[PF2e] Weapon Techniques

"Ha! What will you do now, little warrior?" the demon rasped as it ripped Warmold's axe from their grasp and threw it across the room. "Oh, not to worry." Warmold countered as they pulled an ancient spear from the grasp of one of the demon's earlier victims. "I'm pretty sure I can fuck you up pretty good with this stick, too."

Are you tired of scrolling through hundreds of weapons when building your martial, looking for the one that happens to have the right traits and/or crit specialization effects for your build?

Tired of ending up each time with the same 3-5 weapons because they're simply the best options in the list, despite its ever-increasing length?

I know I am.

I'm also tired of having weapons that, in real life, are clearly capable of doing certain things, that PF2e just doesn't give it the appropriate traits for. Anyone who's ever taken even a single sword-fighting lesson¹ knows that a longsword is perfectly capable of parrying attacks. Not in Pathfinder second edition though.

And I'm tired of having weapons that are clearly similar in real-world design, but are translated rather differently into the PF2e trait system. E.g. falcatas and kukris are both forward curving blades, with a obvious chopping or slashing use in mind. But their traits in PF2e are wildly different.

Now, I'm no medieval weapons expert, but I'm starting to suspect neither are the designers at Paizo.

So, here's my proposal: let's just throw the entire weapons table out the window. It can sod right off for all I care. Introducing:

Weapon Techniques

A weapon is just a tool of the warrior that wields it. What's more interesting than the tool is the person using it, and how that person uses it.

Also, TTRPG's like Pathfinder and DnD thrive on a certain amount of character customization. You want a dude who uses an oversized sharpened key as a weapon because you just love Kingdom Hearts that much? Go for it, why not. Except does that translate to a bastard sword? Or a battleaxe? Or something different altogether?²

So, let's talk about Weapon Techniques as a game mechanic, regardless of what weapon is actually being used.

We'll use the existing categories of weapons and use them to decide a PC's damage die and weapon traits.

The idea is that a dagger is more deadly in the hands of a PC who knows Advanced Technique than in the hands of one who only knows Simple Technique, or even Martial Technique.

We're going to use this Reddit post by user Froasty as our basis for a Technique system.

It works as follows: each Technique proficiency allows for a maximum damage die, depending on number of hands to use, and a certain amount of free Trait Points which can be used to buy certain traits.

With any Weapon Technique the weapon die can be lowered, to a minimum of d4, to gain 4 more Trait Points per step. So a one-handed Martial Technique that lowers its die from d8 to d4 gains 8 extra Trait Points.

These Trait Points are spend on, you guessed it, Weapon Traits from the base game, though we should probably call them Technique Traits now. The cost differs per Trait. here's the rundown: