Semi-Historical Arms and Armor

The following are some notes about the weapons and armor tables in D&D 5th edition, as they pertain to their relationship to modern understandings of historical arms and armor.

In general, 5th edition is far more accurate to ancient and medieval sources regarding these topics than prior editions, but for the sake of balance and ease of play without the onerous restrictions of reality, there are still some expected incongruences.

This article attempts to explain some particular facets about the use of arms and armor throughout our long, shared history, and to offer some suggestions (imbalanced as they may be) on how such items would have been used in particular times and places.

A note on generalities:

One of the best things 5th edition offers in these tables is the generalization of particular weapons and armor compared to prior editions. Is there a significant, functional difference between a half-sword, arming sword, backsword, wakizashi, tulwar, or any other various forms of predominately one-handed pokey and slashy things with 13 inch, sometimes 14 or 20 or even 30 inch blades? Well, actually yes, but that level of discrimination is often not noticeable in the granularity of the combat mechanics of most systems, and, more importantly, how modern readers often distinguish them is often anachronistic.

For instance, almost all straight sword-like weapons, be it arming swords, half-swords, back swords, longswords or even great swords like claymores (but not Messers!) are referred to in ancient and medieval texts (MS I.33, Liberi, etc) as… swords. Just swords. Often when there are references to sword types by specific names (such as a bastard sword, which is often identified as a hand-and-half sword in modern reviews), it is not always clear what that name refers to and popular culture attempts to fill in the blanks.

In modern archeology, arms and armor have been variously categorized by age, function, physical shape, or any number of other salient attributes. Most of it is fairly dry and boring to the uninitiated, so we’ll try to strike a balance

Armor:

General overview:

Now and again the modern reader may ask to himself, “why would someone wear lamellar armor when lamellar is listed in this table right below and is mostly better in every single aspect?” Conversely, game designers sometimes try to ‘balance’ armor and give a disadvantaged one some aspect that is superior in some fashion. Both viewpoints skirt around the historical rationale: there are considerations when acquiring armor (is it legal to wear? Is it comfortable to wear day-to-day? Will it last me a long while? Does it make me look ridiculous in front of my peers?) completely aside from the armor’s protective function. Furthermore, some

Statistics: Proficiency: if you wear armor without corresponding proficiency in that type, you suffer disadvantage on all ability checks, saving throws, and attack rolls using strength or dexterity and cannot cast spells, as per the PHB. AC: add to a base of 10. Strength: equipping armor with a strength score decreases your movement speed per round by 10 feet unless your strength is equal to or greater than that rating. Properties: varying armors have differentiating factors. DA is disadvantage. DR is damage reduction.

Descriptions: Light Armor:

Leather, Raw Hide or Cuir Boulli: Animal hides, either untanned (rawhide) or tanned (leather), would have likely been used as some form of armor and certainly for clothing, though very few historical examples survive as leather is biodegradable. However, it is unlikely to have been used alone as armor, without reinforcement from metal plates or mail, when those were available. Tanned, hardened leather is tougher than rawhide, but also more brittle. It has the consistency similar to a hard, plastic shell.

Buff Coats, leather clothing developed in the renaissance and early modern period, is of this type of armor.

Soldier wearing Buff Coat (English Civil War 1642-1651) – John Pettie

Padded Jack/: A Gambeson is a quilted, padded jacket (and sometimes trousers) typically made either of cotton (in Egypt and Asia-Minor) or of linen (particularly in medieval Europe). A similar piece of clothing, called the arming doublet or aketon, was worn underneath plate armor and became a civilian fashion in Italy during the late medieval period. Heavy armor comes fitted with an aketon or other padded material. Padded armor of this type was common across the ancient and medieval world, as it was relatively easy to produce and could protect against blades and arrows. It is known by a variety of names: aketon (medieval French, possibly on loan from Arabic), arming coat, auqueton, gambeson, hacketon, haqueton, panzari (medieval Norse, on loan from Middle Low German), vapnterya, etc.

