Semi-Historical Arms and Armor, abbreviated

New Fighting Styles: The following features can be selected by classes that have the Fighting Style class feature.

Fighting Style: Baroque: So long as you are not carrying a shield, you may treat any piercing or slashing melee weapon used in one hand as a finesse weapon. While you have a melee weapon in one hand and no shield or weapon in the other, you gain +1 AC.

Fighting Style: Tempo: You are trained to measure the rhythm of battle and counter foes by beating an adversary’s attack. You may treat the following weapons as finesse weapons: quarterstaff, arming sword, long sword, great sword, small sword, estoc, partisan and spear.

If you are not wearing heavy armor, you also gain +1 to attack rolls you make with finesse weapons.

New Feats:

Butcher: You have mastered the use of pendulum weapons; the handaxe, battleaxe, greataxe, and any polearm while using an axe or greataxe head (e.g. a pollaxe). You gain the following benefits when using any of these weapons:  +1 bonus to attack rolls.  On a critical hit, reroll the weapon’s entire damage die and add it as extra damage to the critical hit.  Whenever you hit a creature while you have advantage on the attack roll, reduce the hit creature’s AC by 2, stacking, for the remainder of the encounter.

Einhander: You have mastered the use of a one-handed sword, such as the short sword, arming sword, and longsword in one hand. You gain the following benefits when using any of these weapons:  +1 bonus to attack rolls. This weapon is a finesse weapon if you are using the weapon in one hand and have no shield or weapon in the other.  The critical hit range of this weapon increases by 1 step.  Whenever you make an opportunity attack you can instead Grapple or Shove the target. You must have a free hand in order to do this.

Flourish: You have mastered the use of light bladed weapons; the dagger, rapier, scimitar. You gain the following benefits when using any of these weapons:  +1 bonus to attack rolls and +1 to AC if you are using the weapon in one hand and have no shield or weapon in the other.  Whenever you make an opportunity attack with this weapon, you have advantage on that roll.  When you use your action to Dash and the last 10ft of movement is in a straight line, you can use a bonus action to make one melee attack with this weapon. If you make an attack this movement does not trigger opportunity attacks.

Phalanx: You have mastered the use of spears, tridents, and other polearms (including glaives, halberds, and pikes) in dense formations. You gain the following benefits when using any of these weapons:  +1 bonus to attack rolls. If using the weapon in two hands, it has reach (5ft) if it did not already.  You provide +1 AC to any allies within the Reach of your weapon.  As a bonus action choose one creature at least 20ft away. If it moves within reach on its next turn, you may make an attack with this weapon against the creature as a reaction. The attack deals an additional die of damage equal to the weapon’s damage die.

Spada Longa: You have mastered the use of two-handed swords, notably the arming sword, longsword, greatsword, and estoc, for battlefield combat against heavily armored formations. You gain the following benefits when using any of these weapons:  +1 bonus to attack rolls if you are using the weapon in two-hands.  By switching stances, you benefit from different aspects of your weapon. Your weapon may deal either slashing or piercing damage. As a bonus action on your turn you have Reach (5ft) with this weapon until the start of your next turn or until you are not holding the weapon.  Opponents with Reach suffer disadvantage on their melee opportunity attacks if the move triggering the opportunity attack puts you adjacent to the opponent.

Staff Dueling: You have mastered the use of light polearms, such as the quarterstaff, spear, javelin, trident and partisan, for use in duels. You gain the following benefits when using any of these weapons:  +1 bonus to attack rolls.  Improve the damage die of all these weapons by 1 step. (i.e. spear becomes 1d8, versatile (1d10))  When used in two hands, this weapon has Reach (5ft) and is a finesse weapon.

Ward: You have mastered the use of two-handed swords, the arming sword, longsword, and greatsword, for dueling. You gain access to three Wards, chosen from the following list. You fluidly translate between all known Wards, and thus gain the effects of your 3 chosen wards when using any of these weapons:  Crown Guard: While you are wielding a weapon in two hands you gain advantage on strength (athletics) checks to disarm an opponent.  Fool’s Guard: While you are wielding a weapon in two hands you deal +2 damage on all Opportunity Attacks. You also gain a +2 bonus to initiative.  Iron Guard: While you are wielding a weapon in two hands, you deal +1 damage.  Long Guard: While you are wielding a weapon in two hands and an opponent misses a melee attack against you, you gain +2 to your next melee attack roll against that opponent.  Plow Guard: While you are wielding a weapon in two hands you gain +1 to AC.  Roof Guard: While you are wielding a weapon in two hands and you roll a critical hit, roll an additional die of damage equal to the weapon’s damage die and add it to the total damage.  Tail Guard: While you are wielding a weapon in two hands, when you make a successful attack, one creature within 5ft of the original target takes str mod or dex mod damage (whichever is highest).

New Arms: Name Cost Damage Damage Type Weight Properties Martial Melee Arming Sword/Back 15 1d8 Slashing 2.5 lbs. versatile (1d10) Sword/Jian gp Estoc 20 1d0 Piercing 4.5 lbs. Heavy, two-handed gp Long Sword 25 1d10 Slashing 3 lbs. versatile (1d12) gp Partisan/Falx 1d6 Piercing or 4 lbs. Reach, thrown (10/30), versatile Slashing (1d8) Polearm (specialized) 20 1d10 Special 5 lbs. Heavy, reach, two-handed, gp polearm**

New Arms:

Arming Sword: Depictions of “longswords” in most D&D material is closer in length to an arming sword.

