Making Whips more dangerous

[melkoriii]

I think WotC mentioned they are changing the Whip to a melee weapon with Reach in 3.5. And I thought I read that they will add some sort of rules for using it to "wrap" around things (a la Indiana Jones).

Do you have a referance on this?

I play a whip weilder and am very interested if they will fix the whip in 3.5

 

[Caliban]

Looks like a game gaffe last night though I have no idea why they would make a moronic ruling that a whip is a ranged weapon. That is just stupid.

You've never actually used a whip, have you?


A whip does in fact act more like a ranged weapon than a melee weapon. The arm motion you go through to snap it is similar to throwing, and you are basically throwing the tip of the whip at your target.

A whips main purpose is to get someone/somethings attention. In real life they only do minor (albeit painful) damage.

Besides, acting as a ranged weapon gives it some useful side effects:

Weapon Focus and Point Blank shot stack, you can use Rapid Shot with the whip, etc.

 

[melkoriii]

You've never actually used a whip, have you?


A whip does in fact act more like a ranged weapon than a melee weapon. The arm motion you go through to snap it is similar to throwing, and you are basically throwing the tip of the whip at your target.

A whips main purpose is to get someone/somethings attention. In real life they only do minor (albeit painful) damage.

Besides, acting as a ranged weapon gives it some useful side effects:

Weapon Focus and Point Blank shot stack, you can use Rapid Shot with the whip, etc.

Yes you do use it like a thrown weapon but yet you dont get Str added to damage as its treated like a projectile (Mighty Whip) which it is most defently not.

Then you can use melee only feats with it (Trip, Disarm).

One of the main uses for a whip is to spin it around and crack it at anything that come in range (Lion Taimer) in a way that sounds like a AoO to me but you cant make AoO with it.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

One of the main uses for a whip is to spin it around and crack it at anything that come in range (Lion Taimer) in a way that sounds like a AoO to me but you cant make AoO with it.

In that sense, though, a whip is very much like a ranged weapon.

With a ranged weapon, an attack is one physical attack (one thrown dagger, one arrow or bolt launched). A melee attack is a whole series of blows, counter-blows, and feints -- one of which has an opportunity to get through and do damage.

A whip takes some wind-up to use, and I see a whip attack as a single strike rather than the melee strike/counter-strike -- so it makes sense to me as a ranged weapon.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I second the Lasher recommendation. Plus, with a Large Whip and some ranged threat feats, and maybe Large and In Charge, you can wreak real havoc.

Large and in Charge isn't much use with a whip, even for an Ogre Lasher.

The Lasher's ability lets him make attacks of opportunity at a distance of five feet.. Not out to his natural reach, or out to the length of the whip. Five feet.

-Hyp.

 

[Iron_Chef]

You want to be using a mighty whip (S&F, adds STR bonus), whip-dagger (S&F, does regular damage), mighty whip-dagger (S&F, adds STR bonus), scourge (Dragon #275, gives you four attacks a round but not at range), or cat o' nine tails (Swashbuckling Adventures, causes disease DC 14 with every hit after the first), not a regular old PHB whip.

There is also another awesome spiked whip in MotW (starts with an "n" but forget the name).

 

[kreynolds]

How about the other question.

If a I trip you with a +1 flaming whip do you take 1D6 damage on the touch attack from the whip?

I seem to recall the Sage saying something to the effect of "no". I think the question was something along the lines of "If I'm having a hard time hitting someone because of really good armor, like full plate, and I have a +1 flaming longsword, can I just make touch attacks with my longsword, thereby negating their armor, and just deal 1d6 points of fire on each touch attack?"

It's so early though that I could be way off.

 

[med stud]

A lasher with point blank shot, rapid shot and a whip with three elemental enhancements would deal some damage on his attacks