Custom Weapons Thread (Warning - images)

[Saagael]

This is slightly off the topic of what your goal is, but what I usually do with exotic weaponry like this is make them magic items. For example, the Macuahuitl could also be said to be a bastard sword/greatsword/fullblade that has the "Jagged" enchantment. Or the Atlatl could be a Javelin that has the "Distance" enchantment.

This has the bonus of avoiding creating mechanics for every weird and crazy weapon my players think of. If they show me a picture and say "I want THIS weapon", I can just point them to a magical enchantment and let them try and get it.

I would suggest maybe trying this first because adding in strange and obscure weapon properties to match the weapons is more the realm of magic item creation, rather than making completely new weapon mechanics (the Ricochet idea someone mentioned for the chakram comes to mind. There's got to be a magic effect that simulates that more gracefully).

Like I said, this is just my take on the subject; there are a lot of cool ideas here regardless.

 

[Maro]

Excellent additions, Grimgrin!

Saagael; while I certainly understand that, it isn't really applicable to my setting. It's not that there's a single rhomphaia or pata or something, but that these are weapons that are fairly common in the locations of my campaign (mock-Thrace and mock-India respectfully), and I feel it would be disingenuous to have dozens of foes armed with them and they all be the same, but with different enchantment levels.

Also, today is my birthday.

 

[Rune]

Also, today is my birthday.

I can't give you XP again without spreading it around, but happy birthday, anyway!

 

[Maro]

Damn. I wasn't even thinking about that until I got the notification of a reply, and then as I loaded the page I wondered, "did someone give me XP?" ...

 

[Frankie1969]

Hmm... what about the Bardiche? The Bec de Corbin? And the Guisarme Voulge? By Bigby, how can anyone play D&D without a guisarme voulge? ;-)

Slightly more seriously, I think there should be crossbows of increasing damage die size requiring Load Move, Load Standard, and Load Full Turn (specific rule: load move or higher cannot be used with multishot weapon exploits).

 

[Maro]

Frankie, I think that the crossbow idea is great, certainly;kind of what I was getting at with the Gastraphetes.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlxU6FUlNZU]YouTube - The Greek Gastraphetes[/ame]

The others, though, I think could probably fit under the halberd

 

[Frankie1969]

I think that the crossbow idea is great, certainly;kind of what I was getting at with the Gastraphetes.

After pondering how this would work, I decided these are not particularly helpful for regular gameplay, but I may as well post my ideas:

Heavy Crossbow: Simple Ranged (20/40), +2 proficiency, 1d10 damage, Load Move

Arbalest: Military Ranged (25/50), +2 proficiency(*), 1d12 damage, Load Standard

Heavy Arbalest: Military Ranged (30/60), +2 proficiency(*), 2d6 damage, High Crit, Load Full Turn

If you have the Speed Loader feat and 15+ Strength, you reduce these crossbows' load times by one action category.

Weapons requiring Load Move or longer cannot be used in weapon powers that make multiple attacks, and loading them provokes opportunity attacks.

(*)=Simulationists could add an attack bonus against heavy armor. However, note that these load times are overly generous. Medieval arbalesters typically had fire rates about 1/3rd that of longbowmen (according to Wikipedia).