Are whips broken or shafted? Personal experiences?

[Zappo]

Should whips be able to deal damage to people in armor? I mean, if shuriken can hurt people in armor, whips certainly have a chance, no?

At least, shuriken are metal. I can't see any way a whip could get through any armor, no matter how hard you can strike. Maybe a feat to do so? Or... hmm, a brilliant energy whip...

 

[Dirigible]

At least, shuriken are metal. I can't see any way a whip could get through any armor, no matter how hard you can strike

D&D doesn;t take hit location into account. A whip that hits could be siad to hit any exposed flesh, which the target almost always has (barring complete armour plus gauntlets plus helmet with visor).

 

[Darklone]

I had a Jack of all trades char (bbn/rgr/rog/bard scout type) who liked to use whips (with Animate Rope for Zorro and Indy Jones tricks) as off hand weapons. He often put them back for melee and used an axe instead, but before the enemies closed, it was a nice thing to pick off some weapons.

 

[orangefruitbat]

You should be able to do nifty tricks with a whip even without having to take the Lasher prestige class (which doesn't exist in 3.5 anyway). Anyone with a whip proficiency ought to be able to pluck idols off altars with their whips, swing across chasms by using your whip as a rope, and scare animals by cracking the whip at them. The rules don't directly support this, but if you were a DM or a player, would you expect whip-wielders to be able to pull off these stunts?

Sure you could do these things, pretty much with the rules:

Idol Pluck - basically, you need to hit it (AC 10 + size modifiers). Because you are trying to entangle it, I'd say this is a -4 penalty (keep in mind that the AC of the idol is pretty low, so this shouldn't be a big problem for a skilled user).

Scare animals - basically this is an intimdidate check (or possibly handle animal). I'd give the whip user a +2 bonus to the roll.

Swing across chasms - probably the easiest way to do this is give a +2 or +4 bonus to jump checks (assuming you could lash the whip onto something).

I love whips, and think people should use more of them. I also think that whip daggers are kinda cheesy and people should use less of them.

 

[MarauderX]

D&D doesn;t take hit location into account. A whip that hits could be siad to hit any exposed flesh, which the target almost always has (barring complete armour plus gauntlets plus helmet with visor).

I agree. If Michele Pfifer(sp?) can learn to whip 3+ candles out from 15+ feet away for Batman II, I think a PC character that uses the whip all of the time would be able to do the same. The whip is pretty underpowered, and I would have to say that the size catagory would have to be bigger or perhaps a bonus to disarm is in order. Tripping would still be iffy, as it should be more of a Str thing IMO.

 

[Cor Azer]

I've never had a character who's really used a whip, but one of my current players does. He doesn't tend to go overboard with it though, as his character has a 7 strength and an 8 dexterity, so he's usually slinging his bardic spells rather than trying to melee.

As for the above actions, I'd likely allow the attempts, but circumstances and die rolls (which I hope I could fairly set) would determine success.

 

[Mallus]

I'd allow all those uses for whips, and probably more [orangefruitbat has some good suggestions]. Its the kind of creative, cinematic play I try and encourage. I'm biased; I believe that clever play mainly involves character interacting with the environment I describe [as DM], not players interacting with a stack of rule/splatbooks.

Semi-hijack: I'm currently making a Mutants and Masterminds character that's a fictional 1930's pulp adventurer, in crude terms, a girl Indiana Jones. I'm struggling with how to build her signature whip. I want to use Teleknesis as the base power, with a bunch of extras. The problem is [for all you familiar with M&M] is in order to make it usesful at all, I have to give it far more power than would fit even a superheroic pulp char.. There's no clear example of how to reduce the range/lifting capacity while still allowing for super-sturnts [more than just idol-plucking, like deflecting the course of the speeding truck by whipping the trucks front axle and applying just the right amount of force...]

Any ideas?

 

[Swack-Iron]

Semi-hijack: I'm currently making a Mutants and Masterminds character that's a fictional 1930's pulp adventurer, in crude terms, a girl Indiana Jones. I'm struggling with how to build her signature whip. I want to use Teleknesis as the base power, with a bunch of extras. The problem is [for all you familiar with M&M] is in order to make it usesful at all, I have to give it far more power than would fit even a superheroic pulp char.. There's no clear example of how to reduce the range/lifting capacity while still allowing for super-sturnts [more than just idol-plucking, like deflecting the course of the speeding truck by whipping the trucks front axle and applying just the right amount of force...]

Any ideas?

It sounds like you're trying too hard to make a whip into a superpower. Given that you're using the M&M system, a large degree of comic book/cinematic physics is implied. Instead of putting points into the whip, ask your GM if you can buy feats and skills that will improve whip use. For ideas for feats, see the Lasher prestige class in Sword & Fist, or the Exotic Weapon Master in Complete Warrior -- any of their class features should translate well into feats (or minor superpowers) with ease. You could use some of the lower level class features as prerequisite feats for the higher level class features.

And think creatively in combat! As a whip master you always have to be thinking outside the box. Don't get stuck always tripping the enemy, but be looking for creative things to snatch, flick, swing from, etc. Think swashbuckling adventure and you'll be in the right headspace.

 

[RangerWickett]

Looking at the way whips are designed, I figured out a high-fantasy sorta way to make a whip-dagger.

Basically, a whip is just some sort of flexible core with corded strands of leather entwining it, with a good whip having anywhere from 8 to 24 strands. Well, simply have some of the strands be flexible pieces of metal with sharpened ridges that poke out of the rest of the plait. Of course, you'd have to be careful to make sure your metal strands weren't sharp all over, or else they'd damage the whip itself, but this could let the whip slap across someone's face and slash them.

Then, the fall at the end of the whip is normally a strip of tough leather. If you used some really light, high-quality metal, something really ductile, it could substitute. The cracker at the very tip could even be tipped with tiny spikes. I might rule that a whip-dagger of this sort couldn't make quite as good of a cracking sound, but it'd probably look nifty.

 

[JesterPoet]

Actually, I think arrows are way more SHAFTed!


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Okay, I'll just go back to my corner now....