Pathfinder 1E How to treat a claymore in pathfinder and other editions.

[Puxido]

I thought about this for months, and I think I've got it. Treat it as a greatsword, with block and deadly. Is an exotic weapon and requires the exotic weapon feat: Claymore.

 

[Morrus]

Not to sound like I'm repeating myself from the super-club thread, but it's just a name for a greatsword.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Yeah. While there RPG systems with stats for all kinds of weapon variants- see GURPS and Palladium for examples- 3.5Ed, Pathfinder and most of that family of games aren't among them.

In most D20 games, weapon classifications are broad and highly abstract. Most 1Hd wooden blunt weapons will be clubs, and 2Hd ones will be staves. Most 2Hd swords will be greatswords or bastard swords.

Only if there is something REALLY unusual about them do they get their own write ups.

 

[Puxido]

Not to sound like I'm repeating myself from the super-club thread, but it's just a name for a greatsword.

I agree for the most part, but I've just been trying to make new weapons. It seems to me after buying ultimate equipment, your choices are limited to British Europe, and Asia. It really gets me that it seems like the Oriental weapons don't add that much to the game in sense of variety, it also got me why they made three new specials for weapons when they only made a handfull of them, especially sense the Katana is the only one to use deadly. It felt fitting for the Claymore to have blocking mainly because from what I understand, claymores were particularly long, even when compared to other longswords of its day. And I felt like deadly fit because such a particularly long sword should be theoretically better in a Coup de grace, and I just couldn't get around the fact that the Katana was the only weapon to have this special. I also felt that the claymore should be an Exotic weapon because I understand though could be wrong, that it takes special training apart from other longswords because it is just so long.

 

[Stormonu]

That's the thing - in Pathfinder a lot of the unusual weapons would use stats for weapons they know, but feats and prestige classes would synergize with them particularly well. To replicate what you want for the Claymore, it'd be more appropriate for someone to take two feats - some sort of parry or block and possibly power attack or some other feat that pumps damage. Often what you read about this or that weapon only happens in the hands of a trained professional - in the case of D&D and the like, that means someone with a few levels.

In the end, the weapon is just the tool. It's the wielder and their skill that makes it deadly. Like others here, I don't think the claymore needs special stats different from a greatsword. It may just be in-game paralance for the weapon.

 

[Morrus]

Did a greatsword even really exist as a name? Isn't that just the 3.x name for a 1e/2e two-handed sword? Which is the generic name for a zweihander or claymore?

Looking it up, "claymore" literally means "great sword".

A claymore is a greatsword. It's where the name comes from.

The Scottish name Claymore (Gaelic claidheamh mor, lit. "great sword")

Whether you call it a two-handed sword, a zweihander, a greatsword, or a claymore is just a matter of nomenclature.

 

[Scorpio616]

If a spellcaster can have dozens of attack spells with countless variations for range, energy type, damage, area and other distinct in game effect across countless books, why must a fighter's weapons be forced to ignore variations in blade shape, hilt design, guard size and forging techniques?

 

[Puxido]

If a spellcaster can have dozens of attack spells with countless variations for range, energy type, damage, area and other distinct in game effect across countless books, why must a fighter's weapons be forced to ignore variations in blade shape, hilt design, guard size and forging techniques?

I agree, though, I find it difficult to define the the ways of the world in a format that can be calculated in numbers, which is basically the essence of tabletop gaming. Though when a sword is greatly different or requires a different technique to use, then that's when they should have different stats. A claymore is certainly different than a Norse greatsword. A gladius is different than a shortsword (Though its covered in ultimate combat). A slingshot is greatly different than a sling (trust me, I've used both, I would certainly make a slingshot a higher die than a slingshot.). Weapons of different cultures should probably have different proficiencies.