Padded armor tailored to be worn under other armor was typically 3 lbs or lighter.

Soldier on far left wearing red gambeson, fol. 10r of the Morgan Bible (ca. 1250, Northern France)

Brigandine: A is a cloth garment (usually plain-woven fabric or leather) lined with steel plates riveted to the inside of layers of the fabric. Compared to most other armors, it was developed fairly recently during the late 14th century during the transitional period from mail to plate armor in Europe, and as recently as the 15th and 16th centuries in Asia. It was commonly used by Men-at-Arms, and while not as protective as Plate, it was cheaper, easier to make and repair, and offered greater mobility.

Note: the D&D idea of “studded leather” likely arises from the way Brigandine sometimes looks like from the inside; the steel plates between the cloth are sometimes riveted to rounded studs, though these would be on the inside of the armor and are not the protective substance of the armor.

Other armors that are more substantial than Padded but less so than metal armors (such as the famous Linothorax, a linen laminate), would have roughly the same mechanical statistics as Brigandine.

Brigandine – Wendelin Boeheim, 1890

Medium Armor:

Scale Armor: The earliest forms of metal (that is, typically metal, but sometimes rawhide or leather) is typically of this type; separate pieces of metal (usually bronze, but occasionally iron or tin) sheets, held together by leather thongs and attached to a cloth or leather backing. Surviving examples of these armors suggest that they often consist of chest protection with and , but typically not more.

Scale armor was predominant on ancient battlefields in Egypt and Western Asia as early as 2500 BC, and remained in use into “classical antiquity” because it is comparatively lighter and more flexible than more rigid armor of the time and “breathes” well, making it suitable for warmer climates. Scale armor, particularly in Europe, began to fall out of favor to Mail during late antiquity.

More substantial metal barding for horses in the ancient world through the early typically was of this construction (It is attested to in Shi Jing and was often used for Sassanid-era , though the riders were usually in mail). It was easier to manufacture than later period armors, and remained in use among cultures without access to high-quality steel-working centers up until the early modern period. Mycenaean Era armor was typically scale armor, as was Scythian, Ancient Vietnamese, Republic-era Roman and Lorica Plumata, Persian “Fish”-scale armor as recounted by Herodotus, and Japanese gyorin kozane.

Some forms of Muscle or Heroic , body armor (typically of bronze) cast to fit the wearer’s torso and mimic an idealized physical form that was widespread in the 5th and 4th centuries BC, would be mechanically similar to Scale armor, even though they would typically be too cumbersome and costly for typical infantrymen. Although there is some indication it was used in combat (mostly by officers), this type of cuirass was likely reserved for formal events like military reviews or parades.

Chinese scale armors were typically of a “fish-scale”-like pattern made of leather or iron strips during the Han, though they developed into the Mountain and Star Scale armors during the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

Footsoldier (presumably) in scale armor.

Mail Shirt//Byrnie: A shirt made of small metal (usually iron or bronze) rings, linked together to form a mesh. Typically credited as a Celtic invention, mail armor has been found as early as the 4th century BC in Central Europe, and spread quickly throughout Europe, Africa and Asia. Though quite labor-intensive (30,000 rings would have gone into a , a task that would take up to 2 months even with continual slave labor), mail armor very flexible, reliable, strong (particularly against slashing weapons), and, with good maintenance, could be used for several decades. When its weight was distributed across the body, often with the help of a heavy belt, mail could be worn for extended periods of time, and the constant friction on the rings prevented rust and corrosion. Mail armor was very common on the ancient and medieval battlefields in Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia and in ancient texts is often synonymous with “armor”.

A Hauberk describes a sleeved mail shirt that typically covers up to the mid thigh; a Haubergeon usually refers to a smaller, shorter Hauberk, but historical sources sometimes used them interchangeably.

Not all mail was equally made; one of the major differentiators was whether or not the mail was designed to be worn as secondary armor, below lamellar, plate, or more substantial armor; these could be quite light (the half-sleeved Wallace A1 (early 15th(?) century) weighs 9.87 lbs.). On the other hand a hauberk designed as the sole piece of protection could be much more substantial (the Kungslena hauberk (1208) weighs 33.7 lbs). This entry refers to the latter type: mail as the primary armor.

