A fair point. Comparing the weapon weight to strength and then applying a modifier based on the difference would certainly be interesting. Though it does add additional emphasis to strength for weapon usage, when there is already plenty of that.
I think that even a very, very strong person is not going to be able to swing around a very heavy object as fast as an agile person can swing around a very light one. Where it comes to putting mass into motion there are diminishing returns in getting a heavy object to move at a specific speed. But that is handled well enough by the weapon’s speed rating. How hard it is to use effectively should probably depend more on strength.
My concern is that the iron bar ticks off most of the best guidelines here, and I’m really not convinced that an iron bar is a good weapon. But it might as well be a quarterstaff. Just because something is long and balanced and has a decent natural grip doesn’t make it a great weapon. In fact, using long weapons in single combat can be very, very hard. This is why the Roman gladius was so successful against the more common hoplite spear formations; once the Romans were able to get inside the functional range of the spears (thanks to their huge shields), the short reach of the gladius actually made it wildly superior. Spears are great at their intended range and were excellent for presenting an intimidating line to approach, but they were really, really bad when the enemy was in your face. To the point where the front line of a hoplite formation would drop their spears and draw their own swords.
Quarterstaffs, spears with their business end placed far away from the user, and really any weapon which relies on the arc of a swing, is going to be harder to use when someone is inside the arc/minimum range of the weapon’s tip. Also trying to swing a quarterstaff when you have a bunch of walking bodies closing in around you is pretty close to impossible.
So yeah, that the staffs and spears are standing out as excellent weapons by these criteria, when in fact they are not easy to use under many very relevant circumstances, I think maybe highlights a weakness that could be addressed.
I’d be tempted to suggest a system where longer reach only gives a benefit on the first round of attack, or something of that nature, but that’d be getting into combat overhaul material. I actually designed a (tabletop) system for the reach dichotomy problem, but yeah. Anything along those lines is a big change. Not really the place for it. But it might be something that could be handled with unique abilities/drawbacks for weapons that make them good in some situations and bad in others.
