Arelith

So with the monk updates, there have been a lot of changes to monk weapons. Specifically Katana has been resized and included, as has club with regard to the ubab for monks. However, I think that the quarterstaff remaining a large weapon is a real shame. I'll lay out my reasons.

Keeping it large prevents small races like him and gnome from using it. This is ridiculous from a roleplay perspective. Quarterstaffs, unlike most of the other large weapon counterparts, are designed to be light and swift. Even the NWN official description reads "the quarterstaff is a humble weapon that almost anyone can learn to use effectively." This is in reference to the fact that all base classes can use the quarterstaff. Why can't the little folk be included in that everyone. Further, we can reject the idea that quarterstaffs are too long as they can be cut to size for a person of smaller stature. Finally, from an RP perspective, a staff is cool thematically, especially for defensive RP'ed monks and druids. Forest gnomes would benefit from access as well as Deep Stone order Svirf monks. I am sure someone who plays some hin players could speak to this as well.

Finally, mechanically speaking, there is no way you could consider granting the smaller folk a two-sided weapon as overpowered. The damage is capped at 1d6 which is comparable to most other weapons they can gain access to. Further, now that hin and gnomes can dual wield monk katanas, it makes the quarterstaff less appealing. It seems like this would be a nice improvement for smaller races and give them access to a two sided weapon, which frankly, is the only reasonable two-sided weapon they could wield.

Going out on a limb here, but I feel it was bumped to large to offer the +2AB large weapons receive. The 2 AB being there to offset the two-hand penalties.

So, dropping it back to medium would make using a quarterstaff less ideal (though still viable).

Halflings (and Goblins and Kobolds) receive a natural +2 to DEX and +1 AB from being small sized, effectively granting them the same AB by using the new Kamas (which are tiny sized) that a Human, Dwarf, Half Orc, or any other race but Elf would get by using a Quarterstaff. As small-sized creatures they also get bonuses to AC, Hide, Move Silently, Listen, and Spot as memory serves.

I'd say they're fairly OK as is. They're already best for many builds, including ranged ones.

If there was a way to give the little people a quarterstaff without having it ruin the function for other people, I say do it.

Would that make it an eighthstaff?

Intrepid42 wrote: Thu May 09, 2019 11:54 am Would that make it an eighthstaff?

Make it a "Lil'Staff" and it would be golden... or maybe Jr.Staff?

Azensor wrote: Fri May 10, 2019 7:51 pm
Make it a "Lil'Staff" and it would be golden... or maybe Jr.Staff?

This reminds me gnomes do enjoy the Jr. Fishing Pole, but unfortunately the Ten-Foot-Pole is too large for them, they ought to get the five-foot version, or a Jr. Ten-footer as well!

Intrepid42 wrote: Thu May 09, 2019 11:54 am Would that make it an eighthstaff?

This brings up a good point. At what size does a quarterstaff become ineffective? If a quarterstaff is both shorter (to account for height) and lighter (to account for a smaller diameter), then neither the mass nor the acceleration would be as high, meaning that at some point, a smaller creature using a smaller quarterstaff against a medium-sized creature would never really be able to do much.