Taking off a Hauberk, fol. 28r of the Morgan Bible (ca. 1250, Northern France)

Lamellar: Lamellar armor consists of rows of lamellae, small (usually metal) platelets, laced and punched together. Unlike Scale armor, lamellar armor is not attached to a cloth or leather backing, though it is usually worn over a padded undergarment or mail hauberk (which, for mechanical purposes, is part and parcel of this armor). Lamellar was especially popular throughout Western and Eastern Asia into the 16th century. It was the armor of choice for Byzantine .

Half or ¾ plate: Plate armor was sometimes worn without greaves or lower leg protection in order to improve mobility on foot in difficult terrain, to reduce the weight a warhorse must carry, and/or to reduce cost. Swiss mercenaries and Landsknechts in the 15th and 16th centuries often wore “three-quarters” plate, with exposed legs. Typically Half Plate consists of a steel cuirass (back and ) with or without a fauld, tasset or , mail skirt, , (later versions with roundels, besagews, ), vambraces, and gauntlets. For the purposes of these tables, a is purchased separately.

Mirror armor, a type of partial plate armor used in Asia and Eastern Europe up to the 17th century with a large, round plate shaped like a mirror situated at the abdomen of the wearer, is of this type of armor. There are particular cultural connotations regarding the warding of the evil eye, particularly in Western Asia, that are taken into consideration with the design of mirror armor.

“Three-quarters” plate, Munition Armor of Savoyard style (early 17th century)

Heavy Armor:

Laminar/Banded Plate: Laminar armor is made from overlapping rows or bands of armor plates, as opposed to lamellar, where smaller plates are laced together. The famous is representative of this category of armor. While the Lorica Segmentata was only used for a relatively brief period of time (about 9 BC to 3rd century AD), likely due to the difficulty in maintaining this type of armor during the Migration Period, other forms of Laminar armor remained in use until superseded by plate armor in the 16th century due to the invention of, amongst other innovations, the trip hammer. Later examples of Laminar armor in the 16th and 17th centuries sometimes used sliding rivets to connect the metal plates, forming an animated, highly mobile armor, or anima, an Italian invention. Late examples of samurai armor (those that aren’t lamellar, that is) are of this type of armor.

Lorica Segmentata

A word on “”: in the 19th century, antiquarians such as Fairholt and Hewitt believed that a type of predominately Eastern armor with banded plates (sometimes of leather) sewn on top of mail was worn in ancient times, as shown on a number of effigies and tomb artwork. No surviving artifact suggests that this was the case (compare with plated mail below, where the plates are embedded within the mail, not sewn on top). Much aside from the fact that many depictions had artistic license, those examples were either mostly laminar or splinted armor (see: the Behterets of the Golden Horde), but it remained in popular consciousness (probably because of its inclusion in prior editions of D&D equipment tables).

Lorica Segmentata – Trajan’s Column (113 AD)

Laminar Armor, William Herbet, Earl of Pembroke (1501-1570)

Plated Mail: Plated Mail, also sometimes referred to as Splinted armor, is a type of mail with (usually rectangular) embedded metal plates and was particularly common in Asia and Eastern Europe after the 14th century. Different combinations resemble brigandine, lamellar, or mirror armor (armor with a large, rounded metal plate set at the abdomen. It was used by the Ottomans in Mamluk barding and armor. By the end of the 15th century, this type of armor began to supplant Lamellar in most cultures that produced it.

Plated and Splinted Mail, bottom left. Transitional armor (plated jack over mail, plated greaves), bottom right.

Plated Mail Armor and Barding, Syrian, Iranian and Turkish, 1450-1550, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

Plate Armor: Full suits of plate armor developed out of 13th century European coats of plate over mail, slowly adding more and more plate, reaching a peak during the and renaissance period. The wearer remained relatively agile and could jump and run. While any armor does hinder mobility to some degree, custom- made plate armor (though, see Munition Armor, below), distributed weight across the wearer’s body (unlike mail), and allowed a great deal of mobility.

