Batons and short staves – two new finesse weapons

In 5th edition D&D I create a lot of rogues. This is a change for me, for in my earlier forays into Dungeons & Dragons, I mostly played clerics, bards and paladins. Part of the appeal of the rogue in 5e, is that it has became the main skill-monkey class. Mostly mundane there are interesting stories to be told via the mastermind, the inquisitive, the scout and the propagandist.

One thing I find lacking for three of those options is the narrative around using a weapon that knocks opponents unconscious. While the rule set allows any weapon that does enough damage to kill to be declared a non-fatal blow, there’s something about an mastermind smacking a thief upside the head with a baton and knocking them out.

Common within the literatures that inspire our game are also tales about short staves that flip about stabbing with the point and smacking with the side — see various interpretations of Sherlock Holmes. My campaign needed one of these because a player in Uprising and Rebellion Campaign Two is a streetsweeper. Their broom handle makes sense as a weapon for them.

And so, the baton and the short stave were born.

Baton

Type: Simple | Cost: 5 gp | Weight: .5 lbs | Damage: 1d4 | Type: Bludgeoning | Properties: Light, Finesse | Mastery: Nick

Short stave (broom handle)

Type: Martial | Cost: 5 cp | Weight: 2 lbs | Damage: 1d8 | Type: Bludgeoning | Properties: Finesse | Mastery: Sap

The baton is just a refined club so that you can play as Sticks from the Vlad Taltos Saga. The short stave (broom handle) is based on the rapier, the current best weapon for a rogue, but merely bludgeoning and cheap.

There’s nothing game breaking from these additions. There’s no power creep.

There is a whole lot more story. And that’s the whole point to Full Moon Storytelling — story creep.

Masteries were added on Oct. 15, 2025