How does one carry a Flail?

[dragoonm]

If someone has a heavy flail that is not their primary (readied) weapon, how do you carry it and still have it ready to draw? Do you tuck it into a belt or what? Give me your input please.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

With the chain looped over the belt. Drawing a weapon isn't broken down into how difficult it is to do; even though unsheathing a sword is probably quicker, it's the same as pulling out your flail in D&D terms.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

Keeping it in your belt might be a little unconfortable, especially if you have to run. If I had to carry a heavy flail, I'd have a scabbard in my back, and the chain would be rolled around the shaft so I don't accidentaly crush my own skull if I ever should brake too suddenly.

A leather strap could also be used to secure the moving part of the flail to the shaft.

AR

 

[Storyteller01]

Looped on the belt, handle under the belt. The joint of the handle/chain is where the weapon would rest on the belt. Armor usually blocks most discomfort, but it can be noisy. Drawing is just grabbing the joint and pulling up. Handle falls into your hand.

You could have a 'holster' designed along the same lines.


Hope it helps...

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

There are pictures of flails in Stone's Glossary with small hooks on the handle for securing the chain.

 

[Scion]

velcro, copious amounts of sweet, sweet velcro

 

[Sheltem]

We had a problem along a similar line.

One of our players insistet his character could carry around TWO spiked chains. These he would both sling around his body in such a way, as to be able to not hurt himself (even falling down a pit) and also tug one free like a normal Draw action.

 

[HellHound]

Sheltern: here's what I had to say (completely fictionalized, mind you, since the weapon is not real) about stowing and drawing spiked chains, from E.N.Arsenal: Spiked Chain. This is stitched together from 2 different parts of the book...

Through the development of the spiked chain, various cultures have designed a variety of methods for stowing the weapon when not in use. The most common is to have the centre keylink behind the neck of the bearer with the chains hanging down over the front of his shoulders. The chains are then pulled upwards until the keylink is nearly down to the backs of the bearer’s knees. On a typical humanoid of just under six feet, this leaves about three feet of spiked chain hanging over each shoulder, generally being the ‘spikiest’ parts.

Other methods of stowing the weapon include hooking the centre keylink to a hook mounted on the shoulder of the bearer’s armour and then wrapping the two resulting 7-
foot lengths of chain around the bearer’s forearm. The wielder then holds the excess chain in his hand to prevent it from uncoiling until needed. By simply letting go of the
ends of the chain, it falls from his arm, uncoiling to its full two seven-foot lengths.

- - -

While the weight of the spiked chain is roughly 10 pounds regardless of design, they are incredibly difficult to stow in a convenient fashion that also allows them to be drawn and wielded with any efficiency. The problem is of course that the various heads and protrusions become entangled with each other while the chain is stowed. This problem is compounded to extremes when more than one spiked chain is stowed in the same location.

The standard means of stowing a spiked chain in a bag is to strap the lengths of the chain into an oiled cloth that is then rolled up and placed in the bottom of a sack
or backpack. This method does, however, distinctly impair the ability of the wielder to bring the weapon to bear with any speed. However, it allows multiple spiked chains to be stowed in a single bag or container without fear of entanglement. In addition to the amount of time needed to dig the weapon out of the bag, it takes two full rounds to open the cloth bag and unstrap the chain within it to bring the weapon to bear.

A spiked chain can be stowed in a leather or heavy canvas bag without strapping it down, but this runs the risk of the chain entangling with itself or with other chains stored in the container. When drawing a spiked chain from such a container, there is a 25% chance that the chain is entangled with itself which then requires a full-round action in order to free up the chain enough to be useable. For each additional spiked chain stowed in the same container, the chance of entanglement increases by 25%.

 

[hong]

Keeping it in your belt might be a little unconfortable, especially if you have to run.

But then you'd give the DM the opportunity to use the line "is that a flail in your pants, or are you happy to see me?" Which can never be underestimated.

If I had to carry a heavy flail, I'd have a scabbard in my back, and the chain would be rolled around the shaft so I don't accidentaly crush my own skull if I ever should brake too suddenly.

And see, this sentence would take on whole new dimensions of meaning if you did, in fact, put your flail in your pants. DO IT! DO IT!

 

[drnuncheon]

Any of the above methods would be...possible...for a light flail. Sticking it through your belt is probably not the best idea as the head will swing around and it won't be very comfy. I did turn up a 'flail sheath' on Google:

http://www.eeldrytch.com/ScansContest/Q102Winner.html

Anyway, the heavy flail is a two-handed weapon - it's probably 4-6' long, which is a little long to stick your your belt. Generally, I'd expect that it would be carried in the hand like any other long weapon (spear, halberd, polearm).

http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/pic/1997/flail.jpg
http://www.firebirdarts.com/artsword/3044adam.jpg
http://www.anmoddracan.org.uk/footf.jpg