Disarm, Trip, and Whips

[reapersaurus]

1) The SRD doesn't allow you to do what you described, exactly.
You have to know what subsection to go to, and then you're only saving the navigation on that one (admittedly long) web page.

2) Don't investigate rules from work.
If you want to quote the rules structure of 3E, please wait till you have the REAL books in fronmt of you to avoid misunderstandings and misinterpretations.
God knows, getting to understand 3E Rules is hard enough without adding more confusion to the situation.

edit: i guess if you saved the entire website to your hard drive, then did File Searching for "Containing Text", you could get the situation you described.

 

[0-hr]

I do have the SRD on my local drive and I use VC++ to search for text strings. If I didn't read these boards from work, I would not read them at all. So I'm going to continue to use the SRD as my primary rules reference until something better comes along. Sorry if that upsets you but you are just going to have to learn to deal with it.

 

[Gizzard]

GameStoppers #3 on the wizards.com website has an example of disarming and tripping using a whip. Since GameStoppers #10 is on the front page right now, it should be easy to locate #3.

 

[Macbrea]

1) The SRD doesn't allow you to do what you described, exactly.
You have to know what subsection to go to, and then you're only saving the navigation on that one (admittedly long) web page.

2) Don't investigate rules from work.
If you want to quote the rules structure of 3E, please wait till you have the REAL books in fronmt of you to avoid misunderstandings and misinterpretations.
God knows, getting to understand 3E Rules is hard enough without adding more confusion to the situation.

edit: i guess if you saved the entire website to your hard drive, then did File Searching for "Containing Text", you could get the situation you described.

Actually, for the discussion that we were having concerning wether disarm can be used with a reach weapon the use of the SRD was perfectly fine. As most of us have our discussion from work during the day, we find we are unable to have a players handbook available at all times. Personally, I wouldn't want to haul around the entire DnD library to work.

My assumption was that someone was going to quote from the players handbook if they found that the players handbook was different then the SRD in relation to saying you had to do disarm attempts versus adjacent opponents. Which would be impossible to do with a Guisarme (a reach weapon with +2 to disarm).

 

[AuraSeer]

A polearm is not a finesse weapon. When you're swinging a ten-foot stick with a weight on the end, you can put a lot of force into a swing, but you won't be doing any quick changes of direction. It would be rather silly to try complicated fencing tricks with a glaive or a halberd.

I've fought with sword and shield against a polearm wielder, and vice versa. It's practically impossible for either combatant to disarm the other. The swordsman can't really get close enough; the pikeman can't turn his weapon quickly enough to bind his opponent's blade. D&D works the same way in this situation, so the rules as written seem fine to me.

Hooked polearms are a special case, because they have a backward-curved blade that is designed to catch a sword and simply yank it away from the opponent. The ranseur description should have a note stating that it (unlike most reach weapons) can be used to disarm a non-adjacent opponent; with that small addition, everything makes sense.

IMHO, of course.

 

[hong]

edit: i guess if you saved the entire website to your hard drive, then did File Searching for "Containing Text", you could get the situation you described.

There's people who HAVEN'T done that?

 

[Macbrea]

A polearm is not a finesse weapon. When you're swinging a ten-foot stick with a weight on the end, you can put a lot of force into a swing, but you won't be doing any quick changes of direction. It would be rather silly to try complicated fencing tricks with a glaive or a halberd.

First, before making blanket statements you should know that a halberd is a fencing weapon, IRL. It started that way and was used that way for most of its time it was created. It can be used as a poleaxe but then again you could use a saber as a longsword if you really wanted to.


The glaive is a far nicer weapon when actually wielded with finesse over brute strength. A disarming manauver can be done with any quick circular twist of a weapon. It is much harder to disarm heavy weapons because the user is used to wielding it like a hammer in comparison to a fencing weapon. But it isn't impossible. That would be the reason for Laniards on weapons.

 

[Gromm]

Is the whip an exception to the rule then? If so, can you Trip and Disarm people 15 ft away using a whip?

Yep its the exception. Its a ranged weapon that can Disarm. None of the others can. Remember whips don't have Reach, they have Range. Its like disarming with a Crossbow, you can't do it (barring Dragon Magazine feats), but with whip you can.

And I'd assume you use Dexterity, though a case could be made that it still takes Strength to pull the weapon out of thier hand, but that means you're using a Strength roll on a ranged weapon part of the time.

 

[Gromm]

As soon as I can type in a key word, hit <ENTER>, and have my core rule books magically flip open to the correct page and paragraph; then I'll start referencing them before I look to the SRD.

(It would also help if the core books were invisible so I could have them at work without arousing suspicion.)

I use the Index.
I hate the SRD. Its interesting, but should never be quoted for exact rules. Its like having Cliff Notes and the actual book. If I want a quote, wheres the actual quote going to be correct and in full?


Nothing against you personally, just a personal pet peeve when I quote a rule and page number and someone comes back with "but the SRD says this:". Then again my job in customer service makes me really intolerant of stupidity (again not you in this case, just prior experiences- venting).

 

[Malin Genie]

Re: Re: Disarm, Trip, and Whips

.... and only apply a Str penalty to damage. There is no way by the core rules to apply your Str bonus to the attack roll of a projectile weapon.

Actually, if you read the entry under Strength in the PHB, it mentions that a Strength penalty applies to bows and slings, but does not state that a Strength penalty applies to other projectiles (like crossbows and whips.)