Well here is the crux of the thing though. Is it a large sized shortsword (and thus a thrusting sword) or is it just a "large sword" and therefore presumablly a hacking/chopping sword. Presumably the giant was carrying the sword because he knew how to use it. He is going to try and skewer people with his shortsword.Quantumboost wrote: That depends on whether the object is a "Large-sized sword" or a "Large-sized shortsword". If it's the former, why should it matter whether someone 4x as big as you would be using it as a stabbing implement rather than a hacking implement?
"I don't care about what anything was DESIGNED to do, I care about what it CAN do."
One possible path of the rules says "big shortsword = greatsword" The flaw with this system is that it basically means that anyweapon larger or smaller than those in the phb really is just window dressing. You can describe the giant swinging his massive two handed axe but really he just does monster dice damage. Presumably fairies manufacture a whole slew of weapons of all different types to fight agianst each other but they are all just needles.
The other option is that a large shortsword remains a shortsword in function. You still need shortsword prof. to weild it. Its just a really big one. With the right set of feats and abilities you can even wield it like normal.
Whats really at stake here is who gets what when oversized magic items drop. If a shortsword is always a shortsword no matter the size then your shortword using rogue might pick up the neccessary abilities to wield a giant one. However if a shortsword can be a greatsword for a smaller person then the giants +4 shortsword is actually an upgrade for your barbarian or fighter type.
Allright you got me. This was a little off topic. However, I would still protest that short swords are NOT just small longswords. They do a different type of damage. They represent a different class of weapons.If it isn't a "Giant's thinblade" or whatever (i.e., the specialized weapon you seem to think it should be/is), this is not a concern. Here you seem to be railing against the idea that a Giant would even use a shortsword, rather than Medium-sized people actually being able wield such an item as a greatsword (under the 3.0 system being discussed). That may or may not be the case (I don't care at the moment), but it's not pertinent.
As for the rest, yeah in the end sufficiently large creatures probably stop using recognizable weapons against medium humanoids. They would likely use tools and see it as little diffent than getting rid of vermin.