Variable Strength Weapons

[Nils_Lindeberg]

I would go with something simple as well:

Clubs do +2 and +3 for 1H respectively 2H.
This solves the problem with clubs being better than Javelins when not charging.

Javelin and spears do +1 damage when thrown with a cord (a minor point). These weapons are made for throwing and should be better than other throwing weapons for the same ST. They shouldn't be penalized for charging, jabbing, and first strike abilities when used as a thrown weapon.
A spear thrower is not cumulative with the cord bonus damage, so only +2.

When you use a weapon that is optimal for your ST, you get an increase in damage at 1:1 when increasing your ST.

Clubs get a 1:2 damage increase. Hence clubs are very good at low ST and useless at high ST. That is ok. Let monsters like Ogres and Giants use inferior weapons, no one wants to get hit by 5D6 due to aggressive scaling.

Normal weapons wielded by a stronger fighter should scale upwards, at least equally well to the sub-par clubs, which means, at least 1:2.

If we don't have this scaling an ST 15 fighter without a weapon looting an ST 9 guy with a hatchet and a club will choose the club over the hatchet. This is bad. With this rule, they would both scale equally and the hatchet would be a slightly better choice.

This scaling should continue up to +5 dmg for having 10 more ST than the minimum. If you have 13 more ST you could also wield a 2H weapon in 1H and do +5 damage.
After that, if the GM thinks it is appropriate (like a giant with a Great Sword) you can give out +1 damage for every extra 5ST, following the rule 1:5 at the top of the ST DAMAGE table.

All weapons have a minimum ST, if none is noted, assume it is 8.

If an ST 6 character uses a Dagger (ST 8 minimum) they will do so at the normal penalty of -2DX and -1 damage.
If they don't want the DX penalty, they could special order a small version of a dagger and it would most likely do 1d-3, and a very fine version would do 1d-1 with the minimum ST of 6.We stick to the standard rules and also eliminate the Halfling Flinger archetype problem.

Slings should do ST-based damage +1. They can be used with a shield.
A 2H staff sling does ST-based damage +2. And it can also be used as a 2H Club for the same damage.

Given these changes, I think the weapon table is pretty much fixed.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I would like to see some more (optional rule) bonuses per weapon type:

Examples:
Flails: Ignores enemy shields.

Picks: Do 1 more damage against 3p armor or more.

Axes: Do double damage against stationary objects and +1 damage against lightly armored enemies, less than 3p.

Hammers/Maces: Do 1 damage even when they do not penetrate armor.

Swords: You give the opponent -1DX if they have a 1H weapon and you have a 1H sword, or you both have 2H weapons.

Spears: are special and popular enough. But just to make them a little better and simpler to use. If you or your enemy weren't adjacent at the start of the turn, and now you are, you get the charge bonus. Simple and a little bit better than the current charge rules.

Missile weapons can have fine ammunition at x10 the price. Longbows are already considered to have this, that is why they do 1 extra damage.

You can buy a bow with heavier draw weight and get the 1:2 damage bonus for a higher ST. A ST 12 Horsebow will do 1d+1, and with fine arrows 1d+2.

That will fill in some gaps in the weapons table without making it longer.



There is also room for ST 12 and ST 14 Pole weapons. Just take the average values:
Heavy Spear, ST 12 1H 1d+1, 2H 1d+2, cost 55$ 11lbs.
Bardish, ST 14 2H 2d+1, cost 85$,14lbs

The same weapon variations can be made for someone that wants an ST 9 flail or an ST 12 Mace.
They are easy enough to calculate/extrapolate when needed.

Before the above bonuses, it wasn't really important if you wielded a custom-made ST 12 Mace or a standard ST 12 Waraxe, but now that they have different effects (see above), it matters.