Top 10 odd D&D weapons

Dannyalcatraz · Jun 10, 2006

The logic behind the mercurial greatsword is that the shifting mass makes it work like a rigid flail. In effect, the shifting mercury is turning a straight bladed sword into something that strikes like an axe, a tip-heavy sword or other chopping weapon.

As such, you wouldn't (or couldn't) use it like a sword, with thrusts and parries, starts and stops. Like a flail or axe, the idea would be to keep the head in motion, the mercury at the blade tip, conserving momentum, until you land a successful blow.

Of course, it would be much easier and cheaper to just buy an axe or flail...or a tip-heavy sword.

At any rate...most of my faves have been covered, from the thing from Darksun to the Gyrespike, Duom and Manti. The Double flail is double dumb...and I can't say much in favor of the gnome hooked pick or whatever.

Hmmm...and add my mucho hate for the spiked chain, though- regular chains are hard enough to deal with- adding spikes all over it is just asking for a good puncturing.

Hussar · Jun 10, 2006

IMHO, the strangest weapon in DnD is the polearm. Why are polearms so weak compared to swords? There was a reason most people carried a spear or a polearm throughout history. They WORK. And they work really, really well. Roman soldiers didn't fight with swords, they fought with spears. As did the vast majority of foot soldiers until the age of gunpowder. Yet, in DnD, polearms take a back seat to swords in terms of effectiveness and damage.

Sorry, my own personal little rant. Carry on with the rest of the thread.

Dannyalcatraz · Jun 10, 2006

The reasons nobody plays polearms in D&D is 2-fold:

1) Few of them work in tight spaces (like dungeons). Polearms are at their best on the battlefield, where adventurers tend not to be.

2) Lack of mechanics tailored to their use. However, with the DCv1's 10+ Feats for polearm use, I think you'll see more people using them. I know I've been designing polearm PCs this past year.

Hussar · Jun 10, 2006

Heh, Dannyalcatraz - I have that same article from Dragon. Bloody fantastic. My Warpike wielding dwarf with the extra reach feat is just rocking. Loving it LOTS. And my players were very sad when they met those goblins armed with awl pikes. Three ranks of fifteen foot reach goblins is just brutal.

The thing is, most polearms actually wouldn't be much more difficult to use in a dungeon than any other two handed weapon. Yes, a longspear might be 12 or 15 feet long, but, it's not like you hold it at the bottom. You hold it half way up the shaft. That makes the weapon effectively about as long as a greatsword. Yet, no one has any beefs about using a greatsword or greataxe in a dungeon. Or, heck, a 7 foot bloody longbow with 6 foot ceilings.

But, your second point, IMO, is the telling one. Polearms are just suboptimal. Sure, you get that x3 crit, but, that's pretty pale compared to a 19-20 crit. And, it just doesn't go well with things like Imp Crit or keen. Add to that, the fact that polearms do the same or less damage than swords, and, well, it's not a shock that polearms aren't seen all that often.

Just something that has always, always bugged me.

Dannyalcatraz · Jun 10, 2006

You hold it half way up the shaft. That makes the weapon effectively about as long as a greatsword

All that does is make it so you have a "greatsword" in front of you and a "greatsword" in back of you...

So, your polearm wielding warrior is warding off the troll in front of him (pokity poke poke poke), waiting for the wizard to fry it with an acid or fire spell of some kind, not realizing that every round the wizard is failing his concentration checks as the butt end of the polearm is striking him in the family jewels.

Polearms are just suboptimal.

I don't think so- I think suboptimality depends on the polearm in question. Many (not all) of them start off with reach, and several have a throwing range as well. If you look through the descriptions, you'll also find that several of them work with particular maneuvers, especially trip attacks. And, to be honest, some of them have nice damage (1d10 or 1d12 isn't too bad in my book) and/or multipliers (x3 to x4).

I mean, the Greatspear (Exotic 2 handed weapon with 10' reach, 10' range increment, 2d6 x3) is NOT a bad weapon.

Imp · Jun 10, 2006

Polearms, especially spears, are the most economical way to deal the most damage for standard soldiers in the game. Adventurers have money to throw around, but if you're fielding an army, you bet you're taking a long hard look at those 1d8/x3/20 ft. increment spears at 2 measly gold pieces a pop. The other polearms don't fare badly either. So I think D&D RAW models the relative ubiquity of polearms pretty well.

(The greatspear is not a bad weapon. It is a lame weapon. But it is not a bad one.)

big dummy · Jun 10, 2006

Zander said:
Sure, a solid weapon might be better in general, but not always. If it were always the case that a solid weapon was superior, ones with a moving weight would never have been invented. But they were (see my post here).

I would really like to see your source on that weapon with a "moving weight on it". I've been studying spathology for 20 years and I've never heard of it. Nothing like that exists in Oakeshotts typology, I'm certain of that. The only vaguely similar thing I ever heard of are some Chinese Dao sabers which had a hollowed out fuller with a little 1mm bead in it that could roll back and forth... but that had absolutely no effect on the weight of the blade.

If you have some evidence of this weapon, I would love to see it.

As for the mercury sword, well I liked those novels ok too but didn't Gene Wolf prefer to have people fighting with flowers IIRC? He certainly doesn't know anything about real life weapons, even less than WOTC.

BD
\

big dummy · Jun 10, 2006

genshou said:
New experiment: Take two durable plastic bottles. Fill one completely with water, then fill the other 2/3 of the way with water and add 1 kg of mercury.

A kg of mercury? LOL! How much do you think real swords weighed?

BD

big dummy · Jun 10, 2006

Hussar said:
Nyaricus, this is true, but, in the case of a mercurial sword, I'm thinking that physics tends to get in the way. A sword is what, about three quarters of an inch thick at its thickest? Give or take anyway. .

Three quarters of an inch!!!? LOL!!!! Maybe a D&D sword! Man oh man. You people seriously ought to read up a bit on history.

BD

big dummy · Jun 10, 2006

Hussar said:
IMHO, the strangest weapon in DnD is the polearm. Why are polearms so weak compared to swords? There was a reason most people carried a spear or a polearm throughout history. They WORK. And they work really, really well. Roman soldiers didn't fight with swords, they fought with spears. As did the vast majority of foot soldiers until the age of gunpowder. Yet, in DnD, polearms take a back seat to swords in terms of effectiveness and damage.

Sorry, my own personal little rant. Carry on with the rest of the thread.

It's because other than hitting an extra square away, (and barring some feats from Dragon magazine I've never seen) there is no effect of reach in D&D. A guy with a dagger is just as likely to hit somebody with a sword as they are him, and he is just as likely to strike first. Big difference from real life. Similarly to the pole arm. In real life their cheif advantage was reach.

Polearms also tend to strike considerably more devastating blows, especially when used with their business end to chop (rather than to poke like a spear, or hook and pulle people off horses etc.) The finishing blow done with the cleaver or axe head (or whatever) would usualy be sufficient to cut through medium to heavy armor, which a sword generally could not. (In fact the halberd, arguably the first pole arm, was invented by Swiss peasants precisely for the purpose of killing Austrian knights)

BD

Top 10 odd D&D weapons

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