Melee weapon size and damage


Rules Questions


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Does a club built for a colossal wielder still only do 1d6 damage? Why or why not?


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Considering I don't expect to see any colossal-sized player characters any time soon, I suspect they'll deal however much damage is appropriate for the creature's challenge rating.

Also, considering that a colossal-sized club isn't a player-useable item... I wouldn't feel too bad about upping it's damage to whatever feels about right.


1. Yes

2. Because the rules don't grant an automatic damage bonus or penalty for size

If you want to do bigger damage with a bigger club, design a "Giant Club" weapon. This weapon may be higher level than a basic club.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

My Shabti really wants to know why his massive club does the same damage as the tiny one his little Vesk friend uses.

Is it the increased wind resistance in each swing? :-P


Ravingdork wrote:

My Shabti really wants to know why his massive club does the same damage as the tiny one his little Vesk friend uses.

Is it the increased wind resistance in each swing? :-P

I'm not finding a "Club, Massive" in the weapons tables. :-)

Unless I missed something, weapons sized for larger (or smaller) characters don't change in bulk. Your Shabti has a regular-sized club with a big handle.

If one wants a better weapon, one has to buy a better weapon.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Distant Scholar wrote:
Your Shabti has a regular-sized club with a big handle.

What you describe is not a club at all.

Most ridiculous thing I've heard all day.


Physics-wise, Bigger Object = More Mass = More Force.

Mechanics-Wise, allowing large size PC's as opposed to every playable just happening to be small or medium, means they don't just get a damage bonus for being bigger.

So it's a balance issue, you could as a DM change this, but then it's a pretty big advantage for large players, unless you add back the size penalties and bonuses, but since there are not currently any Tiny PC races, then there really isn't much of a disadvantage to being big anymore.


Ravingdork wrote:
Distant Scholar wrote:
Your Shabti has a regular-sized club with a big handle.

What you describe is not a club at all.

Most ridiculous thing I've heard all day.

That's how they described it the previous three or four times this came up. The weapons deal the damage they deal. If it did different damage, it'd be a different weapon.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Benjamin Medrano wrote:
That's how they described it the previous three or four times this came up. The weapons deal the damage they deal. If it did different damage, it'd be a different weapon.

Allow me to be more clear:

Club
noun
1. a heavy stick, thicker at one end than at the other, suitable for use as a weapon; a cudgel.

What Distant Scholar described is, by definition, not a club (well, I suppose it could be if you held it backwards). It would have to be a different weapon altogether.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Ravingdork wrote:
Benjamin Medrano wrote:
That's how they described it the previous three or four times this came up. The weapons deal the damage they deal. If it did different damage, it'd be a different weapon.

Allow me to be more clear:

Club
noun
1. a heavy stick, thicker at one end than at the other, suitable for use as a weapon; a cudgel.

What Distant Scholar described is, by definition, not a club (well, I suppose it could be if you held it backwards). It would have to be a different weapon altogether.

Nothing about having a bigger handle goes against that. A baseball bat is a club, if its handle was longer that doesn't stop it being a club.


Ravingdork wrote:
Benjamin Medrano wrote:
That's how they described it the previous three or four times this came up. The weapons deal the damage they deal. If it did different damage, it'd be a different weapon.

Allow me to be more clear:

Club
noun
1. a heavy stick, thicker at one end than at the other, suitable for use as a weapon; a cudgel.

What Distant Scholar described is, by definition, not a club (well, I suppose it could be if you held it backwards). It would have to be a different weapon altogether.

And? What they've done is standardized damage. Whether you're smaller or bigger, if you pay a certain price, you get X damage. Though of course, tiny creatures get surcharged... but that's how it goes. Not entirely happy about that part, probably would ignore it for myself. If I had a Large or Gargantuan CR 10 creature, I'd give them a 'club', and use the mechanics of a Comet Hammer. I'd allow the PCs to sell it for the same.

In a lot of ways, Starfinder has attempted to simplify things so that you can't break the system quite as easily. I appreciate that.


Ravingdork wrote:
My Shabti really wants to know why his massive club does the same damage as the tiny one his little Vesk friend uses.

Your Shabti doesn't have a massive club (or if he does it's made out of balsa wood) since his club is still Light bulk.

I could be wrong but from what I can tell, what you're asking for is a custom weapon with higher baseline damage and a minimum size limitation, which isn't currently supported by the game. You could homebrew one into existence, but I'd worry that by doing so you'd upset the race balance since you're offering large creatures better damage scaling with no penalty.

You could balance that by giving large creatures other penalties (they're big, so easier to hit - maybe a -1 AC? And everything is smaller to them, so they'd find it harder to hit - maybe a -1 attack bonus?) but before you know it you're back to using the rather fiddly size rules from Pathfinder.

If you really want to accommodate large creatures and don't care about upsetting the race balance, I think a decent quickfix would be letting large creatures ignore the "unwieldy" trait on some melee weapons. A large creature's superior size and heft allows them to wield swoop hammers with the same finesse that a smaller creature would swing an assault hammer. Most of the unwieldy ranged weapons are awkward for other reasons than heft (plasma coils need to cool down, sniper rifles need to be aimed etc) so they wouldn't be affected.

Although I feel I have to repeat if you do this then large creatures are hands down the best melee option bar none, and will absolutely dominate any medium race that tries to keep up. I would never make such a ruling in my own games.


How about heavier clubs then?

They'd progress as normal for weapons of their type, so fit in the system.
So price & tech level go up w/ damage appropriate for a simple (or advanced) melee weapon. Maybe they could even fit in some of the niches between staves & such.

But their bulk increases because that's what's giving them the oomph (and using up all the UBPs). There's no mechanical advantage (other than maybe your opponent can't pick it up!), but you get all the club-bashing flavor.

Not sure how NPCs stats work with carry weight, but it could allow for primitive giants to have non-tech viable weapons. (Yes, I know they can do CR-appropriate damage w/ a twig, but really...)

One might be able to keep the archaic quality on it by upping the damage by 5? Or maybe have normal damage and a feat that allows the PC to bypass the archaic limitation. (Or normal damage +X so the feat's worthwhile)
If the clubs are kept simple melee, the feat could boost them to be comparable to advanced melee (effectively making the club feat grant the same damage advantage so no mechanical loss, but also no gain to all those advanced options. So an RP option to be competitive with the club.

Separate question:
If a high-CR, very big creature picks up a club (let's say they were disarmed), would they do club damage (+Str?) or would they do CR-appropriate damage (+archaic?)?


Castilliano wrote:

Separate question:

If a high-CR, very big creature picks up a club (let's say they were disarmed), would they do club damage (+Str?) or would they do CR-appropriate damage (+archaic?)?

As far as I'm concerned, they'd do club damage (+ Str + CR as normal). Alien Archive says that a creature's damage should be off the chart or from a weapon of level equal to the CR, but there should be a benefit to disarming it, and forcing it to use a crap weapon.

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