[3.P] Masterpiece weapons - Exotic++
 

I propose creating a new type of weapons - Masterpiece weapons - which are basically what Exotic weapons should have been from the beginning.
Firstly - Masterpiece weapons would all have a decent damage dice. Something like 1d12 minimum or whatever.
Secondly - they all would have nice combat benefits depending on the weapon.
Of course Masterpiece weapons would be extremely hard to wield successfully, so they would require a feat to use (there's no non-proficiency penalties, you either can use it or not). There would also be feat chains or maybe even trees for improving benefits or gaining new ones.

Whatya think?

Alternatives involve making homebrew Martial Disciplines for each such "Exotic++" weapon.

Why would better weapons be harder to wield?

Because they're way more complex and unwieldy?

Speaking for anyone who's actually USED a weapon in their life. Complex means WORSE. Universally. Unweildy weapons are bad. Unless they offer something damn well impossible to get any other way- like a high end long range sniper rifle- and are ONLY used for THAT purpose.

So your masterpiece weapons would be easier to use (masterwork get a +1 after all), not harder.

So, here's an idea. Masterpiece weapons are a subset of masterwork weapons. Ordinary wielders treat them as though they were masterwork. However, people with the right training (i.e. the right feat) can get additional benefits. Greater damage, special weapon abilities that aren't available to the average swordsman. This still gives you weapons that are, in the right hands, much more dangerous, but without having to come up with reasons why other people can't use them. They can. They just can't get the most out of them.

then why not make specialized feats for specific weapons or weapon groups. wait this sounds vaguely familiar.....

Or grant the specialized feat for free when one is wielded. Bang for your buck, as it were.

I was unsubtly pointing at 4e and their "weapon" expertise feats. A lot of the 4e stuff is hard to convert backwards but these feats are really simple. for example:
Dagger expertise
+1 to attack when wielding a Dagger, this stacks with Weapon focus. When ever you flank your target or it is denied it's dexterity you deal +2 damage.
Prerequisite: Weapon focus(dagger)

No, not really. It is irrelevant how it is in RL. This is a game. And this is homebrew, so it will work how I choose it to work. So if I'm saying that it's very hard to use, but gives very nice benefits and has nice stats, then that's how it will be. And that's the end of this discussion.

That's actually a nice idea.

This idea might be similar, but I'm not intending to convert 4ed to 3.P.