Do you allow the Spiked Chain in 3.5 as-is?

[HellHound]

I house rule the spiked chain somewhat.

Just a little bit, honest.

(points to his .sig)

 

[Feyd Rautha]

It's out of there, along with monkey grip, mercurial greatswords, and monks. Of course, this is mostly theoretical, as my group knows better and hasn't tried to acquire any of those things.

You don't allow monks in your game??? What kind of... *calming breath*.

Look, not to tell you how to run your business just to let you know my experience. A little trust for WotC goes a long way when paired with a good DM. I see a lot of complaints about spiked chains and tripping and other things, but these things have either been culled from the system (mercurial greatsword is a 3.0 weapon) or balanced (monkey grip in Complete Warrior) or have been playtested into balance (a lot of this other stuff).

Nothing ever said that you can't use the same stuff on the PCs. I would never give up the ability to use a monk or a spiked chain wielder as a villan.

How is this unbalancing in a world of fantastic creatures? An ogre has a +10 to his trip checks due to his size and strength. Add a level of barbarian and don't use the "crap array" (as I call it) for stats and that number skyrockets. Large and huge creatures just treat a spiked chain guy as any other medium sized nuisance. Oh... and dwarves get a racial +4 to their trip checks. That's +8 for an 18 str dwarven fighter.

NPCs/monsters think too! So they see this guy using a spiked chain and they go around him. Or in the case of NPC parties, they let the spellcasters counter the fighters by attacking their will saves.

Overall, if a character is going to twink out a player is going to find a way. The good thing is though that you are not alone. You have this forum where you can come and ask questions about how to deal with situations if they arise in game. Overall there is no problem/piece of equipment/spell/feat/class that isn't balance if you think about what the downside of it actually is.

Peace...

 

[threshel]

Eh, as is. Just to get to imp. trip with no penalties costs three feats (exotic WP, combat expertise, and imp. trip), so I don't see it being a problem when compared to other possible three-feat/weapon combos.

We did mitigate the "standing up provokes AoO" by ruling that a character can take a "5 foot step" while prone. How many times have we seen a character in a movie roll out of the way of a blow/out of reach? Seemed logical, and doesn't nerf the AoO. We like it.


J

 

[KB9JMQ]

I will leave it as is until I see it as an issue.
No one has ever wanted it yet.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

In any game that I don't use DanMcS' weapon system, I would allow a lashing chain that dealt 1d6 damage but not a spiked chain. So, I vote House Rule.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Eh, as is. Just to get to imp. trip with no penalties costs three feats (exotic WP, combat expertise, and imp. trip), so I don't see it being a problem when compared to other possible three-feat/weapon combos.

We did mitigate the "standing up provokes AoO" by ruling that a character can take a "5 foot step" while prone. How many times have we seen a character in a movie roll out of the way of a blow/out of reach? Seemed logical, and doesn't nerf the AoO. We like it.


J

Technically those movie characters are using tumble checks to avoid the AoO and then standing. The only answer to this is tumble (or a diplomacy/bluff check to keep them from taking the AoO). Crawling is also listed as provoking in the combat rules section.

Think of it this way... in the movies the villan is getting ready to take the AoO for the hero standing up, but he literally tumbles back out of the way and then stands. The problem of the analogy is that all modern heroes should have tumble since we don't use armor anymore and quickness and dodging is the new "way of the warrior".

 

[Arnwyn]

I tentatively said "yes", I allow it as-is, but that's only because I've never seen it in action before, as none of my players have shown any interest.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

You inspired me to buy En Arsenal Spiked Chain, HellHound. Good job

 

[derelictjay]

I allow full-use. But my players have never used it...I have as the DM to great effectiveness

 

[Squire James]

Yes, I allow the Spiked Chain as is. Power Attack, however, is slightly house-ruled so that it will not function at all for anything using Weapon Finesse (which basically adds rapiers and spiked chains, since all light weapons were already covered). If the character is actually using his Strength bonus to attack, he can get full benefit from Power Attack.