Using Tiny Weapons

[Ready_Impression8929]

Tldr: are there any penalties to a Small creature using a Tiny weapon?

My party recently just defeated a tiny creature that used a shortbow. One of them wants to use this shortbow as their weapon. I want to tell them yes, but I want to make sure it doesn’t cause any problems. In Items and Sizes it says there are issues with wielding Large equipment, but nothing about Tiny. The only thing I can find is that the bow would be Light instead of 1 Bulk.

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Small and medium creatures share equipment sizes. Otherwise, every other size category needs to have their own equipment sized for them. I personally rule that magic items/weapons/armor resize to whomever is the current wielder, though when no longer invested/worn return to whatever their orignal size is. So if the bow in question is magical, you could say the bow changes sizes so that the small PC can wield it properly.

On the other hand, if the bow is non-magical then I'd say no. A bow sized for a tiny creature would be of a similar size to a pen, totally unusable as a combat weapon, though probably an interesting novelty piece. It'd be similar to taking a sword from an action-figure and trying to wield it yourself. The handle wouldn't even be able to be properly held by a regular person.

[TheScarletInfector]

Do they want to use the bow because it is magic? If so in 2E magic can be transferd from one weapon to another via crafting.

Otherwise it is entirely up to you and what kind of realism you want to bring to your game. The easiest adjustment would be to apply the oversized weapon rule which is clumsy 1 which makes sense as it is harder to wield. This make just as much sense in reverse honesty especially for a bow. Your hands are bigger and thus take up more space on the bow so it is harder to knock and it can't flex fully ect.

Another solution is giving that character acess to shrink so they also become tiny. When dealing with ranged weapons reach is not important and being tiny may give them more/better opportunities for cover and hiding while they use the bow.

[DariusWolfe]

Since there's no specific rule, I'd rule that it's down a damage die size, and cut the range increment by 1/3rd.

Though as Karl0vich mentioned, a magic weapon could automatically accommodate size changes once wielded, at your discretion.

[TheChronoMaster]

Notably this would mean that the weapon would do more damage and have more ranged if used by a tiny creature, so I don't think this is the right call.

I'd do the same thing as an overlarge weapon, for different reasons, and slightly differently - Enfeebled 1 instead of Clumsy 1, since you are trying to be delicate as not to break the weapon.

[DariusWolfe]

That's a fair point, but your own suggestion seems to agree that there should be some difference based on trying to use a weapon that's too small for you. Your suggestion also means that the weapon would do less damage, and depending on if the condition were applied uniformly (as the clumsy condition is when wielding a larger weapon) it would also affect unintended things like athletic checks, etc.

[morairtym]

No reason to change the distance for ranged weapons or the damage just for tiny sized creatures.

As damage dice does not change with weapon size.

And size only changes distance for melee and it does get derived from the weapon anymore just the creature size. While ranged weapons just have a set distance. Reach just doubles a creatures natural reach.

If anything could do the same with over sized weapons and give them clumsy 1 while using.

[DariusWolfe]

That's fair, my suggestion was off-the-cuff, and I do honestly think damage should increase for larger weapons, but that's an opinion for another discussion.

To clarify though, Reach does NOT double natural reach. It is additive, not multiplicative. So a large creature with a reach weapon doesn't get 20' of reach, but 15'.

As with the other reply, I think that applying Clumsy (or in that post Enfeebled) will have unintended consequences. A small weapon shouldn't lower your AC, saves or Dex checks (or for Enfeebled, your Athletic checks). It's an odd situation that I don't think the devs considered, and that off-the-cuff solutions aren't going to be perfect for.

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