It is, in general, more difficult to make armor out of large, shaped plates than smaller ones, so the development of plate armor is intimately tied to improvements in metallurgy as well as the development of massive water-wheel powered hammers, known as trip or helve hammers. Though these tools were in use in Rome and China as early as in the 1st century AD (and were important in the proliferation of Laminar armors such as lorica segmentata), the crises of the 3rd century, collapse of the Han, and the Migration era disrupted industrial production of this level throughout much of Europe and Asia until roughly the 12th century.

Plated Armor comes with gauntlets. For the purposes of these tables, helms are purchased separately.

Full Plate Armor and Barding. Sigismund II Augustus (1548-1569)

Helmets:

Mail : Close fitting mail cap covering the top, back, sides of the head, neck and the shoulders, but leaving the face exposed.

Steel Cap: This entry covers all forms of generally open-faced helmets.

Great Helm: This entry covers all forms of fully enclosed steel helmets from the early 13th century up until the 16th century. A comes with a . With the visor down, the helm provides a +2 to AC and disadvantage on perception checks; with the visor up, the helm only provides +1 to AC but no disadvantage on perception checks.

Armor Light Armor Cost Armor Class (AC) STR Weight Properties (gp) Leather 10 +1+dex mod - 4-7 lbs. Padded 10 +1+dex mod - 6-8 lbs. Brigandine 40 +2+dex mod - 13-15 lbs.

Medium Armor Scale Armor 50 +2+dex mod (max 11 22-44 lbs. DA (stealth), DR 1 (bludgeoning) 3) Mail 50 +2+dex mod (max - 20-30 lbs. DA (stealth), DR 1 (slashing) 3) Lamellar Armor 350 +4+dex mod (max 12 20-30 lbs. DR 1 (bludgeoning) 2) Half-Plate 700 +5+dex mod (max 12 20-45 lbs. DA (stealth), DR 1 (bludgeoning), 2) DR 2 (slashing)

Heavy Armor Laminar Armor 500 +4+dex mod (max 12 15-30 lbs. DA (stealth), DR 1 (bludgeoning), 2) DR 1 (slashing) Plated Mail 650 +5+dex mod (max 13 20-40 lbs. DA (stealth), DR 1 (bludgeoning), 1) DR 2 (slashing) Plate Armor 1,500 +6+dex mod (max 14 35-55 lbs. DA (stealth), DR 1 (bludgeoning), 2) DR 3 (slashing)

Shield Buckler 5 +1 - 2 lbs. Light, deals 1d4 bludgeoning Shield 10 +2 - 4-6 lbs. 1d6 bludgeoning Heavy Shield/Pavise 35 +3 14 22-50 lbs. DR 1 (all)

Helmet 15 +1 - 1-4 lbs. Counts as light armor Steel Cap 15 +1 - 2-5 lbs. Counts as medium armor Great Helm 250 +2 (+1 with visor 12 2-5 lbs. Counts as heavy armor, DA up) (perception) (with visor down)

Arms:

Simple vs. Martial: As with many aspects of life, social and legal convention often dictated what an individual may wear just as much as cost or weight concerns. In particular, in many city-states across the world in pre-industrial times, it was often illegal for the common man to wear a sword, just as some modern nation-states may ban the open carrying of rifles. The sword, apart from any other common weapon (spear/bow/axe), had no other purpose than to kill a man, and was thus viewed as a high-status instrument (even when they became increasingly cheap and prevalent during the late middle-ages).

In addition, “martial” weapons with the exception of some swords, were typically too large and cumbersome to be carried around while one went about their daily duties, and thus not openly carried except on the battlefield or by guards.

Legal, Cultural, and Practical Issues (Messing around with a Messer): A Messer is a long-bladed (~20 inches), single edge weapon often with a short concave edge on the blunted end toward the tip and a flaring Nagel perpendicular to the cross guard. To the modern viewer it looks like a sword, but because of the construction of its tang it was, by Germanic law, a “”, and thus, unlike a sword, legal for the common peasant to wear.

For our purposes, the point of the Messer is that the considerations for what weapon to have is not simply down to “how much damage it does” or how well it works with a given class feature. Historically, legal and cultural traditions played a huge role, as did how heavy and comfortable a weapon was to wear. People didn’t walk around everyday wielding halberds unless they wanted to attract a good deal of unwanted attention.

For instance, take the famous Hispanic Gladius; earlier Gladius had a prominent curvature to the distal point of the blade, the famous characteristic of the weapon. What was interesting was the later development of triangle-shaped bits towards the cross-guard of the weapon. What were they for? Greater integrity? Better weight distribution?

Well, as it turns out, your scabbard has to be wide enough for the tip of the blade, and if the blade closer to the hilt is thinner, then it rattles around in the scabbard a lot. And as any modern soldier will tell you, loose gear is extraordinarily annoying. This is actually an important consideration, as the vast majority of militia and drawn up soldiers in the ancient and medieval world (apart from career soldiers, of course) would likely never get into a single battlefield fight in their entire lives.

It is also worth noting that swords, particularly one-handed swords, were secondary weapons throughout the ancient world, similar to a pistol (in both functionality and public fascination) to a modern soldier today; generally a combination of some reach weapon (either with or without a shield) would be the primary battlefield instrument for the majority of foot-soldiers.

Open Handed Fighting: As it is in D&D 5th Edition, if a melee fighting character is using a one-handed weapon and has a free hand, there’s no real reason not to use a shield. Historically, this was not always the case. An open (preferentially gauntleted, even though the palm of a was not armored) hand could prove to be very useful, particularly in parrying or grappling against a polearm weapon or preventing the momentum of an enemy swing.

Any character that is proficient in martial weapons will have access to the following:

Open parry: if engaged in combat with a creature within reach (typically 5ft) of your hand (that is, not the reach of the weapon) and you have a free hand that has not been used for your Action (that is, not taken advantage of the use of the higher damage Versatile profile), you may, as a bonus action, designate one creature within hand reach. That creature has Disadvantage on its next melee attack against you, unless it has a strength or dexterity of at least 5 points higher than yours.

Arms Name Cost Damage Damage Type Weight Properties Simple Melee Club - 1d4 Bludgeoning 2 lbs. Light 2 gp 1d4 Piercing 1 lb. Finesse, light, thrown (20/60) Dart/Piercer 1 gp 1d3 Piercing - Finesse, light, thrown (30/60) Hand Axe 5 gp 1d6 Slashing 2 lbs. Light, thrown (20/60) Javelin 2 gp 1d6 Piercing 2 lbs. Thrown (30/120) Mace (Steel) 8 gp 1d6 Bludgeoning 2.5 lbs. - Quarterstaff 2 gp 1d6 Bludgeoning 3 lbs. Reach, versatile (1d8) Sickle/Farm 1 gp 1d4 Slashing 2 lbs. Light implements Spear 1 gp 1d6 Piercing 3 lbs. Reach, thrown (10/30), versatile (1d8) War-club 2 gp 1d6 Bludgeoning 5 lbs. Versatile (1d8) Unarmed - 1 Bludgeoning - -

Simple Ranged Bow, hunting 25 gp 1d6 Piercing 2 lbs. Ammunition (range 80/320), two- handed Crossbow, light 25 gp 1d8 Piercing 5 lbs. Ammunition (range 80/320), loading, two-handed Sling 1 sp 1d4 Bludgeoning - Ammunition (range 30/120)

