Revised Weapons

Goals

1. Don't unnecessarily disincentivize players from choosing the type of weapon they'd like to use:
New Properties: One of the most important parts of all this is making each weapon variety feel viable within its niche. It's also perhaps the trickiest. For example, there's almost no practical incentive to choose the light hammer over the handaxe, so bringing up its damage die to 1d6 evens them out, but this has the unfortunate side effect of rendering the mace worthless. So, taking inspiration from Balduer's Gate 3 and One D&D's weapon mastery system, I introduced additional weapon properties to help set weapon classes apart. It's important to me though that these hamper the flow of combat as little as possible: the last thing the game needs is for us to manage more hyper specific rules and rolls everytime someone swings a weapon. So, these are properties that are situational and as streamlined as possible, while still having satisfying effects. Notably, the Crush, Sweep, and Puncture properties augment critical hits, while Cleave is useful whenever you kill an opponenent. Now, light hammers are a good choice if you want to dual wield or throw your weapon, while maces are a good choice if you want to use a shield.
Defined Properties: In addition to adding new properties, I felt it was important to more explicitly emphasize certain properties that weapons already posessed that were defined (or at least implied) within the game rules but were easily overlooked. The most important being that certain weapons were mechanically better suited for combat underwater, hence the Swim property. Other weapons could very reasonably be used as tools for various purposes, such as picks, hammers, or axes. I think pointing this out better incentivises creative play with these weapons, so I introduced the Tool property.


2. Provide more meaningful choices:
Make each weapon variety have a reason why you might want to take it over the others in its niche. The war pick, flail, and morningstar are all martial weapons that deal 1d8 damage and have no properties. Is there anyway to make them stand apart?

3. Remove redundancy and reinforce the idea that each choice represents a family of weapons and not a specific weapon:
The glaive and halberd are mechanically identical. The spear and trident are as well, although the trident is more expensive, heavier, and a martial weapon with no additional benefit. The shortsword and scimitar are similarily identical, though one deals piercing damage and the other slashing, and the scimitar is *15 gp* more expensive. I think this is all unnecessary and these all can be consolidated.
Consolidating these choices also reinforces the concept that choosing a "shortsword" for your character actually represents a broad spectrum of possibilities. The shortsword category encompases arming swords, scimitars, falchions, machetes, cutlass, wakizashis, broadswords, or anything of the like. Each other selection on the table is similar.
Damage Type: "Sword" weapons could reasonably cause either slashing or piercing damage. Rules as written this is not the case, but this is a distinction that is brought up so rarely in creature resistances and weaknesses that I believe that option might as well be given to the player. These weapons (with the S/P damage type) can cause either slashing or piercing damage at any time, as determined by the player when an attack is made with that weapon.


4. Improve the clarity and readability of the list.

Weapons Table

* Denotes changes from the original 5e Weapons Table

Simple Melee Weapons

Name	Damage	Weight (lbs)	Cost	Properties
Blades
Dagger	1d4 S/P*	1	3 gp*	Finesse, Light, Thrown (20/60), Swim, Covert*
Axes
Handaxe	1d6 S	2	5 gp	Light, Thrown (20/60), Tool*
Sickle	1d6* S	2	1 gp	Light, Tool*
Bludgeons
Club	1d4 B	2	1 sp	Light
Light Hammer	1d6* B	2	5 gp*	Light, Thrown (20/60), Tool*
Mace	1d6 B	3*	5 gp	Crush*
Greatclub	1d8 B	10	2 sp	Two-Handed, Crush*
Polearms
Javalin	1d6 P	2	1 gp*	Thrown (30/120), Swim
Quarterstaff	1d6 B	3*	3 sp*	Versatile (1d8), Sweep*
Spear	1d6 P	3	2 gp*	Thrown (20/60), Versatile (1d8), Swim, Puncture*

Martial Melee Weapons

Name	Damage	Weight (lbs)	Cost	Properties
Blades
Shortsword	1d6 S/P*	2	15 gp*	Finesse, Light, Puncture*
Longsword	1d8 S/P*	3	20 gp*	Versatile (1d10), Puncture*
Rapier	1d8 S/P*	2	25 gp	Finesse, Puncture*
Greatsword	2d6 S/P*	6	50 gp	Heavy, Two-Handed, Cleave*
Axes
Battleaxe	1d8 S	4	12 gp*	Versatile (1d10), Tool*, Cleave*
War Pick	1d8 P	3*	5 gp	Tool*, Puncture*
Greataxe	1d12 S	7	30 gp	Heavy, Two-Handed Tool*, Cleave*
Bludgeons
Warhammer	1d8 B	4*	15 gp	Versatile (1d10), Tool*, Crush*
Flail	2d4* B	3*	12 gp*	Crush*
Morningstar	1d8 P	4	15 gp	Crush*
Maul	2d6 B	10	20 gp*	Heavy, Two-Handed, Tool*, Crush*
Polearms
Poleaxe	1d10 S	6	20 gp	Heavy, Reach, Two-Handed, Cleave*
Pike	1d10 P	12*	5 gp	Heavy, Reach, Two-Handed, Puncture*
Lance	1d12 P	6	10 gp	Reach, Special, Puncture*
Special
Whip	1d4 S	3	2 gp	Finesse, Reach

