D&D: Weapon Damage

I posted yesterday about my issue with the AD&D weapon damage table. I would be remiss if I did not post my solution to this thorny problem.

I took a page from one of my favorite games, Magic Realm, and classifed every weapon as either light, medium, heavy, or tremendous. With a few exceptions, light weapons do 1-4 damage, medium do 1-6, heavy do 1-8, and tremendous do 1-10. I know, your thinking, "what about that much-ignored d12?" Someone really needs to come up with an in-game use for that die...

My abbreviated weapon list looks something like this.

Light: Dagger, Dart, Sling, Club, Hatchet, Javelin, Sickle, Staff (staff does 1-6 but must be used 2-handed)

Medium: Arrow, Crossbow bolt, Rapier, Cutlass, Shortsword, Broadsword, Hammer, Mace, Pick, Handaxe, Spear (spear does 1-8 if used 2-handed)

Heavy: Morningstar, Flail, Battleaxe, Military Pick, Warhammer, Longsword, Bastard Sword (bastard sword treated as a tremendous weapon if used 2-handed), Polearm (polearms must be used 2-handed)

Tremendous: Greatsword, Maul, Mattock, Greataxe, Pike, Lance (all of these must be used 2-handed, unless strength is 19+)

In terms of weapon restrictions by class, my restrictions were that magic users could only use light weapons, thieves could use light or medium weapons, clerics could use any non-edged weapons, and fighting-men could use all weapons.