Martial Melee Arming Sword or 15 gp 1d8 Slashing 2.5 lbs. Versatile (1d10) Back Sword Battle Axe 15 gp 1d8 Slashing 4 lbs. Versatile (1d10), mail-breaker Estoc 20 gp 1d0 Piercing 4.5 lbs. Two-handed, half-sword Flail 10 gp 1d8 Bludgeoning 2 lbs. Great-Axe (double- 30 gp 1d12 Slashing 7 lbs. Heavy, two-handed, mail-breaker bited) Greatsword 50 gp 2d6 Slashing 4-7 lbs. Heavy, two-handed, half-sword Lance 10 gp 1d12 Piercing 6 lbs. DA (enemies within 5 ft), two-handed when not mounted Long Sword 25 gp 1d10 Slashing 3 lbs. Two-handed, half-sword Maul Hammer 2d6 Bludgeoning 8 lbs. Heavy, two-handed, back-breaker Morningstar 1d8 Piercing 4 lbs. - Partisan/Falx 1d6 Piercing or 4 lbs. Flourish, reach, thrown (10/30), Slashing versatile (1d8) Polearm 20 gp 1d10 Special 5 lbs. Heavy, reach, two-handed, polearm (specialized) 25 gp 1d8 Piercing 2 lbs. Finesse, flourish Small Sword or 15 gp 1d6 Piercing 1 lbs. Finesse, flourish Side-Sword Scimitar or Tulwar 25 gp 1d6 Slashing 3 lbs. Finesse, light Short Sword 20 gp 1d6 Piercing 2 lbs. Finesse, light Trident 1d6 Piercing 4 lbs. Thrown (range 20/60), versatile (1d8) War-Pick/War- 1d8 Piercing or 2 lbs. Versatile (1d10) hammer bludgeoning Whip 1d4 Slashing 3 lbs. Finesse, reach, light

Martial Ranged Blowgun Crossbow, hand Crossbow, heavy Longbow Net

Notes: Most weapon weights are slightly less than what they appear in the PHB, which closer matches surviving historical artifacts and accounts. There are some slight changes:

Quarterstaff: The quarterstaff, whose name likely derives from the fact that a proper quarterstaff of the late medieval period would be cut from one section of a quartered tree trunk (you don’t want to use the center of the tree as the wood there is the softest), is a more substantial an investment than the PHB makes it out to be.

Swords: D&D has typically broken down swords into two types: “long” and “short”, with some variation for uncommon (from a European standpoint) or specialist swords. This is slightly problematic, for 2 reasons.

The term “short” sword is typically absent from most pre-modern sources, but we’ll retain this as a catch-all terminology for bladed weapons with blades between 1 and 2 feet long. Some texts refer to such sidearms as long or long . Examples include the famous Gladius, as well as , Xiphos, Baselard, , and .

The “longsword”, however, is not the longsword of antiquity; the sword that the popular culture envisions as a “longsword” is termed an “arming sword”; a principally single-handed, cruciform hilt, straight double- edged blade with a 27 to 32 inch blade.

Historical Longswords were primarily two-handed straight double-edged swords (though they could be used in one hand for certain maneuvers) with 35 to 43 inch blades. As Longswords became more prevalent in the late medieval and renaissance periods, the arming sword became a sidearm and was called as a “short sword, though, in comparison with earlier swords, the arming sword is actually fairly substantial.

Special Rules:

Axes: applies to any weapon or weapon component with the word “axe” in it. On critical hit, roll an additional die of damage and add it to the total.

Ammunition: Arrows: - Hunting Arrows: - War-Arrows: arrows designed to kill a man had heavier arrowheads and thicker shafts. These features, in turn, required a heavier bow with greater draw weight in order to lob these arrows to any significant range. These arrows were also, in general, constructed as to have the arrowhead separate from the shaft upon a hit, whether on target or on the ground, so that they could not be reused by the enemy to shoot back. - Armor-Piercing Arrows: despite their name, arrows designed to pierce the increasingly common mail armor were not particularly effective against the best protection offered in 15th and 16th century battlefields, plate.

Hammer: applies to any weapon with the word “hammer” in it. On a critical hit, the target must make a constitution save against the damage dealt or be stunned for 1 round.

Sword: applies to any weapon with the word “sword”, as well as daggers, , estocs, tulwars, , scimitars, sabers and similar thrust and slash bladed weapons. Increase the critical hit range by 1 step (19-20 without additional features). Normal: critical hits on a roll of 20.

