Double Weapons: Scrap or keep?

[Darth Cyric]

What should be done about those contraptions like the orc double axe, two-bladed sword, and dire flail? You know, those constructs that screamed "lazy, fanboy-inspired design" in the wake of the whole Phantom Menace and Darth Maul craze.

If that's WOTC's idea of "exotic weapons," someone there needs to do a little more research on weapons like the monk's spade, meteor hammer, rope dart, and slungshot (not to be confused with slingshot). And then put those in instead of those silly, impractical double weapons.

EDIT: The quarterstaff as a double weapon is all well and good. It's the orc double axe, two-bladed sword and dire flail that are problematic.

 

[BarkingDeathSquirrel]

The Urgosh, Quarterstaff, Double sword (even if it is a little cheesy...), and polearms (if you let players bash with the other end...) are fine by me... the rest? Ridiculous, get rid of them...

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Well, yeah, keep the quarterstaff. If anything, make the quarterstaff a little better.

I would like to see the dire flail gone forever, as the most ridiculous exotic weapon ever. But I also don't think a game with tieflings and eladrin needs to constrain itself to historical weapons. The two-bladed sword isn't that terrible -- it's a quarterstaff with blades at each end -- so I'd like to see some form of it stay.

That said, I might want to see these sorts of weapons in the Monster Manual, along with the flindbar, and showing up as sidebars to the relevant beasties.

 

[Grymar]

Scrap them. Or make them have the only fumble rule in the game...a natural 1 is a crit against yourself. I hate those things. (note: a few of them are realistic such as the quarterstaff and should be kept).

 

[Rechan]

I would have picked 'don't know'.

I liked the idea of double weapons - making the Quarterstaff more than just a heavy club - but they are so frickin' clunky you can't really use them without heavy penalty.

 

[Exen Trik]

I don't play D&D for realistic combat, gimmie my silly impractical weapons!

But really, theres going to be some demand for these things so they'll get play one way or another. Perhaps it may be possible to leave them out of the phb, but have some kind of double weapon/two weapon fighting transparency so it's easy to do if you want.

Also, I never saw it as being a starwars fanboy thing, just a general silly fantasy thing. And some of the weapons I see in games and anime make the dire flail look downright reasonable, even without considering the oversized swords and such.

 

[HeinorNY]

I don't care about realism, that's why I play D&D.
BUt I care about cool things and Double weapons suck! Scrap them!
Keep the quarterstaff of course.

 

[Blair Goatsblood]

Throw the lot into a sphere of annihilation and be done with them. They're just "feat sinks" for new D&D players.

 

[drothgery]

Scrap everything but the quarterstaff. And most of the rest of the exotic weapons list, too (the monk weapons aren't needed if the monk's not in PH1, and everything else except the bastard sword, dwarven waraxe, whip, net and hand crossbow is silly).

 

[Gloombunny]

Fighting with both ends of a staff/polearm or chain: good. (Though maybe not in quite the way that 3e handles it.)
Double swords, double axes, double flails, and to be honest most of 3e's "exotic" weapons in general: really dumb.