d4
* Cost: 10gp +5 +0 -10 +20 = 25gp

**Lightsaber:** 2-Handed, Finesse, Returning, Versatile, Radiant, Retractable

* Damage Die: 1d12 +1 +0 +0 +0/-1 -3 +0 = 1d8(1d6 one-handed) + 1d6 radiant damage
* Cost: 10gp +10 +5 +20 +0 +50 +10 = 105gp

**Ogre Axe:** Super-Heavy, Long, 2-Handed

* Damage Die: 1d12 +2 +1 +1 = 2d12
* Cost: 10gp +20 -10 +10= 40gp

[Composer99]

Thanks for replies & criticisms so far!

As two general remarks:
- As noted in the OP, this is meant to work with other house rules; I don't want to go over them in any great detail, but suffice to say that "how 5e does it now" is not necessarily going to be applicable.
- This would be a DM/GM-facing tool.

So in 5e, all heavy weapons are two-handed. All reach weapons (except the whip) are two-handed. There are non-labelled properties, like "pole weapon", which interact with feats. There are no finesse two-handed weapons (finess weapons are balanced around rogue sneak attack at level 1, and the fact that Dexterity is a better stat than Strength).

There is a Finesse ranged and thrown weapon (the dart). Here, Finesse acts strangely, in that as a Ranged weapon it should be Dex-only, but Finesse says "either strength or dexterity can be used to attack with it".

For explicit properties:
It's true that all heavy weapons are two-handed; at the same time, not all two-handed weapons are heavy. It might be good then, to specify that a weapon can only have the heavy property if it also has the two-handed property. I'll go back into the OP and edit that.

For finesse weapons, that's a fair point with respect to 5e as it is. Since, as noted in the OP, this is meant to work with a heavily house ruled 5e, I'll see how the balance works before clawing back its applicability. All the same, I'll be ready to include text to the effect that a weapon can't have the finesse and two-handed weapon simultaneously.

I'm fine with hypothetical one-handed reach weapons in addition to the whip, pending the correction of reach.

For implicit properties:
I have split weapons into broadly related groups (bludgeons, axes, polearms, that sort of thing). In the OP, I outlined various ways that players can get special abilities or tricks that let them do cool stuff, or be better at certain kinds of actions, when wielding weapons from a particular group.

Why does reach increase the damage die?! Shouldn't it be "decrease damage die by 1"?

Reach got mis-assigned. Thanks for catching that!

Next, let's look at existing 5e weapons.

Longbow (2 handed +1, heavy +1, very long range -2) d8
Heavy Crossbow (2 handed +1, long range -1, loading +1, heavy +1) d12

In 5e, the Heavy Crossbow is balanced with the fact that by the time you hit extra attack, you can get the crossbow expert feat to strip loading, and has 1d10 damage.

This is a fair enough point for 5e as it is. So, the impression I've got from reading around is that 5e undercounts the range of a crossbow; with that in mind if, I were building a heavy crossbow using this generator, I would give it a longer range (very long range), bringing the damage die back to d10.

But I also want to change how loading and crossbow expertise/mastery works a bit; with that in mind a d12 heavy crossbow wouldn't be terrible, either. In particular, one of my design goals is that crossbows do more damage, but you can get off more attacks with bows with the right build options, such that it should more or less wash out.

I think you might be over-valuing range. At least in a skirmish like 5e game, you don't often get to engage at extreme range. What more, just having an extreme range and a shorter range variant is a cheap cost; if they are 900 feet away you have time to swap weapons when they get closer.

Automatic Shotgun: (2 handed +1, heavy +1, very short range +2) for 2d8 damage.

I'd take that.

I mean... that's actually a pretty good shotgun. If I were playing a game with modern firearms, it'd work for me. It might be worth cutting out the longest and shortest range categories for ammunition weapons, all the same.

So, 5e did away with Exotic weapons for a reason, or more accurately did away with feat-taxes for superior weapons. You either make them so good that everyone is using a superior weapon, or so bad nobody is, or introduce itemization issues where superior weapons are a trap because you can never find a magic version of it (which leads to P2E runes or 4e/3e style magic-marts or similar).

I don't actually plan on having exotic weapons in the player-facing documentation. However, I do want to explicitly support generating exotic weapons, because some people like them and I want to be able to accommodate that, whether in my own games or if other people want to adopt any of my house rules. If that means either extra work making them work within the system, or accepting these sorts of problems with using them; well and good.

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So shameless self-plug, but this is the custom smithing system I use for my own games. Most of it jives with the current weapons, but I have also rebuilt the entire weapon table using these guidelines. Feel free to use any of it to enhance your own system. Apologies for the formatting.

[...]

Thanks for all that! I will be sure to give it a thorough once-over and adapt stuff if I think I can fit it in with my design goals.

[Composer99]

Made some revisions in the OP, so here's a bump to see what people think.

(Most importantly, I have come round to thinking there should be further restrictions on what can be assigned the light and finesse properties.)

[Breccia]

Have you considered a point system? It might allow slightly higher customization if certain mods could cost half, or one-and-a-half, dice worth of points. It would also give you an excuse to make every bonus, such as Finesse or Thrown (very short), cost something. Otherwise, wouldn't every single weapon be both Finesse and Throwable?

You could give bulk discounts or cross-penalties, such as "Heavy and Two-Handed are 1 point each, 2.5 together" or "Finesse and Two-Handed are 1 point each but 1.5 together".

It would also give you an excuse to leave off "Only Exotic weapons can do this" by simply making some bonuses (extreme long range) so expensive only Exotic weapons could ever achieve them.

EDIT: Also it would give you the ability to make 1d8 vs 2d4 weapons, and 1d12 vs 2d6 weapons.

[Phhase]

I like the adaptation of 3.5ish mechanics to 5e here. As to double weapons, I'd think it'd be pretty simple, it just allows you to fight with the weapon as if you are holding a weapon in each hand. It'd likely be mutually exclusive with Versatile in this case.

I also think the enchantment system in 3.5 is far superior, I never liked that they did away with the universal enchantments system. It really does not jive with me to JUST have unique weapons, with some trying to be pale imitations of really basic, staple enchantments like flaming, or returning, or hell, even Keen.