Basic weapons

[Thorodeth]

Hi guys i`m new to the forums so please forgive me if this questions has already been asked
(havent found while reading through the posts).

Im on the brink of hosting my first campaign. I have no personal experience in how the rules play out but i hope i can rely on your expertise.

My question is about basic weapons, i find it kinda unimmersive that the basic weapons have no traits / weapon qualities.
The basic sword is the same as the basic mace and the basic axe.

So i was thinking to just give these 3 weapon types the qualities according to their bigger counterparts.

Sword - defending / Axe - hacking / Mace - pummeling.

What would you more experienced guys say how this plays out?
Is this imbalancing the combat, especially the defending and the hacking quality?
Do you have a more immersive / better idea?

Thx for your time and excuse my english - it`s not my native language.

[Orin J.]

I fiddled with this for a homebrew article i made- the main problem is that different abilities aren't created equal. i tried changing weapon reach and other things but in the end hack and defensive are much too powerful to hand out as freebies, especially defensive, which surprised me when i tested it.

[Thorodeth]

Thx for the response Orin.

Ye i anticipated the same.

I saw that Chuck did some awesome work with reworking the crittables for the older editions.
Wich would also do the job but sadly seems to be too complicated for the 4th.

I`m aiming to make the world as hard as possible, having a "survival" aspect/feeling to it. So i probably would not mind the Axe - hacking quality.
Having the PC`s repairing & maintain their armour could also be a good money drain.

I`m mostly concerned about the Sword - defending quality. On the other hand, all enemies using a sword have the some bonuses. So sword vs sword levels out.
Not sure how sword vs any other weapon balances out in the long run.

Maybe just half the bonus to a +5% ?

[FasterThanJesus]

Thx for the response Orin.

Maybe just half the bonus to a +5% ?

I was thinking this as soon as a I read your post. Afterall, they're only being used by one hand.

The follow on thought I had was that those benefits would only apply if nothing is weilded in the other hand.

[Orin J.]

I`m mostly concerned about the Sword - defending quality. On the other hand, all enemies using a sword have the some bonuses. So sword vs sword levels out.
Not sure how sword vs any other weapon balances out in the long run.

Maybe just half the bonus to a +5% ?

if you're using advantage it causes it to flatten out a lot, if you aren't using advantage it just results in fights dragging out absolutely forever because the defenders always have a baked in advantage to reduce damage/hits. my compromise for that fix was making a quality that let them swap dice on a fumble to reduce injury instead, but this ended up being pretty underwhelming so i relegated swords to "no special qualities, no penalties" instead.

[Thorodeth]

The follow on thought I had was that those benefits would only apply if nothing is weilded in the other hand.

You are right, thats another point. Having a sword with defending + a shield + defensive stance seems pretty powerfull.

so i relegated swords to "no special qualities, no penalties" instead.

So you did keep the other qualities for basic weapons? How did that work out?

Guess i have to run some test fights to see if it feels "realistic" enough and doesn`t hinder the combat flow.

btw: appreciate your feedback

[Orin J.]

so i relegated swords to "no special qualities, no penalties" instead.

So you did keep the other qualities for basic weapons? How did that work out?

Guess i have to run some test fights to see if it feels "realistic" enough and doesn`t hinder the combat flow.

btw: appreciate your feedback

as for how it worked out, i modified the "basic hand weapon" stats a bit to balance it, which you can read in here. i found hack was biased heavily against players that favored monster fights and downgraded it along with the stat changes. clubs/maces were....honestly the pummeling quality never came up when i tested it so i probably overbalanced it.

[Thorodeth]

which you can read in here.

Oh wow! Nice. You really put some effort into it! *thumbsup*

Thx for the read. Have to dig into it.