ForceUser
Explorer
QUALIFIER: I use the weapon group proficiency feat variant from Unearthed Arcana for all my PCs, NPCs, and weapon-using monsters.
On Saturday, my group experienced the ritiik exotic weapon from Frostburn for the first time, and they were extremely frustrated with it. In a far northern land of icy tundra, they fought a band of variant ogres wielding giant-sized ritiiks (which, in the course of everyday life, the ogres used to catch seals, walruses, and whales).
The ritiik, for the uninitiated, is a spearlike weapon with an additional hooklike blade protruding from the base of the spearhead. Upon scoring a hit, the wielder can choose to use it to make a trip attempt as part of the attack. The DC to avoid the trip attempt is 10 + the damage dealt. Failure means that the wielder of the ritiik can then attempt a trip, and if he fails his attempt, he can drop the ritiik to avoid being tripped himself. There's more to the weapon, but this is the relevant part.
Okay. So take one of those, throw it in the hands of a Large creature with reach and a 26 Strength, and you've got a problem for melee characters who lacks skills and feats such as Tumble and Spring Attack. Each time the melee characters attempted to close, they incurred attacks of opportunity from the ogres, who upon scoring a hit, would use the ritiik to trip them and arrest the PCs' movements at the edge of the ogres' threat range. Naturally, the ogres would then take their attacks of opportunity when the melee PCs stood up, essentially gaining an extra attack over the course of a single initiative cycle (the way it worked out was like this--PC goes before ogre, moves in to attack, provoking an AoO from an ogre. On the ogre's action he attacks the prone PC, who must then incur another AoO when he stands up on his following action. Brutal, really.) This occurred multiple times over the course of the encounter, to the extreme frustration of the PCs, in part because at their level ogres are such chumps. (As an aside, the party had an additional problem with landing spells on the ogres--the creatures had the spellwarped template and the group was in an area of wild magic, requiring Concentration checks for each arcane spell they attempted to cast.)
The encounter, as you can imagine, was meant to be surprisingly challenging, but not overwhlemingly so, and that's about how it played out. The players, however, were more frustrated at the impediments to their ability to down the ogres than they were surprised at the ogres' combat prowess resiliency.
So, my question is this--have you had any experiences of your own with this weapon, good or bad? Also, do you think that the ritiik is too good in the hands of a giant? My players uninanimously called it a bull
weapon. These guys are DMs themselves and are not prone to whining or hyperbole, though granted, it was a frustrating encounter all the way around and some of that might have been leaking through to their assessment of the weapon.
On Saturday, my group experienced the ritiik exotic weapon from Frostburn for the first time, and they were extremely frustrated with it. In a far northern land of icy tundra, they fought a band of variant ogres wielding giant-sized ritiiks (which, in the course of everyday life, the ogres used to catch seals, walruses, and whales).
The ritiik, for the uninitiated, is a spearlike weapon with an additional hooklike blade protruding from the base of the spearhead. Upon scoring a hit, the wielder can choose to use it to make a trip attempt as part of the attack. The DC to avoid the trip attempt is 10 + the damage dealt. Failure means that the wielder of the ritiik can then attempt a trip, and if he fails his attempt, he can drop the ritiik to avoid being tripped himself. There's more to the weapon, but this is the relevant part.
Okay. So take one of those, throw it in the hands of a Large creature with reach and a 26 Strength, and you've got a problem for melee characters who lacks skills and feats such as Tumble and Spring Attack. Each time the melee characters attempted to close, they incurred attacks of opportunity from the ogres, who upon scoring a hit, would use the ritiik to trip them and arrest the PCs' movements at the edge of the ogres' threat range. Naturally, the ogres would then take their attacks of opportunity when the melee PCs stood up, essentially gaining an extra attack over the course of a single initiative cycle (the way it worked out was like this--PC goes before ogre, moves in to attack, provoking an AoO from an ogre. On the ogre's action he attacks the prone PC, who must then incur another AoO when he stands up on his following action. Brutal, really.) This occurred multiple times over the course of the encounter, to the extreme frustration of the PCs, in part because at their level ogres are such chumps. (As an aside, the party had an additional problem with landing spells on the ogres--the creatures had the spellwarped template and the group was in an area of wild magic, requiring Concentration checks for each arcane spell they attempted to cast.)
The encounter, as you can imagine, was meant to be surprisingly challenging, but not overwhlemingly so, and that's about how it played out. The players, however, were more frustrated at the impediments to their ability to down the ogres than they were surprised at the ogres' combat prowess resiliency.
So, my question is this--have you had any experiences of your own with this weapon, good or bad? Also, do you think that the ritiik is too good in the hands of a giant? My players uninanimously called it a bull
weapon. These guys are DMs themselves and are not prone to whining or hyperbole, though granted, it was a frustrating encounter all the way around and some of that might have been leaking through to their assessment of the weapon.