(New) Properties:

Back-breaker – large hammer-like weapons were typically ahistorical, as their immense weight away from the fulcrum would have made them impractical and wastefully tiring to use for any amount of time. However, if they were ever used, they would have been devastating to even the most armored opponents. Back-breaker weapons ignore up to 1 points of DR (bludgeoning). On a critical hit, the target must pass a fortitude save with DC equal to the damage dealt or suffer from 1 level of exhaustion. If you have Superiority Die, you may spend a Superiority Die on a critical hit to add a Superiority Die to damage and force a dexterity save or fall prone.

Flourish – a light and very agile weapon whose edge or tip moves further and faster than the wielder’s hand movements can be very disorientating to defend against. As a bonus action once per short rest you can Flourish, choosing 1 creature within 5 feet; you have advantage against that character on your next attack roll. If this attack hits and you have Superiority Dice, you may spend a Superiority Die to add Superiority Die damage to the attack and force the target to make a Wisdom Save or suffer from Blindness towards your character (and only that character) for 1 round.

Half-sword – large two-handed swords were developed during the renaissance primarily to break pike formations; upon entering a pike formation, it is speculated that the user held the sword along the ricasso, or blunted edge of the sword close to the hilt, and use the estoc, longsword, or greatsword as a polearm. In this fashion, the weapon deals piercing damage and can be thrust so that it has Reach. If you have Superiority Die, on a successful hit you may spend a Superiority Die to add Superiority Die to damage and force a hit enemy to make a Strength Saving Throw or be pushed back 10 feet.

Heavy – in addition to the stated rules in the PHB, Heavy weapons ignore the first point (1) of damage reduction.

Mail-breaker – large pendulum weapons were exceedingly effective at causing structural failure of mail. Mail-breaker weapons ignore the up to 1 points of DR (slashing). On a critical hit, Mail-breaker weapons ignore up to 5 points of DR (all). If you have Superiority Die, you may spend a Superiority Die on a critical hit to add a Superiority Die to that damage and force the target to take a Constitution Check or be Paralyzed for 1 round.

Polearm – polearms may take polearm modifications.

Strength Rating – Bows, especially war-bows, require tremendous strength to use and some bows were designed to take advantage of massive draw weights. These bows were very difficult to use for someone who lacked the strength and constant training to master them.

A bow may be manufactured to have a strength rating (typically from +0 to +3). A character using a bow that has a strength modifier equal to or greater than the strength rating of a bow will deal extra damage equal to the value of the strength rating. A character using a bow who has a strength modifier less than the strength rating deals one point less damage for each point of difference between his strength modifier and the rating of the bow.

For example:

Ulla, a great warrior with strength 18, uses a strength rating +3 bow. Because she has a strength modifier of +4, she will deal the strength rating of the bow, or +3 damage. Any additional strength modifier is lost.

Mord, a poor 6 year old stableboy just starting to use a bow has strength 10, so when he uses that same strength rating +3 bow, he deals 3 points less of damage.

Modifications:

Hilt modifications: In Western Europe in particular, sword hilts became increasingly complex throughout the late middle ages and into the renaissance, starting with small modifications such as the nagel, or nail, on such weapons as the Messer, and developing into ringlets, and eventually to such things as basket hilts.

The increased protection of the striking hand changed neutral stances from often being held behind or above the head to being far more forward and close to the opponent.

Chappe – a piece of leather fitted to the crossguard. Rationale is unknown but it is likely it was used as a seal on the scabbard to prevent rainwater from touching the blade.

Langets: Weapons with wooden handles (particularly polearms, warhammers, and earlier maces) sometimes have riveted bits of metal called Langets along the side to increase durability against parried blows, which may otherwise eventually compromise the weapon’s integrity.