Simple Ranged Weapons

Name	Damage	Weight (lbs)	Cost	Properties
Crossbow, light	1d8 P	5	25 gp	Ammunition (80/320), Loading, Two-Handed, Swim
Dart	1d4 P	1/4	1 sp*	Finesse, Thrown (20/60)
Shortbow	1d6 P	2	20 gp*	Ammunition (80/320), Two-Handed
Sling	1d4 B	—	1 sp	Ammunition (30/120)

Martial Ranged Weapons

Name	Damage	Weight (lbs)	Cost	Properties
Crossbow, hand	1d6 P	3	75 gp	Ammunition (30/120), Light, Loading, Swim
Crossbow, heavy	1d10 P	18	50 gp	Ammunition (100/400), Heavy, Loading, Two-Handed, Swim
Longbow	1d10 P	3*	50 gp	Ammunition (150/600), Heavy, Two-Handed
Blowgun	1 P	1	10 gp	Ammunition (25/100), Loading, Covert*
Net	—	3	1 gp	Special, Thrown (5/15), Swim

Properties

Special Weapons

Weapons with special rules are described here.

Lance. You have disadvantage when you use a lance to attack a target within 5 feet of you. Also, a lance requires two hands to wield when you aren’t mounted.

Net. A large or smaller creature hit by a net is restrained until it is freed. A net has no effect on creatures that are formless, or creatures that are huge or larger. A creature can use its action to make a DC 10 Strength check, freeing itself or another creature within its reach on a success. Dealing 5 slashing damage to the net (AC 10) also frees the creature without harming it, Ending the effect and destroying the net.

When you use an action, bonus action, or reaction to attack with a net, you can make only one atta⁠ck regardless of the number of attacks you can normally make.

Weapon Properties

Many weapons have special properties related to their use, as shown in the we⁠apons tables.

Ammunition. You can use a weapon that has the ammunition property to make a ranged attack only if you have ammuni⁠tion to fire from the weapon. Each time you atta⁠ck with the weapon, you expend one piece of ammu⁠nition. Drawing the ammuni⁠tion from a quiver, case, or other container is part of the atta⁠ck (you need a free hand to load a one-handed weapon). At the end of the battle, you can recover half your expended ammu⁠nition by taking a minute to sear⁠ch the battlefield.

If you use a weapon that has the ammunition property to make a melee attack, you treat the weapon as an improvised weapon. A sling must be loaded to deal any damage when used in this way.

*Cleave. If an attack with this weapon reduces a foe to 0 hitpoints, you can inflict any leftover damage to one adjacent enemy in range as long as the initial attack roll beats their AC.

*Covert. This weapon can be easily concealed on a character's body, even under minimal cloathing. While this weapon is concealed, you can still use your action to draw it from wherever it is hidden and attack as long as you have a free hand.

*Crush. When you hit a creature with a critical hit, you stagger the creature with the impact of your blow. The next time the creature rolls for an attack or saving throw before the start of your next turn, they must make the roll with disadvantage.

Finesse. When making an attack with a finesse weapon, you use your choice of your Strength or Dexterity modifier for the attack and damage rolls. You must use the same modifier for both rolls.

Heavy. Creatures that are small or tiny have disadvantage on attack rolls with heavy weapons. A heavy weapon’s size and bulk make it too large for a small or tiny creature to use effectively.

Light. A lig⁠ht weapon is small and easy to handle, making it ideal for use when fighting with two weapons. See the rules for two-weapon fighting in the 5e Player's Handbook.

Loading. Because of the time required to load this weapon, you can fire only one piece of ammunition from it when you use an action, bonus Action, or reaction to fire it, regardless of the number of attacks you can normally make.

*Puncture. Well aimed attacks with this weapon are particularily suited for exploiting gaps in a foes armor or vulnerable parts of their body. When you hit a creature with a critical hit with this weapon, you also double your ability modifier when determining damage.

Range. A weapon that can be used to make a ranged attack has a range in parentheses after the ammunition or thrown property. The range lists two numbers. The first is the weapon’s normal range in feet, and the second indicates the weapon’s long range. When attacking a target beyond normal range, you have disadvantage on the attack roll. You can’t attack a target beyond the weapon’s long range.

Reach. This weapon adds 5 feet to your reach when you attack with it, as well as when determining your reach for opportunity attacks with it.

Special. A weapon with the special property has unusual rules governing its use, explained in the weapon’s description (see the “Special Weapons” section).

*Sweep. When you hit a creature that is large or smaller with a critical hit with this weapon, that creature is knocked prone.

*Swim. Attacks with this weapon are not made with disadvantage while underwater.

Thrown. If a weapon has the thrown property, you can throw the weapon to make a ranged attack. If the weapon is a melee weapon, you use the same ability modifier for that attack roll and damage roll that you would use for a melee att⁠ack with the weapon. For example, if you throw a handaxe, you use your Strength, but if you throw a dagger, you can use either your Strength or your Dexterity, since the dagger has the finesse property.

*Tool. This weapon doubles as a tool that can be used to complete useful tasks, such as chopping wood, harvesting crops, driving nails and pitons, or mining into stone.

Two-Handed. This weapon requires two hands when you attack with it.

Versatile. This weapon can be used with one or two hands. A damage value in parentheses appears with the property—the damage when the weapon is used with two hands to make a melee attack.