Exotic Weapon Master

[pawsplay]

Does anyone else find it weird that an Exotic Weapon Master would have to use his bastard sword one-handed in order to gain, say, a sunder bonus?

 

[Steverooo]

A-yup!

 

[Taren Seeker]

I like the class, but yes I found some of the qualifications...odd.

Forex, why can't you get 2x str damage with a 2 handed weapon?

I guess they wanted to make a few abils that applied to different types of EW's in order to promote some different (potentially suboptimal) weapons, which seems to be a theme in the book.

I just wish they had figured out a way to make spear fighting more effective in the book. The halberd feat was a good start, but halberds only?

 

[Thor31]

What I find weird is that a gnome or dwarf would have to waste a feat to qualify for the class (at least the Complete Warrior version). Having weapon familiarity with their racial exotic weapons technically does not meet the requirement of Exotic Weapon Proficiency.

Now, I will house rule that the former is equivalent to the latter, but I think that the author should have been more thoughtful on this. Its as if who ever wrote the class didn't consider the 3.5 edition (see the sample exotic weapon master in the Complete Warrior).

 

[pawsplay]

"Special: Races that have familiarity with an exotic weapon (such as the dwarf's familiarity with the dwarven urgrosh) are considered to have the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat for the purpose of meeting the requirements for this class."

 

[kigmatzomat]

"Special: Races that have familiarity with an exotic weapon (such as the dwarf's familiarity with the dwarven urgrosh) are considered to have the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat for the purpose of meeting the requirements for this class."

Is that from Complete Warrior or an errata? We've just started a 3.5e campaign and we've got house-variant EWM and I'm arguing that point to the GM sans Complete Warrior.

 

[Taren Seeker]

It's in CW.

 

[ruleslawyer]

It's in CW.

p.30, to be precise.

So here's another question. What would be wrong with making "Exotic" Weapon Master applicable to non-exotic weapons? AFAICT, the only real reason is flavor, but couldn't one just call this PrC Weapon Master and allow anyone with Weapon Focus and, say, Greater Weapon Focus, Improved Critical, or any weapon-specific feat to qualify? What would be the balance issues? Any input?

 

[pawsplay]

The thing to do in that case would be to analyze the various tricks, and convert them as necessary to Feats.

 

[ruleslawyer]

I guess I'm just trying to figure out why this should be the case, and why a straight-up longsword, rapier, or greatsword wielder couldn't just take this class. After all, EWP gives you a very specific benefit for the proficiency: A higher damage die, a higher threat range, a higher multiplier, or a special ability (tripping, flexible reach, etc.). It's not a bad spend for a fighter-type, and on top of it, a number of very good character options (dwarf, samurai, etc.) get it for free. So I don't see why a martial weapon wielder would be more powerful with three levels of EWM than would an exotic weapon wielder. If you've got some insights, though, I'd appreciate 'em!