D&D 3E/3.5 Is there ANY way to make whips good using WotC-only 3.5 material?

[Legildur]

Some benefits from being a melee weapon:

1. Coup de Grace at with 15' reach.....

The SRD says otherwise (my emphasis):

As a full-round action, you can use a melee weapon to deliver a coup de grace to a helpless opponent. You can also use a bow or crossbow, provided you are adjacent to the target.

A whip is neither a bow nor crossbow, nor would you be adjacent when 15ft away.

 

[Darklone]

Right... and I'm pretty sure you can't CDG with a weapon that only deals subdual damage.... can you?????

 

[AbeTheGnome]

"You can use a weapon that deals nonlethal damage, including an unarmed strike, to deal lethal damage instead, but you take a -4 penalty on your attack roll."

doesn't this apply to whips? i know there's a PrC (either Bloodhound or Justicar, i can't remember) that removes this penalty, but i can't remember if there's a single feat for it...

 

[Darklone]

"You can use a weapon that deals nonlethal damage, including an unarmed strike, to deal lethal damage instead, but you take a -4 penalty on your attack roll."

doesn't this apply to whips? i know there's a PrC (either Bloodhound or Justicar, i can't remember) that removes this penalty, but i can't remember if there's a single feat for it...

Sounds good, I forgot it doesn't only work the way lethal-> non-lethal...

 

[AbeTheGnome]

anyway, it makes little difference in regard to standard whips, because CDG saves are 10 + damage dealt, which would make it either 11 or 12...

 

[geosapient]

anyway, it makes little difference in regard to standard whips, because CDG saves are 10 + damage dealt, which would make it either 11 or 12...

Plus sneak attack damage, energy damage, damage for specialization...

 

[Hypersmurf]

The SRD says otherwise (my emphasis):
Quote:
As a full-round action, you can use a melee weapon to deliver a coup de grace to a helpless opponent. You can also use a bow or crossbow, provided you are adjacent to the target.

A whip is neither a bow nor crossbow, nor would you be adjacent when 15ft away.

A whip is neither a bow nor a crossbow, nor are you adjacent while 15 feet away.

None of this changes the fact that the adjacent restriction is for bow and crossbow, not for melee weapons, and a whip is a melee weapon. The adjacent restriction is inapplicable to the whip.

-Hyp.

 

[Legildur]

<sigh> Sorry, harking back to 3.0e there...... I keep thinking of it as a ranged weapon.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

My guess for the reason for whips not getting AoOs in their threatened area is that, while the tip of the whip travels at supersonic speed, it takes a little time for the wielder to swing that 15' lash to build up the tip's speed- not enough to prevent it from being useful as a weapon, but slow enough for the wielder to take advantage of momentary openings in his foes' defenses.

Of course, one could say the same of many of the larger flexible weapons...which suggests a potential HR to minimize the percieved cheese of the Spiked Chain- namely, removing its ability to make AoOs.