Expanded and Exotic Weapons [Third Draft]

There are two important things to consider when revising homebrew:

1. The difference between when a mechanic is bad and can be fixed, and when it's bad enough to have to take it behind a shed and do what must be done.
   
   and...
2. When to keep it simple, and when it's appropriate to complicate it a little bit. 

The "trade in proficiencies" bit wasn't really working out for this homebrew. So, I nixed it, and mixed the format of this project around a little bit. 

The changelog can explain.

WHAT I CHANGED:

• Expanded and Exotic Weapons is the new title, replacing the old "Exotic Weapons" and representing the two weapon lists available here,

• Broke weapons into two lists, one intended to be an extension of the PHB's weapon list and proficiencies, the other of which requires feats to access. 

• Removed Bladed Fan because that one just really wasn't working out. 

• Added Repeating Crossbows because D&D cowboys. 

• Added Sword Sheath because that's a fun thing to beat people with. 

• Added Exotic Weapon powers which are once-per-short-rest abilities related to the weapon, intended to help make a feat worth it. 

• Revised item descriptions, rebalanced weapon damage because you can't do that enough times. 

CONCERNS:

• What's the power balance on the new Exotic Weapons and the weapon abilities? I think the power variation is fairly alright; I guarantee they're not going to be perfectly balanced, but as long as the spread is roughly even I'm alright with it. 

• Do any expanded weapons invalidate any existing weapons? Keep in mind the differences in Simple and Martial weapon categories. 

WHAT I LEARNED:

• Well, that thing I posted, above. 

• 4e-style mechanics can work in 5e. Whoda thought. 

Also, I'm still figuring out how to generate a PDF with selectable text that Google will let me embed without breaking it. It's surprisingly tricky, but for now you can download a PDF with selectable text here. It won't look pretty previewed, but if you download it, it should run off a computer or device just fine.

A newer version of this option is available.