Dire Mace?

[Tetsubo]

I love the Gyrspike.

In my opinion, the Gyrspike is precisely the sort of double weapon that even begins to make sense. Double weapons should have different abilities in the heads, not the same one. My favorite double weapon in the PHB is the urgrosh, just because you've got more utility than an axe or a spear could give you alone. The hooked hammer is good, too, for the same reasons. Double axe, double sword, dire flail? Boring.

Then again, I think that the weapons as demonstrated are silly. The urgrosh shouldn't be wielded as an axe with a spear at the end, but as a spear with an axe at the end. Same thing with the gyrspike. It's not a sword with a flail on the bottom, but a flail with a sword on the bottom.

Of course, this is assuming that any of these "weapons" can actually be wielded in a non-silly manner.

When I was sketching I refered to such weapons as Battlestaves. Each end would differ from the other.

Example:

 

[Scharlata]

[...]Dire Mace[...]

Aaaaaaaand in the red corner: the Double Mace!

Exotic Weapons
Two-Handed Melee Weapons

Mace, double: Footnote: 5; Cost: 125 gp; Dmg (S): 1d6/1d6, Dmg (M): 1d8/1d8; Critical: x2; Range Increment: —; Weight: 25 lb.; Type: B; Source: AEG 6

5 = Double weapon.

AEG = Arms and Equipment Guide

This double weapon resembles a stout elongated shaft, ending in cylindrical, spiked heads at both busy ends.

Enjoy!

 

[Shin Okada]

Aaaaaaaand in the red corner: the Double Mace!

Thats it! Thank you very much.

 

[Nyaricus]

A none-WotC (but d20) book is From Stone To Steel. Has quite a few cool Oriental double weapons which include Double Mace, Laingtjat, Monks Spade [more evil than it sounds], Kwandao and a few others, i am sure.

Definitly worht picking up - 3000 years of weapons and weapon history all in *neat* d20 format. Gotta love it.

 

[Nac_Mac_Feegle]

When I was sketching I refered to such weapons as Battlestaves. Each end would differ from the other.

Example:

http://www.enworld.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=23635

Care to add some stats to that baby and release it, that looks like one mighty fine weapon sir

Feegle Out

 

[Tetsubo]

Care to add some stats to that baby and release it, that looks like one mighty fine weapon sir

Feegle Out

For a Medium sized version I would have the sickle end be (1d8 ×2 Slashing) and the spear point end (1d6 ×3 Piercing). It would be Exotic obviously.

 

[Feldspar]

Aaaaaaaand in the red corner: the Double Mace!
Exotic Weapons
Two-Handed Melee Weapons
Mace, double: Footnote: 5; Cost: 125 gp; Dmg (S): 1d6/1d6, Dmg (M): 1d8/1d8; Critical: x2; Range Increment: —; Weight: 25 lb.; Type: B; Source: AEG 6

5 = Double weapon.
AEG = Arms and Equipment Guide

One or more people at WotC deserve wet willies over this - as an exotic weapon it really should have a Crit of x3.

Compare a Heavy Mace to a Flail. One is a simple weapon and the other is a martial and yet both do 1d8 x2 damage. But the Flail is compensated for its martialness by being lighter, can be used to make trip attacks and grants a bonus to disarm checks. Now compare this Dire Mace to a Dire Flail. They have the weapons doing the same damage, but while each user paid the same price (an EWP) the Dire Flail user gets the bonus to disarm and the trip attacks. No no no no no NO! That's obviously unacceptable.

Also, doesn't the Dire Hammer (or whatever they call it) added in Complete Warrior have d8 x3 damage? If so, why would anyone EVER choose a Dire Mace except for style, in which case they should not have to suffer a penalty.

Note also that you'd want to adjust the weight listed above. AEG was a 3.0 book and double weapons went on a major diet in 3.5:
Axe, orc double 25 lb. -> 15 lb.
Flail, dire 20 lb. -> 10 lb.
Sword,two-bladed 30 lb. -> 10 lb.

IIRC, the weapon weights in Complete Warrior are a bit screwed up - I think the Dire Hammer had a weight that looked like it was based on 3.0 numbers.

Oh, and here's another weight I think they screwed up:
Hammer, Gnome Hooked 6 lb. -> 6 lb.
What's wrong with this picture? I don't see why the hooked hammer's 3.5 should be so out of step of the other double weapons. In 3.0 the hooked hammer was a medium sized weapon. As listed, it was scaled for its expected use by small creatures. In 3.5 the weapon weight is supposed to be for the medium sized version of the weapon and small sized versions weigh half. I suspect that when going through and adjusting the weapon weights, someone got to the hammer and said, "6 pounds is light enough, it doesn't need to get any lighter." And they were right, it needed to get HEAVIER. Doubling that to 12 pounds gives it the same weight as an Urgosh which seems like the right thing to do.

EDIT: said Heavy Flail when I meant, simplyl, Flail