Weapon Adjustments vs specific armor types

Page 38 of the AD&D 1e book consists of two table laying out adjustments to be made for specific weapons against specific sorts of armor. The AC numbers at the top are supposed to be cross referenced against the Armor class table on page 36. They are not meant for use against monsters, for which no adjustments are made, unless the referee wishes to say a monsters hide functions nearly identical to a specific sort of armor on and ad hoc basis.

Method

In order to better grasp what weapons would fair best against certain armors I made a spreadsheet that analyzes the table and gives the increase in damage attributable to a specific adjustment for a specific armor.

The calculation was: For each plus or minus to hit, I attributed a 5% increase or decrease of damage to the average damage for each weapon. I did this for both the Small-Medium values and again for the Large values.

For an overall best-use weapon I took the average of all adjustments for all ACs.

The results are in the spreadsheet. AC_vs_weapon.ods

Some Results

Weapon speed wasn't really considered because it doesn't add to damage values often. At low levels you might get a lot of utility out of that first round hit, but eventually its main value will be in disrupting a spellcaster on the first round. If you are worried, take a dagger proficiency because it's going to give you the most chances to get the 5 point speed differential you want.

The two-handed sword, overall will do the most damage against virtually all opponents, ignoring charges. It's major down-side is the lack of shield when using it.

The longsword is probably best for use with a shield against Large opponents. Though the trident is actually stronger, tridents are probably much harder to come by.

The morning star is probably the best for use against small-medium opponents, if you want to keep using your shield.

Pole arms were examined separately because of the difficulty in using them in narrow dungeon passages. You can see the spreadsheet for yourself to analyze those.

The longbow is better than the composite longbow in nearly every way.

The composite short bow is better than the short bow in nearly every way.

Given their rate of fire bows beat most other weapons, with only a few exceptions.

The dart is a slightly better ranged weapon than the dagger for magic-users, again due to rate of fire.

For magic-user the quarter staff is the best melee weapon.

Magic-users will probably end up taking dagger as their first weapon proficiency, because while mediocre, it gives them a middle ground between the two other choices.

For clerics take the footman's flail and the hammer for ranged.

For the thiefs, Haha, nice try, I'm not helping you stab me in the back for the ruby, you can figure it out yourselves!