Estoc: An estoc looks quite like a thin longsword but it has blunt edges and usually a diamond cross-section. This makes the Estoc quite useful for piercing mail, which was its primary function.

Longsword: A longsword is not just a sword that is long (though it is that as well). It is specifically a sword designed to be used in two hands (though it could be used in one) that is a primary battlefield weapon (as opposed to an arming sword, which is, as its name suggest, a side arm).

Partisan/Falx: If you want to build a spear with the intention of keeping your enemies away from you, you will make a long shaft with a small metal spearhead; a heavier or longer spearhead makes the end away from your grip heavier, and due to the increased torque, would make the end less precisely maneuverable and more tiring. A light, small spearhead, however, means that the weapon is mostly restricted to thrusting motions. A larger bladed spearhead could be used for parrying or slashing, as is the case with a Partisan or Falx. Weapons of this type can be found as far back as bronze-age Scotland but became popular again in the late medieval period (though possibly less as a battlefield weapon and more for ceremony).

Polearms: Polearms are often highly specialized weapons with modifications for different tasks. A polearm will typically have two or three different bits or heads at one or both ends of a long wooden stick. At the price indicated in the table, a polearm is equipped with one (1) of the following heads at no extra cost or weight. Additional heads increase cost and weight. Generally, a polearm can be fitted with up to 3 heads per end (though very few weapons outside of ceremonial or judicial trial weapons have heads at both ends).

- Axe head (slashing damage, +1 gp, +1 lbs) - Blade head (slashing damage, +1 gp, +1 lbs) - Greataxe head (this head deals 1d12 slashing damage, +10 gp, +2 lbs) - Great blade head (this head deals 1d12 slashing damage, +15 gp, +1.5 lbs) - Spear point/Spike (piercing damage, +1 gp, +1 lbs) - Curved Hook/Thorn or Crow’s beak (Bec de Corbin) (piercing damage, +5 gp, +1 lbs, double proficiency on trip/disarm attempts) - Hammer head (bludgeoning damage, +5 gp, +1 lbs) - Maul/Great hammer head (this head deals 1d12 bludgeoning damage, +15 gp, +5 lbs)

The following are examples of polearms with varying heads:

Danish Axe, Sparth Axe, or Bardiche: polearm with a heavy, crescent-shaped Axe or Greataxe head.

Fauchard, Glaive, Voulge, Naginata, Svärdstav: polearm with Blade or Greatblade head in either concave (Fauchard) or convex (Glaive) positions. Later Fauchards also add a Spear point as a second head). Polearms with secondary concave-edged blades are sometimes given names with –Fauchard attached afterwards.

Guisarmes: polearms designed for dismounting horsemen, with a Curved Hook. Bladed polearms with hooks are often given names with –Guisarme attached afterwards, such as a Volge-Guisarmes.

Corseque or Ranseur: polearms with three-bladed head, typically a Spear point and two blade heads.

Halberd or Poleaxe: polearm with an Axe/Great-Axe head, a Spike, and a Hook

Bec de corbin or Lucerne Hammer: polearm with Hook, Hammer head, and Spear point; its designation depended on which head was the primary tool for the weapon.

Fluff Armor Changes: Rename Studded Leather to Brigandine. Studded leather is an erroneous modern reference to the way the inside of Brigandine looked; steel or iron platelets were studded to the inside of the leather jacket. It is those platelets, and not the studs, that offer the defensive capabilities of that armor.

Rename Chain Shirt to Mail, or Byrnie/Hauberk.

Rename Scale Mail to Scale Armor. In general, “scale” armors, with the scale plates attached to a leather or linen back and not (usually) punched together, predate or are concurrent with early mail, and, especially in its earlier usages during the Bronze Age, did not include mail. Mail with scale-shaped iron or steel plates either sandwiched between or attached on top are a much later invention and are lamellar or laminar.

Rename and replace Breastplate with Lamellar Armor. They’re different things entirely, but mechanically Lamellar would fall somewhere here. Breastplate as separate armor is more a late-Renaissance affair and as armor would not be more protective than Brigandine.

Rename Half-Plate to Partial Plate or ¾ Plate. Half Plate is a modern amalgamation of early transitional plate armors and Landsknechts wearing plate armor, just without greaves for greater on-foot mobility.

Rename and replace Ring Mail with Laminar Armor. Ring Mail is ahistorical (see below for a description). Laminar armor is representative of “heavy” armor prior to the rediscovery of trip hammer technology allowing large steel plates to be readily formed. Later examples of Laminar armor may mechanically count as plated mail.

Rename and replace Chain Mail with Plated Mail or Splinted Plate (but not splint mail, which is ahistorical). Head-to-toe mail was generally only used in conjunction with plate as a single set of armor; this type of mail is much finer and lighter than mail armor used as the primary form of armor. Transitional plate armors show a wide variety of experimentation with plate placement.

Replace Splint with Early Plate.