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Our gaming group had an argument last week on what constituted a "sword" for magic item purposes in 5e. I argued that a glaive should be considered a sword and a polearm, as all a glaive really is is a shortsword or small scimitar blade on a stick. Another player argues that only things that "looks" like a traditional sword with an easily recognizable hilt, crossguard or handguard, blade, and pommel, should be considered a sword. Another player says that swords should be further restricted to only include slashing weapons that fit the prior description.

We all flipped through the PHB and DMG for a definition, but none of us could find anything. Is there an actual definition in the rules, or is this just another example of 5e being unfinished and requiring house rules to even be playable?

VHS
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    For what do you need this information? Does some magic item specify it only works on "blades" without specifying further? – kviiri Nov 09 '17 at 11:22
  • @kviiri There's no such magic item in the DMG, at least. – Miniman Nov 09 '17 at 11:39
  • My mistake, I should have typed "sword". And yes, there are a lot of items in the DMG that specify sword as the item type. – VHS Nov 09 '17 at 11:58
  • @VHS can you tell us which item in particular you are asking about? – Philipp Nov 09 '17 at 11:59
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    There are many with a description like this: "Flame Tongue, Weapon (any sword)" – Szega Nov 09 '17 at 12:00
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    Hi VHS,--I've voted to close this as a duplicate of the linked question because I think the answers there address the same issue as you pose here. If that question doesn't address your problem please [edit] this post to make clearer the difference and then flag it for reopening. Happy gaming! – nitsua60 Nov 09 '17 at 13:28
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    I feel that the marked duplicate question doesn't adequately say that a glaive is not a sword. – Derek Stucki Nov 09 '17 at 14:20
  • I wouldn't say that this is a duplicate, or if it is then there wasn't sufficient rules text cited for my case. The crux of my argument last week boiled down to, "How or why can magic, a fundamental force of the D&D universe, tell the difference between one long, thin piece of steel with an edge and a point, and another similar-sized piece of steel with the same description?", but what I'm looking for here is rules text that definitively states (or strongly hints at) what is considered a sword and what isn't. If there is no rules text that says that a sword is, then can't anything be a sword? – VHS Nov 10 '17 at 02:07
  • I note that you open your question with a statement about magic item purposes and am wondering if the real question you want to ask is whether a magic item that the DMG indicates as being applicable to a sword can also be applied to something like a glaive. – Pyrotechnical Nov 11 '17 at 02:21
  • In a sense, yes. I'm really more looking for an explicit in-game definition of a sword. While you can argue a glaive either way, if there's no definition, then you could technically have a Flame Tongue (an any sword item) mace. Or a 50 foot length of Luck Blade hemp rope. In addition, the linked question cites no rules text, just gives the DM advice on how to allocate magic items. – VHS Nov 11 '17 at 07:15

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When D&D 5e uses a word that it hasn't assigned a special meaning to, the word is to be interpreted according to standard English. If you look at the Wikipedia article of a weapon, such as glaive or rapier, and the article says it is a sword, then it counts as a sword. Spoiler: glaives are not swords and rapiers are.

Derek Stucki
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