Finesse'abe 'two-handed' weapon?

[0-hr]

I'm making a human Fighter/Rogue who uses a spiked chain. He has Weapon Finesse and Power Attack and I'm looking for another weapon that can benefit from both of these (especially the two-handed power attack).

The rapier is the best I can find, but I'm not sure that it really makes sense to use that two-handed (even rules-permitting). Then again, I don't know a thing about swordfighting IRL.

Anyway, are there any other options (in expansion books etc.)? If not, is it feasible to use some sort of rapier two-handed?

 

[Thanee]

No, only the spikey cheese o' death has this "feature" (among a plethora of others). Tho, I do not know what kind of stuff is in the gazillion of 3rd party books.

And yeah, double-handed rapier power attacking sounds wrong, wrong, wrong (tho, technically allowed). If you'd do that, I'd drop the crit range to 20/x2!

Using Weapon Finess + Power Attack in general seems rather wrong to me.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Hypersmurf]

I'm making a human Fighter/Rogue who uses a spiked chain. He has Weapon Finesse and Power Attack and I'm looking for another weapon that can benefit from both of these (especially the two-handed power attack).

Whip.

-Hyp.

 

[RangerWickett]

Hyp, you stole my schtick. Just so you know, E.N. Publishin has recently released a book devoted solely to whips, and one of the most entertaining things I discovered in writing the book is that yes, you can power attack with a whip. I'm actually partial to the enlarge/power attack/whirlwind attack combo with a whip, hitting everything within 30 ft.

But yeah, a whip doesn't normally make sense as a two-handed weapon. However, a variant could certainly be made that is two-handed, used like a flogger or something.

 

[Doomhawk]

I realize that Hollywood is far from accurate on most things, but in many movies, I've seen people using their rapiers with both hands when they wanted power and still maintaining at least some semblance of skill. Inigo Montoya in Princess Bride is the only one that pops to mind right now, but I know I've seen it in other places.
That may be your best bet. Although I guess you could use a Large rapier if you really wanted to... the -2 to hit isn't worth it, though.

EDIT: If anyone's curious, the part in Princess Bride where he uses his rapier two-handed is when he's fighting the Man in Black, right at the end of the fight when he starts getting desperate.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Although I guess you could use a Large rapier if you really wanted to...

Not if you want to use Weapon Finesse.

-Hyp.

 

[Doomhawk]

Dang it, you're right. Didn't look at the actual text for the Rapier, just going off memory, so I didn't realize the details like the "...size for you" clause under the Rapier description.
Also, the description of the Rapier specifically says you can't use it two-handed for 1.5x your Strength mod. I would rule that disallows counting it as 2-handed for Power Attack as well.

 

[zorlag]

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How about Elven Thinblade from Complete Warrior? It's basically light version of longsword and is finessable.

Z.

 

[Tuchok]

I would say that the elven thin blade is designed very much like a rapier and would suffer the same difficulty. The point behind the two-handed bonus is that the weapon has the weight to back up the strength in use.

Experiment - get two sticks, one made of oak and one made of balsa. Hit them against something one handed then using both hands. While using the oak stick two handed my allow you to get a better hit, the balsa stick won't hit any harder due to the lack of weight.

I have to go with Thanee that using Weapon Finesses and Power attack together doesn't make a lot of sense and would have to veto that combination in my games.

Good Luck

 

[Hypersmurf]

Also, the description of the Rapier specifically says you can't use it two-handed for 1.5x your Strength mod. I would rule that disallows counting it as 2-handed for Power Attack as well.

It's debatable

It's not clear if it means "You can't wield it two-handed", or "You can wield it two-handed, as long as it isn't for the purpose of gaining 1.5x Str bonus to damage".

-Hyp.