D&D 3E/3.5 3.5 Half-orcs and weapon familiarity

[Aust Meliamne]

Does anyone see any problem with letting half-orc's in DnD 3.5 having weapon familiarity with the Double-axe?

 

[Sejs]

Not I, said the fly.

IMC I give 'em familiarity with both the double axe and orcish shotput.

...'course, I -also- give 'em a +2 racial bonus on intimidate checks and spot checks related to scent. I'm kinda zany that way.

 

[Gellion]

No

 

[Darklone]

Throw some halforc barbarians with one more feat at your players and check if they complain.

 

[DWARF]

Nope, I've used that as a house rule since about 5 days after getting my 3.0 books. Plus, when the splatbooks came out they also got the shotput. I mean, what makes it an Orcish shotput or Orcish double-axe if they have to spend a feat to take it like everyone else. The way I look at it, spending a feat on an exotic weapon like and Orcish double-axe, or Dwarven Waraxe represents time and training in something foreign and not easy to train. Dwarves teach other Dwarves how to us Waraxe's readily, and thus they have it as if it were a martial weapon. If some human wants to try it out, he's going to have to spend some time trying to find Dwarves that can give him some pointers on it, and try to practice it on his own; thus it costs a feat.

 

[Darklone]

I never had a problem with orcs having the proficiency, but halforcs raised by humans? No way.

 

[DWARF]

Well, of course, the whole point of racial familiarity is that it represents physical aptitude and cultural teaching. As such, I'd allow have a halfling raised by gnomes to take the hook-hammer for free as a weapon familiarity. Same thing as if a human with 16 Str (somehow) gets raised by a tribe of orcs, he's going to have Orc Double-Headed Axe and Orcish Shotput under weapon familiarity...

But Half-Orc raised completely by Humans? Then no, I rule 0 that ability away, and give him +4 skill points at level 1.

 

[Rel]

Not ONLY do I not see this as a problem, I ALSO think that Aust should come to the North Carolina Game Day coming up in August (check the link in my sig).

But seriously, I don't see this as overpowered. In general the "double weapons" don't seem all that optimal anyway.

The "Dwarven Waraxe" is starting to nudge up against my sense of propriety though. Especially in concert with the other bennies the Dwarves are getting in 3.5. I'm still not ready to call it "broken" though.

 

[niteshade6]

I always had some extent to the logic behind weapon familiarity just because humans have plenty of exotic weapons they invented to, and they don't get familiarity in them as well. To me it was just that the weapon was hard to learn, not strange to your culture.

Even so I have no problems with orcs getting the free weapon. Dwarves though, I don't think needed the help.