Blade modifications: Weapons with tapered blades designed for thrusting or slashing (Daggers, Short Swords, Arming Swords, Small Sword, Longsword, Greatsword) can take the following variations:

Single Edge: Single Edge swords are, in general, easier and cheaper to produce than double-edged swords, and with some changes in technique or with a small edge at the tip opposite the blade (on the false edge of the blade), it could still be as effective. There are two other primary advantages to single-edged blades: 1) they could carry a curve, and was thus very effective on horseback in ride-by-attacks, and 2) because there is only a single edge, the distance between where the sword blade is thickest to the cutting edge can be longer than on a double-edged sword of equal width. What this allows is a much more acute (shallow) angle of the blade, which, at least hypothetically, allows for better slicing through soft tissue.

Single edged straight arming swords in Europe were known as Back Swords and curved ones are typically known as sabers, or scimitars, falchions and tulwars further East. Far Eastern single-edge curved longswords included the dao (and all its variations), the zulfikar, as well as later versions of the katana.

Double Edge: Double edged swords can make “reverse blows”, or attacks with the false edge of the blade, as described in Meyer (11r, v), which makes reverse attacks from double-edged swords slightly faster to achieve than with a single-edged weapon. Double edged swords are also much better than single-edged swords for piercing and also easier to remove from a pierced foe; this follows the evolution of swords in general from bronze daggers from the 3rd millennia BC.

Following the development of extensive hilt protection in the early renaissance, however, most European swords, single or double-edged, became essentially mono-directional.

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. 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, head counts as an Axe for special rules, +1 gp, +1 lbs) - Blade head (slashing damage, head counts as a Sword for special rules, +1 gp, +1 lbs) - Greataxe head (this head deals 1d12 slashing damage, head counts as an Axe for special rules, +10 gp, +2 lbs) - Greatblade head (this head deals 1d12 slashing damage, head counts as a Sword for special rules, +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, head counts as a Hammer for special rules, +5 gp, +1 lbs) - Maul/Great hammer head (this head deals 2d6 bludgeoning damage, head counts as a Hammer for special rules, +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)

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 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.

Materials for Arms and Armor:

D&D generally assumes that the arms and armor presented were forged from the most common materials in Western Europe during the period in which those artifacts were found, mostly hides and leathers for lighter armors, and some form of iron or steel for most heavier armor and arms. This is, however, a fairly narrow band of time, and throughout history, various different materials were used. Some historically fantastical materials are included as well.

Note: the “material” used for weapons refers primarily for its striking proportion; a steel-hafted mace and a wooden-hafted mace with langets would generally function identically in the granularity of this game.

Wood: Sharpened hardwood can make for a sufficient edge in areas of the world where metallurgy is either not as developed or ores are very difficult to come by. While a wooden weapon may be expected to be damaged hitting against steel weapons, it is in fact quite difficult to sufficiently damage a well-made wooden weapon of any sufficient thickness to the point where it would become unserviceable. Furthermore, when wielded in hand there is sufficient “give” in the wrist to dissipate most of the energy.

Obsidian: In certain cultures near volcanically active regions, obsidian is often added to wooden clubs or other weapons due to their sharpness. While very brittle,

Bronze:

Orichalcum:

Brass:

Iron:

Early Steel:

Wotz Steel:

Toledo Steel:

Meteoric Iron/Sky Metal:

Cold Steel

Damascus Steel:

Dragonsteel:

Quality of Arms and Armor:

As is the case often with archeological ruins, those artifacts that survive sometimes do so because an individual found that it had sufficient worth to be kept in good condition, whether because of its significance or for its craftsmanship or sentimental reasons. Poorly or quickly made armor or houses, for instance, would often be recycled for their materials. What happens is that the surviving examples of arms and armor tends to be of fairly high quality, and usually tailor-made for persons of great wealth and power.

Apart from some examples of mass burial where the looters did not remove armor, we usually don’t see, for example, shoddy plate armor, with chunks of ill-fitting steel almost haphazardly riveted as word of a siege arrives. That level of craftsmanship, however, would be the norm, particularly in less developed areas.

In addition to Masterwork versions of arms and armor, there are also Poor quality versions.