Asian Weapons in 5e

One of my favorite aspects of the 1E version of Oriental Adventures was the weapon section. More than anything else, this was the flavor that really allowed my imagination to take flight. There is something about the image of temple guards armed with tetsubos that just says asian fantasy to me. You could keep virtually everything else about the game the same, have a list of asian-inspired weapons and my imagination would transport me to whatever asian-style fantasy world you want.

Thus, a very important aspect of continuing my current thought experiment, which I am tentatively calling Jade: The Land of the Ten Clans, was to get a weapon list full of asian-style weapons. In order to do this, I really didn’t want to re-invent the wheel. As far as I can see, the weapon list in 5e is just fine. It does everything I need it to do. Thus, the key was to find asian equivalents to each of the weapons on the list. There are a couple of things, though, that I really wanted to express through the weapons list that wouldn’t be necessarily possible, given the proficiencies of the Rogue and the Ranger.

Firstly, I wanted the katana and wakizashi to be exclusively Ranger weapons. This sets up a class divide between Rangers and every other class and allows these two weapons to be the outward symbols of that class divide.

Secondly, due the ubiquitous image of the ninja armed with a blowgun, I wanted Rogues to have access to that particular weapon. I will grant, that I could have done this via a specific background, but given my desire to make the katana and wakizashi exclusive to Rangers, I found it more useful to deal with it more generally.

Thus, to solve both problems with one simple change, I swapped out the Rogue’s proficiency with the Longsword (which is the best fit for describing a katana) for a proficiency with the Blowgun.

Here is a list of the 5e weapons and what I see as decent (though not perfect) asian equivalents:

Simple Melee Weapons
Club = Jo
Dagger = Knife
Greatclub = Tetsubo
Handaxe = (same)
Javelin = Sibat
Light Hammer = Tonfa
Mace = (same)
Quarterstaff = Bo
Sickle = Kama
Spear = Chiang

Simple Ranged Weapons
Crossbow, Light = (same)
Dart = Shuriken
Shortbow = (same)
Sling = (same)

Martial Melee Weapons
Battleaxe = Naginata
Flail = Nunchuck
Glaive = Chai-Dao
Greataxe = Nine-Dragon-Trident
Greatsword = No Dachi
Halberd = Ghi
Lance = (same)
Longsword = Katana
Maul = Wolf-Teeth-Staff
Morningstar = (same)
Pike = Yari
Rapier = Jien
Scimitar = Wakizashi
Shortsword = Sai
Trident = Dang Pa
War pick = Hook Sword
Warhammer = Three-Section-Staff
Whip = Chain Whip

Martial Ranged Weapons
Blowgun = (same)
Crossbow, hand = (same)
Crossbow, heavy = (same)
Longbow = (same)
Net = (same)

Thus, the swords of the Ranger class are the Katana and Wakizashi and the sword of the Rogue-as-rank-in-file-soldier is the Jien.

Again, I realize that several of these equivalents are not exact, but in the abstract they do just fine. Given that D&D combat has always been a gross abstraction of combat, this list suits me just fine.

Another Weapon vs. AC Table

A friend of mine recently showed off his copy of 1st edition Oriental Adventures, expressing an interest in playing. I have to admit, I am not much of a fan of these rules, because I am not much enamored with the proficiency rules, and never have been. I would, however, be interested in doing a Ruins & Ronins campaign.

Like many, I am fascinated by medieval Japan (Yojimbo is one of my all-time favorite movies). What many may not know, Christianity did exist in Japan prior to the Tokugawa era. As many as 250,000 Japanese became Christian, particularly in the South where Europeans made the most contact. They were wiped out, however, by Tokugawa, who saw them as being a negative foreign influence. Thus, I would be able to explore this aspect of Japanese culture — its mystery and its own fascination with and repulsion of a Christian theology.

My inner geek, however, relishes in the idea of applying weapon vs. AC adjustments in a new way. Ruins & Ronins does three things that are significant in this regard. First, there are no shields, so there doesn't have to be any debate about how to understand them in terms of AC. Second, AC is determined cumulatively by pieces of armor. Finally, characters are given a Base Hit Bonus which goes up as they level. This allows for the weapon vs. AC table to consist of target numbers instead of bonuses and penalties.

Using the weapon vs. AC table in Oriental Adventures as a starting point, I immediately ran into a problem. The Nodachi has vastly superior bonuses across the board than any other weapon in the game. In a European context, this works because there is a tactical choice between the offensive power of the 2H Sword and the defense of a shield (especially if you use a house rule where shields can be used as ablative armor to negate a hit). In R&R there are no shields, thus there is no tactical choice — the nodachi is a vastly superior weapon that everyone will want to use because it makes no tactical sense to do anything else. Thus, I had to start over from scratch.

As I see it, there are four possible patterns for weapons vs. AC that allow for a tactical choice in combat:
1) Weapons that are better vs. heavy armor but worse vs. light or no armor.
2) Weapons that are worse vs. heavy armor but better vs. light or no armor.
3) Weapons that are worse vs. heavy, light and no armor but better vs. medium armor.
4) Weapons that have no bonuses or penalties vs. any armor.

Traditionally, 3 & 4 do not exist in D&D weapon vs. AC tables; however, there is some semblance of them in Chainmail. Since the point of this whole exercise is to add a layer of tactics to weapon choice, I want to use all four patterns.

Weapons can be categorized into three basic types based on damage: Blunt, Slashing and Piercing. These neatly fit into patterns 1, 2, and 3 respectively. This, however, does not allow for the use of pattern 4. I am contemplating using pattern 4 for martial arts, given that Asia is famous for its unarmed combat and it has techniques that can ignore armor — the abstract nature of 0e combat can understand these techniques as holds and throws, for example. Weapons can be further categorized by being one-handed or two-handed.

Here is a rough draft of a Weapon vs. AC table for Ruins & Ronins:

--------Weapon Type
AC-----2HB-----1HB-----2HS-----1HS-----2HP----1HP-----MA
-1.......17......18.......23......22.......22......21......20
0........16......17.......22......21.......20......19......19
1........16......17.......20......19.......18......18......18
2........15......16.......19......18.......16......17......17
3........15......16.......17......16.......14......15......16
4........15......15.......15......15.......12......13......15
5........15......14.......13......14.......12......13......14
6........15......14.......11......12.......12......13......13
7........14......13.......10......11.......12......12......12
8........14......13........8.......9.......12......11......11
9........13......12........7.......8.......12......11......10

Please note: All numbers are target numbers. MA can also be understood to be AAC. In terms of missile weapons, a Daikyu is considered to be a 2HP and all others are 1HP.

2H=2 Handed; 1H=1 Handed
B=Blunt; S=Slashing; P=Piercing
MA=Martial Arts/Unarmed Combat