Is the Spiked Chain Fighter really that Cheesy?

[Tetsubo]

Assuming the person who designed the weapon didn't have the Spiked Manrikigusari in mind.

Youi're right: the picture of the Spiked Chain in the PHB is silly. And maybe I play my games on smaller tables or with more people than you do, but we never have room to lay our books out open on the table; they're always stacked somewhere within reach. I spend a lot more time in game visualizing my character than I do checking out the PHB illustrations. It would be as if someone who didn't like the picture of Tordek proceeded to argue that the Fighter was an absurd class.

Bad picture? Check. Should the illustrator be smacked upside the head with a cluebat? Yup. Does an artist's bad depiction ultimately matter? Not if you can get over it and visualize it for yourself. And in this case, you don't need to do much visualizing. Want peircing damage? Add spikes. Spikes make everything cooler.

Make it Piercing/Bludgeoning and it sort of makes sense. I still think it is a sub par weapon choice. I'd rather take the Heavy Flail and save a feat.

 

[Felix]

Make it Piercing/Bludgeoning and it sort of makes sense. I still think it is a sub par weapon choice. I'd rather take the Heavy Flail and save a feat.

Oh certainly it's a sub-par weapon choice, but some folks have been calling it broken because it's too powerful. It's an interesting weapon to throw at your PCs every now and again, and for Fighters it gives them a venue for their myriad feats. It's nice for flavor and when you want to be different, and yeah, there are other weapons that do one or two of the things a chain does better. If I were going damage-dealing, I'd go Greatsword; if it were a lockdown build, I'd go polearm; if it were disarming, I'd go flail.

Still, Asian flying weapons have some kind of je ne sais quoi. Also, Michelle Yeoh trips, disarms and hits guys 10' away. Ok, ok. So it's a rope dart. Still cool.

 

[green slime]

So basically we are all agreed:

1) Spiked Chain ain't that good, really. Honestly. Sure its fun, but there are other, cheaper roads to achieve the same effect or similar.
2) The picture in the PHB is unrealistic.

 

[eamon]

So basically we are all agreed:

1) Spiked Chain ain't that good, really. Honestly. Sure its fun, but there are other, cheaper roads to achieve the same effect or similar.
2) The picture in the PHB is unrealistic.

Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say it's not good, because sometimes it is, but that it's not a weapon without downsides, and not game-breaking.