Now, if the Rapier is magic and the other weapons aren’t, then that’s a thing. By Tier-2, the Sneak Attack damage pulls so far ahead of the base weapon damage that it’s no contest. Again, IMO, getting that Xd6 Sneak Attack in any way one can is way more of a priority IMO than using a d8 base weapon over a d4 weapon except at maybe the lowest of levels. The other alternative would be two daggers just for the option to throw them. If they don’t miss they can still use Cunning Action to yeet, and the difference from 1d8 to 1d6 is so negligible compared to the Xd6 they’ll not do if they miss that IMO, it’s worth it to carry the two shortswords instead of the rapier (unless it’s magic). Unless they wanna use their bonus action for Two-Weapon fighting to get another chance to Sneak Attack in case they missed with the first one. If you cared you could likely remove it without issue, maybe offer scimitar as an option as it's a finesse slashing wepaon?Īt the end of the day, from an efficiency perspective, the only weapon worth considering on rogues or bards should be the rapier. ![]() If I cared to dig out the books it's possible it was provided as an option to give rogues (or thieves as they were then) a weapon better against certain armour types than a shortsword - I think longswords had different modifiers against some armour types compared to shortswords but in all honesty I don't know anyone who ever used that particular table.īards are likely to have gotten the proficiency for similar reasons - 1e bards had to be multiclassed in fighter, then thief, then druid so they would have had the ability to use both long- and shortswords (as well as broadswords and bastard swords IIRC).īut 1e weapon proficiencies were sometimes peculiar in their specificity, perhaps until you understood where the intent came from (druids and scimitars, for example rather than just sickles), so I'd just shrug and move on. Rapiers weren't really a thing until 3e as I recall so it was probably equally a substitute placeholder for that style of weapon, though more sabre than rapier in style. Usually more Ranger or Fighter than Rogue, but it wasn't unheard of. I suspect that Rogues get longsword probably for legacy reasons (fairly sure that goes as far back as 1st ed, certainly 2nd, but I'm not going to dig out books just to check, and 1e proficiencies were more than a little odd 2e codified them a bit), but also so that the STR based rogue brute gets access to a better weapon - albeit one possibly 'borrowed' from the local watch than actually obtained from more legal methods.Įqually a Longsword/Shortword dual wielder was common enough back in the day when the offhand had to be a lighter and/or smaller weapon. ![]() ![]() Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk
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