Halfling Fighter Help

[ACGalaga]

Here's a good question for you.
My player has decided to make a Halfling Fighter and I'm having a little trouble deciding on the equipment.

She wanted to get a (Short sword) Duelist's Weapon. Here's the catch; her fighter talent is two-handed weapon talent. Thing is, in the DDI character builder, one cant whield a short sword as a two handed weapon.

The argument is, since she's a Halfling, shoudn't a short sword be able to be used as a two-handed weapon?

Now.. a short sord doesn't deal as much damage as a long sword. But a long sword can't be a Duelist's Wapon.

So, shoudl I say F' the ddi builder and allow her to use a short sword as a two-handed weapon or make her choose a different magic weapon that is versitle?

Thanks

 

[AntiStateQuixote]

Yeah, dude, daily power to get combat advantage against one opponent? No big deal. Hell, I'd let him have a duelist's longsword if he wanted.

Your player is clearly not trying to power game/twink his character, so I'd definitely let it slide.

 

[D'karr]

The DDI Character Builder is a fanstastic tool, but its limitations for house ruling are a constant source of annoyance to me and my group.

Just house rule it as best you can.

 

[ACGalaga]

What the heck, the xp message is all messed up.

Yeah, she's new to 4e. Since she came into the game a little late, I said she could pick a lvl 3 magic item of her choice.

I really need to hit the books and see if there's a better magic weapon that suits her character and suggest that.

Thanks for your feed back.

But, what do you think of halflings wielding short swords as two-handed weapons?

 

[ACGalaga]

OMG... so sorry for all my typos!! (^_^
It's late here and I've had one too many if you know what I mean.

 

[D'karr]

The longsword on average is only going to do 1-2 points of damage more than the short sword. The difference will really show in the feats for Heavy Blades vs. Light Blades.

Since halflings are limited by the small races restrictions that is really your limiting factor.

House Ruling this on pen and paper is rather trivial. The character builder simply has built in restrictions that make it "harder" to house rule the issue.

 

[Tony Vargas]

A halfling wielding a short-sword two handed doesn't make a lot of sense. Good one-handed weapons for a halfling fighter are the scimitar and rapier. A longsword would serve as a 'halfling two-handed sword,' and a bastard sword as the 'halfling full-blade' I guess.

Just explain that 'duelist weapons, and 'light blades,' in general aren't two-handed.' If she wants to be more of a duelist, the rapier is ideal, as both a light blade, and for flavor, but she'd want to go for one-handed or tempest weapon talent and use an off-hand weapon.

The issue isn't even that halflings are small. A human won't be able to find a versatile light blade, either, as far as I know... (unless there's one in the MME or in some DDI-only source I'm unaware of).

 

[Trit One-Ear]

I'm inclined to agree, house-ruling something like this may or may not be a huge impact to balance, but why bother? The Duelist's weapon may sound fun, but is most likely not going to be as fun to play as something else that plays more to a fighter's strengths. If it's a key part of the player's concept, by all means, but in that case allow it to be applied to a longsword instead of changing short-swords to versatile weapons.

Props for playing a halfling fighter though. Makes me happy to see players try uncommon combinations like that.

Trit

 

[ACGalaga]

Props for playing a halfling fighter though. Makes me happy to see players try uncommon combinations like that.

I was quite happy about her decision too, saying she was a spunky halfling fighter trying to prove to the world that smallness doesn't matter.


Thank you all for your help. After telling her to pick a lvl3 magic item and she choose that, I was a little skeptical whether it'd work. I'll relay this information to my player, maybe she wants to be more of a duelist and should take the one-handed talent instead. Otherwise I'll suggest a nice long sword or something.

Cheers!

 

[Saagael]

I was quite happy about her decision too, saying she was a spunky halfling fighter trying to prove to the world that smallness doesn't matter.


Thank you all for your help. After telling her to pick a lvl3 magic item and she choose that, I was a little skeptical whether it'd work. I'll relay this information to my player, maybe she wants to be more of a duelist and should take the one-handed talent instead. Otherwise I'll suggest a nice long sword or something.

Cheers!

If the player is worried they'll not be effective, point out that they if they take the 1-handed talent, they can also take two-weapon fighting and two-weapon defense feats, the second of which is the same as wielding a shield. So a halfling with a rapier/short sword will be no worse off defense-wise.