Flute / Staff?

In Kill Bill Vol. 2, Bill carried around a huge flute, seemingly carved from a large bamboo shoot or something. Do you think that it would be feasible for a PC to carry on of those around and, if made of a strong enough material (adamantine, mithril, steel, etc) to also double it as a quarterstaff-type weapon? Or would it be too fragile even constructed of such a material?

If you can, find the movie Circle of Iron. In it, David Carradine fights with a flute staff that makes amazing noises as he swings it around him. Yes, I'd say this is a fine type of weapon to use in D&D.

PC beat me to it. Circle of Iron is one of my all time favorite movies.


From a musical standpoint, a 6 foot long "flute" (or fife) would produce indescribably low tones. A bass flute is 146 cm (4'9") in length. Bass flutes are rarely used in modern orchestras (read: almost never) because the tone is basically inaudible, and exceedingly low. A 6 foot variety would sound most "un-flute" like, and in a crowded environment, everyone would have to basically come to a complete silence in order to hear it at all.

Furthermore, a bass flute has a curved mouthpiece so that in order to maintain proper hole distance for the fingers, the mouthpiece was curved back around so that the right hand pinky could actually reach the furthest hand.

A 6 foot long flute/staff with 6 holes, would have the furthest hole some 5 feet away from the actual blowhole. Try this: Measure the distance from your lip to your outstretched right arm's pinky finger. You'll be lucky if it's 3 feet. You can see why such a thing would be impractical.


But hey, you know what? It's a fantasy game. I say, do whatever pleases you. There's certainly no reason why such a thing couldn't be built. Like in Circle of Iron, his weapon would whistle as he batted people with it. That is certainly feasible. The fact that it's hollow should be of no concern. Bones are hollow, and they're some of the strongest things in the world.

I've never thought about it, and it is a very good idea which I think would be perfectly plasuable. Might have to make a bard with it.

I suggest going with more of a hollow, holed staff that produces sound when twirled as the previous poster suggested.

A 6' long flute would be impractical to say the least. Then again, a more normal length flute integrated into a staff may be possible in some way.

Thrincold said:

I suggest going with more of a hollow, holed staff that produces sound when twirled as the previous poster suggested.

A 6' long flute would be impractical to say the least. Then again, a more normal length flute integrated into a staff may be possible in some way.

Click to expand...

I considered that as well. I guess if the "end" of the flute had holes around the diameter of the staff, instead of one long bore, it might work. Then the rest of the staff could be a solid piece of wood added to the end of the flute, it might work. The structural integrity around those holes might be compromised a bit, though. You'd need a way to reinforce it.

Damn, now this is a movie image that should make it into D&D. Great idea!

David Carradine Speaks

I happened to inteview David Carradine at GenCon a couple of years ago and asked him about his flute which appears in Kung Fu, Iron Circle and Kill Bill. That interview can be found here.

Respectfully,

Edward Kopp: Arcaniac at Large

Ceresco said:

I happened to inteview David Carradine at GenCon a couple of years ago and asked him about his flute which appears in Kung Fu, Iron Circle and Kill Bill. That interview can be found here.

Respectfully,

Edward Kopp: Arcaniac at Large

Click to expand...

Awesome! Thanks for the link, kind sir.

In the Bastion Press book "Arms and Armor (Revised)", there is also a Flute Blowgun weapon. A flute performing bard ought not leave home without it, and the staff-flute looks like a reasonable item as well.