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Dwarves cant use two-handed weapons. But a skinny elf , half his weight can. Strange.

Traditional "dwarf" weapons are horrible.

Battle axe- two handed for same damage as a longsword and you get no shield.
light warhammer- d4 damage- as much as a dagger, but twice cost & weight
warhammer- d6 damage and two-handed!!! What?!! Unusable by Dwarves.


In my campaign a battle axe is one handed, a two-handed battle axe is d10. A warhammer is d6 damage and can be thrown. A heavy warhammer is d8 damage and cannot be thrown. I hate to see every Dwarf chose a sword so as not to be disadvantaged in the game.
At low levels that extra damage or AC bonus from a shield can save your life.

Easy Answer?

Because the source game did.

In my games, weapons are cosmetic.

Fighters & Dwarves

• One Handed Weapons: d8 damage
• Two Handed Weapons: d10 damage
• Light Weapons: d6 damage

Clerics, Elves, Thieves & Halflings

• One Handed Weapons: d6 damage
• Two Handed Weapons: d8 damage
• Light Weapons: d4 damage

Magic Users

• One Handed Weapons: d4 damage
• Two Handed Weapons: d6 damage
• Light Weapons: d3 damage

Dyson- seems like a nice easy system!

So a magic-user with a quarter staff does as much damage as an Elf with a long sword? I like it!

If you don't like it, house-rule it.

Agreed, just house-rule what you want.

I use the variable weapon damage from the B/X companion and it looks a bit like the chart posted by Dyson above. Works well and is far more fluffy and gets away from everyone swinging a long sword all the time. That allows for regional preferences such as shield, spear and short sword, to work just as well as anything else.

I kind of thought the asterisk in the LL weapon list "for two handed weapon" on the war hammer got confused somehow with the "can be used by cleric" asterisk from the original game. The war hammer is not a two-handed weapon in Moldvay/Cook. Everything else is same as B/X though. My dwarf PCs usually use hand axes. Same could be said for thieves whose only armor choice got zoinked!

samwise7 wrote:If you don't like it, house-rule it.

I do house-rule, but I feel if you think something is wrong, or a mistake rules-wise- you should point it out.
LL isnt just an exact copy of the old Red book- its the old Red book - new & improved!!!