D&D (2024) What, exactly, is a 5e "scimitar"?

[Yaarel]

5e goblins use scimitars.

I wouldnt call these "scimitars" because the edge isnt curving backward.

But they do look like some of the early weapons that later evolved into falchions. These were moreorless meat cleavers.

 

[Bill Zebub]

It's a curved sword. If you're putting it in a Near Eastern-inspired setting, it's a scimitar. If you're putting it in a pirate-inspired setting, it's a cutlass. If you're putting it in a Skyrim-inspired setting, it's what those guards from Hammerfell used to use before they took an arrow to the knee.

Too much granularity makes the game difficult to follow; if we tried to list every weapon people used across the world from the Bronze Age through the Renaissance we'd have a table 10 pages long. The last time someone tried to do this was in 1e, with polearms, and the resultant profusion of bill-guisarmes, fauchard forks, and bec de corbins was a geek in-joke for the next 20 years.

And if you weld two of them together you have a Warglauve of Azzinoth!

 

[Yaarel]

Of course.

The wakizashi is clearly a:
• martial
• single-edge curving backward
• 1d6
• slashing
• finesse (agile)
• light (offhand)
• shortsword (bladelength between 1 to 2 feet)

They are contemporary with modern weapons from 1400s on.

Compare the "daisho" katana-and-wakizashi combination that eventually only samurai aristocracy were permitted to wear together. The wakizashi is an excellent example of the 5e (short) "scimitar".

 

[Ancalagon]

Just to confuse things a bit more, consider the backsword: A sword with one edge, with a handguard a bit like a sabre, but a straight blade...

I think @Umbran is right - there is far, far more variations in weapon possibilities and the 5e rules are not granular enough to distinguish them.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

If the stupidity that is "studded leather" is still hanging around then I'm not expecting any accuracy in weapons let me tell you,

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Of course.

The wakizashi is clearly a:
• martial
• single-edge curving backward
• 1d6
• slashing
• finesse (agile)
• light (offhand)
• shortsword (bladelength between 1 to 2 feet)

They are contemporary with modern weapons from 1400s on.

Compare the "daisho" katana-and-wakizashi combination that eventually only samurai aristocracy were permitted to wear together. The wakizashi is an excellent example of the 5e (short) "scimitar".

While the samurai wore daisho, it was extremely rare for them to wield daisho. The two swords simply have two different functions, and most of the idea of a katana-in-one-hand and a wakizashi-in-the-other is assumed by people without a full picture of how they were used. It's more likely that a katana would be used one or two handed as a primary weapon and the wakizashi as a backup, or for close quarters fighting, or for other uses.

Two-weapon fighting just wasn't done that much in history anywhere. Because it's frankly hard to do, and most people lack the coordination to ever get very good at it no matter how hard they try.

 

[Charlaquin]

I wouldnt call these "scimitars" because the edge isnt curving backward.

But they do look like some of the early weapons that later evolved into falchions. These were moreorless meat cleavers.

This illustration is from a 5e book, the same edition where the stat block for goblins has a scimitar attack listed. The fact that the weapons they’re depicted using look almost nothing like the real-life historical weapon that shares a name with the one goblins use in their stat block goes to show that D&D scimitars, like all D&D weapons, don’t represent a specific real-world historical weapon, but rather a very broad weapon concept. D&D “scimitars” are just light, curved-bladed weapons. Their specific description is otherwise malleable.

 

[Charlaquin]

If the stupidity that is "studded leather" is still hanging around then I'm not expecting any accuracy in weapons let me tell you,

I just have to pretend it’s a brigandine

 

[pukunui]

I wouldnt call these "scimitars" because the edge isnt curving backward.

But they do look like some of the early weapons that later evolved into falchions. These were moreorless meat cleavers.

They’re scimitars because the 5e goblin statblock says they are.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

I just have to pretend it’s a brigandine

I just wish they'd call it that. They didn't keep "Broadswords" or "bastard swords" not sure why they keep "studded leather".