Going through recent adventures in the OSR space, it is very common to see an attempt at generic or system neutral statistics. This is done a lot, with armor as chain, saves as Fighter 1, etc. This is very useful if say, you are running your game for B/X but then change for Swords&Wizardy (different saves), or LotFP (different AC baseline).
An exhibit from the Dust Elemental in the remastered Stygian Library
BUT very often monster descriptions use original die size. D8 in the picture above. Why? Why not take instead an equivalent damage as sword, or damage as polearm? Main reason I can think for this vestigial limb to persist is that some monsters inflict greater (or different) damage than what standard weaponry allows, surpassing damage dice.
*End rant*
My solution would be to have extended weaponry values in the equipment section (grenades, bombs, pistols, muskets), or use damage from spells (which are meant to surpass mundane weapons).
Don't have a solution to this trend. Just my observation. What do you think?
