It's a whip.... and ?....

Laurel · Jun 30, 2004

(I preface this with hopefully this has not been asked, and hopefully this is not too stupid of a question

)

So we killed a bad, evil girl quite a few sessions ago and took her stuff as adventurers do. One thing she was carrying was a shocking burst whip. I ended up with it -small outburst of happiness-, but having never had a whip before I am now finding myself with lots of questions.
But the main question: Can someone explain to me why the whip is treated as a melee attack, yet incurs the Attack of Opportunity as a ranged weapon?

TracerBullet42 · Jun 30, 2004

Cuz whips are scary, man...scary.

JimAde · Jun 30, 2004

Because they're hard to use. You really have to wangle them around and stand more or less still while you do it. I don't know if there's a game balance reason, but they really are a pain.

Darklone · Jun 30, 2004

Ask the game designers. They nerfed it in 3.5.

With reach 15ft it would have been too strong, as a ranged attack it would have been... well... the only weapon that allowed disarm and other stuff without feats... soo... Ah crap. Houserule it

dcollins · Jun 30, 2004

Laurel said:
But the main question: Can someone explain to me why the whip is treated as a melee attack, yet incurs the Attack of Opportunity as a ranged weapon?

Look at the history. In 3.0 it was a ranged weapon, period. People felt it should be more melee-like, using the Strength modifier, etc. In 3.5 they made it melee-like but felt they had to keep the AOO as a balancing mechanism.

Tetsubo · Jun 30, 2004

dcollins said:
Look at the history. In 3.0 it was a ranged weapon, period. People felt it should be more melee-like, using the Strength modifier, etc. In 3.5 they made it melee-like but felt they had to keep the AOO as a balancing mechanism.

I'd allow a Feat that did away with the AOO penalty. For the whip intensive fighter.

And why couldn't you add the Strength bonus to it as a ranged weapon? If a character throws a spear, dagger or axe the Strength bonus applies...

Hypersmurf · Jul 1, 2004

Tetsubo said:
I'd allow a Feat that did away with the AOO penalty. For the whip intensive fighter. And why couldn't you add the Strength bonus to it as a ranged weapon? If a character throws a spear, dagger or axe the Strength bonus applies...

That's right - they're thrown weapons. The whip wasn't.

From the 3E PHB:

"Although the whip is kept in hand, treat it as a projectile weapon with a maximum range of 15 feet and no range penalties."

and

"Apply a character's Strength bonus to damage dealt by thrown weapons but not to damage dealt by projectile weapons (except for mighty composite shortbows or longbows)."

The mighty whip was introduced in Sword and Fist, allowing a certain amount of Str bonus to be applied to damage for extra cost.

-Hyp.

Kaleon Moonshae · Jul 1, 2004

Tetsubo said:
I'd allow a Feat that did away with the AOO penalty. For the whip intensive fighter. And why couldn't you add the Strength bonus to it as a ranged weapon? If a character throws a spear, dagger or axe the Strength bonus applies...

The reason you can't add the Str bonus is because, honestly, the whip gains nothing from a stronger individual that from a weak one. The whip builds its own momentum through the curling action and has always been the weapon of the small weaker fighter in the east. If the whip had a weight on the end, then it may benefit from Str (that's debatable) but without a weight, it is too light to really gain anything from high stength. AFAIK

AuraSeer · Jul 1, 2004

Note that Sword & Fist introduced the mighty whip, which does let you add Str to damage.

Kaleon Moonshae · Jul 1, 2004

AuraSeer said:
Note that Sword & Fist introduced the mighty whip, which does let you add Str to damage.

I'm not too sure I agree with that myself, although I can see it to please players. The physics just odn't support it, but then this game isn't always about real world physics. If they are goin on the view that its size gives it more momentum then I can agree with the str thing, much like if you placed a weighted ball on the tip.

It's a whip.... and ?....

Laurel

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TracerBullet42

First Post

JimAde

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Darklone

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dcollins

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Tetsubo

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Hypersmurf

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Kaleon Moonshae

When TrueNight falls

AuraSeer

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Kaleon Moonshae

When TrueNight falls

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