I can see that on a case-by-case basis.
I fully agree about the bulk of the monk weapons. I feel there were thrown into the exotic category because they're Asian and D&D is European (which, oddly enough, isn't the case in many games
). At least, that's how I see it. Mechanically speaking, they're right on par with other simple weapons. Plus, the only class that gets a special benifit from them (being monk weapons and all) is
automatically proficient with them. So, yeah, they should be simple.
As for the bastard sword/war axe/maul/great scimitar and all other two-handed-martial, one-handed-exotic weapons, these are never worth a feat in and of themselves. As I've already mentioned, a dip in EWM gets you Uncanny Blow, which can make them more worth while, but that's a bit of a contrived fix. Bumping them straight to 2d6 or 1d12 damage could certainly be one fix. It might be a bit much depending on how you measure them. Another fix could be to grant proficiency to
all of them with a single feat, assuming you can already use martial weapons. The thought here is that you already know how to use them two-handed, so a single feat lets you use them all one-handed.
The same reasoning above could be used for all double weapons. Really, you can get the exact same mechanical effect with the Oversized Two Weapon Fighting feat. Now, you can use two long swords, two battle axes, two flails, or whatever, all for a single feat. So, have EWP grant proficiency in
all double weapons. Still, I don't know that I'd ever take the feat, but I always felt these weapons were a bit silly, IMO.
The whip is kind of iffy. Really, it makes a pretty shitty weapon unless you're using it more as a tool to trip and disarm. I'm not sure how much I'd classify that as simple or martial. This seems like a really specialized niche to me. The whip
dagger is a really odd weapon, but it certainly makes the EWP(Whip) feat more worth while. I designed a tactical feat for using the whip on these boards, and perhaps I can dig it up and link it. I don't think it's appropriate for this project per se, but I developed it specifically to make the whip a more attractive weapon.
I think the repeating crossbow could be martial. Really, crossbows are simple already, and that thing doesn't do anything that a regular bow couldn't anyway. Plus, you never get to add your Str mod, so it really comes out behind. The hand crossbow is semi-weak for a martial weapon too.
The spiked chain should stay exotic for two reasons IMO. First, it's actually worth the feat. Second, it's wierd as hell, and not like any other weapon out there. I think it should take special traning.
That's all for now. I might bring up other weapons as I think of them.