One thing that I have run into is that in today's world, a handgun made by the US is going to be very different (accuracy, weight, durability) from one found in China, Europe, or almost anywhere else. In D&D however, a longsword will deal 1d8 and crit on a 19-20/x2 anywhere you go. Sure minor things might be different (length of blade by a few inches, the grip, the guard, or the pommel) but the basic idea stays the same. how do you translate this difference (and lack of difference) into the game?
I'm not looking to play D20 Modern, I want to keep it at the Medieval Europe with spells and monsters level. Any advice or discussion is welcome
It's quite like DnD, but it's set in modern times, and it can be fast forwarded to the future, or rewound to the past.
Even if you don't want to play that setting, you may be able to use the guns from it for your own setting
As I said...it's a lot like DnD, AC, Skill checks, Attacking, etc is all the same.
System Reference Documents
With a Heat Metal spell you can create a steam cannon - A Light Steam Cannon can have a range of a mile. Such an artillery Piece is a weapon that takes a single druid to fire with a labour crew of 5 to handle and reload. Damage 20d6.
Something that must be transported on a huge wagon pulled by twenty oxen might have a range of five miles, and five druids casting heat metal simultaneously to fire.
fighter escorts = griffon-mounted knights
anti-aircraft fire = trebuchets filled with head-sized rocks
paratroopers = elite infantry leaping from rocs with potions of feather fall
infantry following tanks = infantry following constructs or huge warbeasts
grenades = metal spheres filled with smokepowder with alchemist fire fuses
gas = cloudkill or green dragon breath, perhaps enlarged with metamagic
special forces = adventuring parties teleporting into command sections or supply areas
SEALs = sahuagin/sea elf commandos
No big Braveheart-style battles on a big field - too easy to destroy the enemy army with magic or dragon attacks. Instead, dispersed warfare by small units over fronts several miles long. You'll have to decide how commanders so widely separated communicate. I did something similar, trying to extrapolate how warfare might really be conducted in a high-magic world, and decided on "warspeakers" - regular people linked telepathically with each other in a hierarchical network by rituals. Kill the warspeaker, blind the commander.
I recommend staying away from trying to replicate guns - don't give everyone wands of magic missile, for example. If you want them to have guns, just give them guns. The advantage of guns is how easily they're mass-produced and how little training is needed to use them effectively.
For weapon differences, how about just cultural ones? This coalition uses scimitars and khopeshes, that one uses longswords and halberds, etc.
Black powder grenades
Wizard artillery
Warlock/ranger/rogue commandos
Cleric/Paladin combat medics
Warlord squad leaders
Differences in countries
When creating technological differences, keep in mind that a country with a clear advantage (rather than just a difference) will tend to dominate a less advanced nation unless they have some sort of other advantage (more defensible terrain, large population for cannon fodder, powerful wizards, etc.).
One nation has heavy crossbows, the other only light, but they're repeating light crossbows, or one has crossbows, the other has longbows.
One country uses cavalry, the other pikemen, and the other has mounted archers.
One has the best army in the world, the other dominates naval battles.
You could look at RL nations across the globe during a given time period and see the differences in weapons, armor, fortifications, etc.
Monsters are probably not spread out equally through the entire world. Thus, one nation will have griffons, and the other has rocs. You could make countries based of RL countries and populate them with the monsters from the RL country's mythologies.
descri, i like those conversions thank you. i'll probably end up using most if not all of them. your battle suggestion was one reason that i posted this thread. i realized that a single fireball or giant could easily work through massed ranks or troops. that's why i decided on a WW2/Modern era type of war (of course their use of electronics and satellites and other gizmos are going to be a lot rarer) with everyone taking cover and sneaking around.
bone_naga, i actually had not thought of using different weapons for each nation. it makes sense, i don't know why i missed it. i had planned on having a more powerful nation attacking a small weaker nation. the bigger nation is based around a D&D version of the US (not making a point, it's just the most convenient RL nation) while the smaller is so far not linked to anything RL. i've got a problem their trying to decide which kinds of monsters the smaller nation is fielding. both the nations or slightly good aligned (no undead or other evil nasties), which rules out trolls, ogres, and most giants. do you have any suggestions for which monsters i could possibly use?
Give the other country creatures that are weak, but mobile. Goblins immediately come to mind. Gnolls and kobolds for coordinated small group attacks. Regardless of the normal connotations of these creatures, theres nothing inherently evil in defending your homeland. Lots of skirmishers. Griffons or other small aerial creatures. Have them attack in small groups, especially against scouts or small patrols of their enemies.
If you want to keep certain creatures as being "bad", then you could have third parties. Maybe the giants live inside a country's borders, but do not recognize the government as their own. They might have no interest beyond defending their own borders, and thus could become enemies for either or both sides as they wander into their territory (imagine the shock when in the middle of a pitched battle, boulders suddenly start raining down from the mountainside).
Maybe the orcs act as mercenaries, working for both sides, and maybe switching sides as the war drags on. Local fey could act as scouts and guides for anyone who befriends them. Azer act as arms dealers, selling high quality, but expensive weapons, to anyone and everyone.
Side question: are there rules for riding a centaur? say if i wanted halflings to ride the centaur (like a horse, only the horse can think and act on its own) into battle, how would the ride checks, attacks, and penalties change?
i don't think i explained the alignment problem adequately. the nation does not have any native monstrous humanoids (like major tribes of orcs, goblins, kobolds and the such). the country is located on a mix of grasslands and plains with places for forests, rivers, and hills wherever i need them. i can place centaurs, small tribes of halflings; dwarves and elves are not present in this part of the world.
I'm designing a war-heavy campaign for 3.5, and i was looking to create my battlefields with a WW2 meets D&D theme. Do you guys have any suggestions for WW2 or modern day weapons converted to D&D?
Does your focus need to be on weapons? I think looking at modern-day strategies and tactics is the key point, and then working back from there to figure out how this looks and feels in the game. Considering that you've got magic, you have high- and low-"tech" versions of any given tactic you can use to differentiate naitons.
Think of aerial reconnaissance as an example. A key to modern warfare is knowing where your enemy is, so that you can focus your efforts accordingly. High-magic, think scrying or prying eyes. Differently flavored, speak with animals/plants can make druids into one-man recon units. High-monster approaches include troops mounted on griffons, pegasi, etc. ...Or this could just be some guy in a hot air balloon with a signal mirror.
One thing that I have run into is that in today's world, a handgun made by the US is going to be very different (accuracy, weight, durability) from one found in China, Europe, or almost anywhere else. In D&D however, a longsword will deal 1d8 and crit on a 19-20/x2 anywhere you go. Sure minor things might be different (length of blade by a few inches, the grip, the guard, or the pommel) but the basic idea stays the same. how do you translate this difference (and lack of difference) into the game?
You can do a lot with weapon differences. Heavy crossbows do a lot of damage and don't take a lot of training, but are sloooow. Trained longbowmen can do a lot more damage a lot more quickly, but the training is a time-consuming and expensive investment. Similarly, fielding a block of pikemen is going to be a lot easier than a heavy cavalry unit, but if you can scrape together the resources to put one dragon on the field, that block of pike-wielding peasants is worthless.
Try some alt-history science fiction for ideas about how tactics and technology might evolve at different rates than historically. Any book involving modern people knocked into a lower-tech setting is going to have some material on how to adapt modern tactics to available weaponry.