Excerpt: Weapons (MERGE)

[Stormtalon]

Its entirely predictable, but I think its officially time for the thread to explode.

Okey-dokey! Three barrels of Alchemist's Fire, forty Tindertwigs and one albino squirrel coming right up!

 

[jdpacheco]

Okey-dokey! Three barrels of Alchemist's Fire, forty Tindertwigs and one albino squirrel coming right up!

No, wait. It can't explode until Godwin's Law has come into play... Or did I miss it somewhere in there?

 

[Spatula]

I like the weapon properties on each weapon. I disliked how 3e weapons were so similar to each other that it just came down to scimitar and rapier because they had better crit ranges.

I hope they git rid of that type of thing.

Uh... high-crit weapons like the rapier and scimitar are actually inferior to other one-handed martial weapons.

I don't really see anything much different than 3e in here, aside from the removal of the weapon sizes. The only "new" properties are taking into account the loss of Small weapons or the presumed lack of 1.5x str bonus when using weapons 2H (versatile).

It's disappointing that we couldn't actually see some weapon stats.

EDIT: wow, how the heck is this on page 18... what a lightweight excerpt.

 

[Wulfram]

No, wait. It can't explode until Godwin's Law has come into play... Or did I miss it somewhere in there?

(Fails will save vs bad taste)

Well, the Nazis disapproved of dual wielding. As the song goes

Hitler has only got one sword....

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

(Fails will save vs bad taste)

Well, the Nazis disapproved of dual wielding. As the song goes

Hitler has only got one sword....

Oh boy. And here was me about to vote that riding dinosaurs into battle automatically rated as 'cool'.

Although according to The Memo from The Rouse, nothing is 'cool' any more, remember?

For me, a rogue who can carry a shortsword in one hand, a light crossbow in the other and on each turn pick which he uses, rather than having to keep switching weapons? That may not be 'cool' (although I'll put in a vote for 'nifty') but it is a fun image and sounds like fun to play.

 

[Spatula]

"Small: This property describes a two-handed or a versatile weapon that a Small character can use in the same way a Medium character can. "
Halflings blacksmiths create small weapons.

Err, so they only make 2H or hand-and-a-half weapons? I think you are misunderstanding the purpose of the Small property on weapons. According to the article it is only applied to weapons that a size-small character would not be able to use normally. That is, it's an exception to the normal weapon rules for small characters.

 

[Spatula]

For me, a rogue who can carry a shortsword in one hand, a light crossbow in the other and on each turn pick which he uses, rather than having to keep switching weapons? That may not be 'cool' (although I'll put in a vote for 'nifty') but it is a fun image and sounds like fun to play.

Assuming you mean a hand xbow (a light crossbow would take 2 hands to aim & fire), but even then it would take two hands to reload.

 

[Wolfwood2]

Caveat: I should mention that I've been training in Renaissance martial arts for the past 5 years. I also have studied the subject extensively including perusing both actual period manuals on the medieval martial arts and analyses of them by modern experts. I frequently give lessons on the subject, ranging from the mechanics of medieval weaponry to actual styles, to correcting misconceptions created by Hollywood. I can, if you'd like, provide citations for everything I've written.

But isn't everything you wrote pretty meaningless? 4E explicitly takes any idea of realism or historical accuracy out behind the barn and shoots it in the head. You made the most sense when you were talking about Star Wars! I'm not sure why you bothered writing out all that, really.

The important question is, did it look cool when some guy did it in a movie or did it sound cool when some dude did it in a book? Based on that criteria, I'm guessing the spear-and-big-round-shield fighting style of 300 will prove to be the uber-style for early 4E.

 

[Spatula]

Regarding TWF, and the possibility of feats granting powers generally.

Its possible that feats will grant new at will powers.

Haven't the designers explicitly said that feats will not grant new powers? Feats in 4e are supposed to enhance what you can already do, not give you new things to do, or so I thought.

 

[hamishspence]

Swords and crossbows

Light crossbows could be fired one handed in 3.5 (with penalties)

As for the longsword: art seeems to stress that it is long hilted (human fighter on horseback) In that sense, is it more like what was traditionally referred to as a longsword? (excepting the bastard sword and the greatsword) A weapon which is designed to be wielded two handed when needed, but is mostly wielded one handed?

Is this the sort of weapon soldiers or knights usually wielded, with a shield in the other hand, or was that the "arming sword"? And does the long hilt of the 4th ed weapon make it more realistic, or less so?

Katanas: look like unusually short blade, but quite long hilt. In fact, a lot like said 4th ed longsword. Does the comparison work? or does the single edge of the katana make it impossible to merge it with the longsword? Were katanas usually wielded two handed only, or was it possible to mix one handed and two handed use of the katana?