Two-blades ranger with two bastards - kosher?

[Ahglock]

Oh no, you did NOT go there! That's it! I'm sending you 72 copies of "Gigli" for Christmas!

You must watch this scene on continuous loop until you come over to the true path. (anyway to just have the link, and not like the video pop up??)

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB1clLGlTkw"][/ame][ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOddZhT1S1U"]YouTube - Predator - Sweeping the Jungle[/ame]

 

[Ahglock]

Back in 3e, E.N. Publishing released a book called "Four Color to Fantasy," a superpowers add on for 3rd edition. One of the sample characters we presented was Zidi Wheatling, the halfling titan. The artist's inside joke was that she illustrated 3'4" Zidi wielding Cloud's sword from FF7 as her primary weapon, and Tidus's watery bastard sword as her off-hand weapon.

But she was a superhero, so it was okay.

In my games, if a player wants to do something that normal people simply cannot possibly accomplish physically, like wield a pair of greatswords as if they were escrima sticks, then we just decide, "Okay, your character has some inherent magical powers that let you pull this off." I run a pretty flexible style setting, so if a player wants to be superhuman, it's fine with me.

If, however, the majority of the group prefers more clear delineation between what is magical (wizards, warlocks) and what is mundane (fighters, rangers), and if the group believes there can be no such thing as a magical warrior, then for the sake of the rest of the group's enjoyment, the player who wanted to be a super-strong warrior should change his character idea.

For me, though, I see no problem with magical warriors, even if the Rules as Written says they have a 'martial' power source as opposed to a 'magical' one.

One, I like the picture.
two i have no problem with it either, except I'd like bigger pseudo magical effects.
Heck, I'd have no problem if there was a martial power on a ninja class where they breathed fire, chopped foes with there sword while 6 squares away, and just say they are gathering there Chi, ki ,chakra which to me is a martial power source.

 

[Herschel]

You must watch this scene on continuous loop until you come over to the true path. (anyway to just have the link, and not like the video pop up??)

You have failed to present the ultimate cheese. One of the guys had a clip that ran out of ammo!

 

[Ahglock]

You have failed to present the ultimate cheese. One of the guys had a clip that ran out of ammo!

That was to dramatically illustrate how long they were shooting. They shot up a forest for so long, they ran out of Ammo in a Arnold movie.​

 

[aurance]

Its not the weight that matters as much as the length. Using two bastard length weapons inhibits movement and make your attack awkward and predictable, which isnt reflected in the rules. I would discourage it because the player is probably doing it purely from a min/max approach. However its not a big deal if you let him have it either.

You're quite right. This is why in the real world, in historical manuals and images, you so rarely see two-weapon fighting, if at all. Two-weapon fighting can have some advantage if you are fighting with two very linear weapons (rapier + rapier) or one short (for mostly defense) and one long (for attack) for the opportunity cost of significantly longer training.

However, D&D is a game that has traditionally allowed other wacky things - indeed, absorbed as part of its very iconic image - things such as two "longswords" (arming swords, really), two scimitars, two battle axes etc. and attacking twice as often, NONE of which happened with much success in any battlefield. I find it ridiculous to say all the above stuff can happen, and yet two bastard swords crosses over into another part of purely fantasy fighting that is somehow unacceptable!

Lastly, there may be some misconception as to the visualization of this mythically enormous bastard sword. Apologies for borrowing images from MMOs, but to illustrate my point -

Bastard swords were more like this: real-ish

And less like this: total fantasy weapon

But hey, it's your fantasy game, YMMV.

 

[Moon-Lancer]

I have to say, theirs something amazing about seeing someone in real life fight with a longsword. It really makes one rethink the common fantasy sword.