Racial Weapon Proficiencies

[Stop. Ninja Time]

A couple of races have racial weapon proficiencies:
Elves get: Longsword, Rapier, Shortbow, Longbow
Aquatic elves get Spear, Trident, Short Bow, Long Bow.
Drow get whips
Dwarves get Dwarven War Axe
Wild elves, forest gnomes, ghostwise hin instead get Primitive
Even goblins and trogs get Primitive

But there are a of races that don't get anything even though they have racial weapons that can be made.

Orog: bastard sword/greatsword/dire mace
Half orc: double weapons
Kobold: light/heavy pick
Gnoll: Heavy Flail
Goblin: Light flail
Gnome: Light hammer
Halfling: Shortsword
Dwarf: Warhammer

Orog and half orcs are the outlier here as their weapons are exotic, but the rest are all martial weapons. It would be cool and add some nice flavour to those locked to simple weapons to get access to their racial weapons; elves make amazing clerics/favoured souls for the simple fact that they can use elfblades and longbows. It'd be great/flavourful if every race could use their favoured weapons rather than be stuck with simple weapons without a feat tax/dip.

Humans would be the exception here, as they get a free feat instead.

[Slapstick]

I’d really love it for half-orcs to be proficient with their racial weapons. Having to fit exotic into builds that gets martial weapons feels wrong.
Kobolds with picks too. Those two really seems natural to me

[Morgy]

I always thought halflings having access to Dale swords made sense without a proficiency.

I think this is a decent idea. My concerns are it does add to a power creep by potentially freeing up a feat for a fair number of classes that maybe don’t need that boost.

Needs to be thought over hard.

[Ebonstar]

why would aquatic elves get short and long bow?

bows are not a natural weapon in any water environment, and occasionally being on land wouldnt make them archers like their land cousins.

Just because Arelith is mainly land based shouldnt just give them archery.

[Kalopsia]

why would aquatic elves get short and long bow?

bows are not a natural weapon in any water environment, and occasionally being on land wouldnt make them archers like their land cousins.

Just because Arelith is mainly land based shouldnt just give them archery.

Aquatic bows are a thing in their lore. See: https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Aquatic_longbow

[Stop. Ninja Time]

For clarity, I'm not saying they ALL need it, and I agree that getting free exotic based weapons is probably a bit strong - but then, dwarves do get dwarven war axe and is bastard sword really that much better?

The martial ones are the main focus here. The ones that other than a handful of classes, people get access to them anyways. It's always a bit sad to see someone feel the need to take martial prof to use a shortsword or light hammer, for example; because they want to use the Dale Sword or rune hammer for style points.

[Kenji]

Two things about racial proficiencies that discourage more racial weapon proficiencies from being introduced:

1. On the development end, it may further complicate the prerequisites for Weapon of Choice feats from Weapon Master PrC and we’ll likely have to introduce specific weapon proficiency with scripted behavior as a result
2. From a design perspective, it shoehorns certain race and class combos into a weapon.
   The most glaring one being Elves and Rapiers: building a battle cleric or battle shaman with only simple proficiency? Go Elves and get access to Rapier without having to spend an extra feat or multiclass into a martial prof class

We should avoid any further racial weapon proficiencies that provides top-end weapon, or even go as far as removing the BiS ones like Elves and rapiers.

[Stop. Ninja Time]

Well removing the proficiencies from elves would resolve my feedback I suppose!

Right now this makes dwarves/elves/goblins/trogs generally superior battle clerics/shamans - but it's more style than anything. Mechanically a dagger isn't that much worse than a longsword on a battle cleric, if you compare two masterly damask weapons. 1d4 vs 1d8 is an average of two damage difference; and that's not where most of their damage comes from. It would be hard pressed to take martial proficiency to get that bigger weapon.

Yet, that's ignoring the unique weapons - the decent daggers all require a sizeable UMD investment while elf blade just requires being an elf. This means that the difference between a human cleric stuck with a dagger and an elf with an elf blade is much more sizeable.

So in short, it kind of sucks when you're a halfling cleric and can't use the dalesword, or a gnomish cleric and can't use the rune hammer and have to spend a feat or a class to get access to them - while all elves get elf blades, vile maw or cyclone for free and all dwarves get the runeaxe for free.

Maybe we just need more solid simple weapons that aren't locked behind classes, but the dale sword is so iconic for a priest of Arvoreen that it'd be weird to be stuck with a dagger or mace instead and just be unable to have that choice.

[Xerah]

Yet, that's ignoring the unique weapons - the decent daggers all require a sizeable UMD investment while elf blade just requires being an elf. This means that the difference between a human cleric stuck with a dagger and an elf with an elf blade is much more sizeable.

Not really when you consider you get 33 extra points to put into UMD (if you want) and an extra feat to put into martial weapon prof (if you want).

Elf blade isn't even that much better than taking moon/sun domain and making your own weapon.

[Stop. Ninja Time]

Yet, that's ignoring the unique weapons - the decent daggers all require a sizeable UMD investment while elf blade just requires being an elf. This means that the difference between a human cleric stuck with a dagger and an elf with an elf blade is much more sizeable.

Not really when you consider you get 33 extra points to put into UMD (if you want) and an extra feat to put into martial weapon prof (if you want).

Elf blade isn't even that much better than taking moon/sun domain and making your own weapon.

Point, halfling or gnome then.

And point, if you're choosing to go moon/sun domain which is not a very large subset of deities, and not a single one for the halfling/gnomish pantheons.

[Kenji]

Sun and Moon domains' Bless Weapon doesn't give Enhancement bonus unlike Paladin's for balance purposes with the reasons above.