One Hand Strength Weapons

[a shrouded figure]

Generally speaking I've always found this weapon group to be very underwhelming, in particular as it pertains to classic strength melee characters. I would propose that we take a look at this weapon group.

In particular, I investigated the following change:

Warhammer
Base Damage: 1d8
Base Critical Threat: x3
Base Damage Type: Bludgeoning
Weapon Size: Medium
Proficiency: Martial
Weight: 5.0 lbs
**Bonus 1.25x Strength Modifier to Damage


War Mace:
Base Damage: 1d12
Base Critical Threat: x2
Base Damage Type: Bludgeoning
Weapon Size: Medium
Proficiency: Exotic
Weight: 12 lbs
**Bonus 1.5x Strength Modifier to Damage


The affects of this change

War Hammer vs. War Mace vs. Scimitar

The Warhammer would be the better choice for a weapon master. Approximately 2.72% higher average damage (across the range of strength bonuses). The Warhammer would remain inferior to the scimitar, with the scimitar being 8.23% better average damage than the Warhammer. This gap was narrowed considerably, as it was previously the scimitar was on average dealing 16.79% more damage on a weapon master. On a non-weapon master, the Warhammer would overtake the scimitar at 30 base strength or higher, netting ~1% more damage on a non-weapon master.

The War Mace would be the better choice for a non-weapon master averaging 0.47% damage more than the Warhammer while overtaking the scimitar considerably at the higher strength levels. A base str of 32 with 12 enchanted str would offer the war mace 1.11% more damage on average when compared to a scimitar. The war mace would remain inferior to the scimitar and war hammer across the gambit of realistically achievable strength values (I did not consider things like a half orc RDD as they're exceedingly uncommon and suffer from other draw backs to help balance the damage).

Generally speaking, the scimitar would retain its excellence while offering some level of improvement to the medium sizes, non-finesse, 1h concussion weapons. Additional candidates for this upgrade, in my opinion, would be the Battle-Axe and Dwarven War-Axe. The DWA would continue to be the weapon of choice for dwarves, while allowing 1hS users the freedom to bounce between their scimitar and a newly affective battle axe for crit immune foes.

I looked into the idea of adjusting the long sword slightly as it's currently in a weird spot as well. Generally I'm blatantly looking to lightly buff some of the 1h strength weapons while ignoring weapons that can be finessed. Finesse weapons can already receive free damage from a swashbuckler splash (int) and hit some scary numbers for WM damage.

The problem with my analysis is that I pretty closely looked at only three weapons in a strength vacuum. The weapons compared were all assumed to be Keen, MDamask, Perm, Temp essence weapons with Imp Critical feat.

I would be concerned about narrowing the gap with 2h weapons too much, althought the 2h weapons still retain the benefit of the +2 AB, however the cost of 6 AC is pretty high, so that could be an issue.


*shrugs* I tried little blunt weapons, I tried.

[garrbear758]

Denied. I'm all for a buff to war mace and a few of the other trap pick bludgeoning weapons, but making them equivalent to a 2hander is not the right answer. Warhammer is also in a good place and doesn't need buffs.