[RPG] What size category are weapons if brought to life with the “Animate Objects” Spell

animated-objectscreature-sizednd-5espells

A wizard at my table wants to use weapons (greatswords) for his Animate Objects spell. Do I take the weapons base damage and match it with the table of Animate Objects (2D6 making them Medium), or are there any rules I may have missed pertaining to the object-size of weapons?

Any clarification, or your own interpretation (if its up to DM's) would be most welcome.

After all of your great informative input, I'm going with the following:

  • Weapons weighing 1 lb. or less as Tiny (daggers, darts and ammunition)
  • Heavy Weapons as Medium (glaive, greataxe, greatsword, halbert, maul, pike and h-crossbow)
  • All other Weapons as Small (unless indicated otherwise, oversized for example)

Best Answer

Despite Miniman's size description, the Heavy and Light properties should make a difference. By RAW,

Heavy. Small creatures have disadvantage on attack rolls with heavy weapons. A heavy weapon’s size and bulk make it too large for a Small creature to use effectively.

Light. A light weapon is small and easy to handle, making it ideal for use when fighting with two weapons.

A classical greatsword, for example, has 1.75m size, which is probably twice as long as a barrel. The DMG's size descriptions lists:

  • Tiny (bottle, lock)

  • Small (chest, lute)

  • Medium (barrel, chandelier)

I would separate between Heavy, Light, and other weapons, and give them separate sizes.

Personally, I'd go with medium-size for Heavy Weapons (big ass chunks of metal), and Small-size for the others. I would only go for tiny-size for some Light Weapons (e.g., small daggers).

Animate Objects, by RAW, describes how your items do damage.

It makes a slam attack with an attack bonus and bludgeoning damage determined by its size. The DM might rule that a specific object inflicts slashing or piercing damage based on its form.

I would also say that part of a weapon's damage is based on how it is swung, how it is used. The wizard does not control them like a martial artist, so the weapons do the damage shown in the Animate Objects table. I'd just change the damage type to correspond to the weapon's damage.