Most overrated "broken" things?

[Seeten]

Didnt Kill Bill have a "spiked chain" type weapon on the girl lieutenant of the crazy 88's?

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Right, but how long do you need some NPC charmed for? Until after he's giiven you a discount on equipment, or has spilled the beans about some major secret, or has otherwise expended his usefulness.

Depends on the case.

Certainly on what the feelings of the target are after the Charm wears off.

Brad

 

[Felon]

As shown in the PHB the Spiked Chain is unusable. If you hold the two main rings you have a double weapon without reach. If you choose to let one go to achieve reach you aren't ever going to regain a grip on the ring while in combat. And putting spiky bits on any of the links is just silly. As I've stated before, there is even an image showing a SC user BLEEDING from his hands while using the silly thing... so even the game illustrators (at least one...) know it's a dumb design...

It's a weapon you'd have to be some kind of flawlessly-coordinated superhero to use without injuring yourself. Granted. But why single it out as more outlandish than a hundred other things in D&D that allows a human being to tackle ten-ton steely-skinned monsters?

 

[The Blow Leprechaun]

If you choose to let one go to achieve reach you aren't ever going to regain a grip on the ring while in combat.

Now you're putting an interpretive limitation on what a combatant could or could not do, when we're clearly discussing a game that allows your characters to become superhuman. A level 20 human monk has a base land speed of 90' per round, which means they can walk 9 miles an hour and hustle 18. Hustle isn't even running, and yet this speed is only marginally slower than the fastest speeds achieved by humans while sprinting over short distances. This same monk could easily long jump nearly 60 feet (that's on an average jump check), more than double the world record. I'm all for real-world logic in games, but not as much when it comes to the physical limitations of obviously superhuman characters.

Not to mention that a SC is a Piercing weapon and can thus be used underwater...

Yeah, so can a lance. Does that make any more sense? No. Just because it's piercing doesn't mean the DM should cover their eyes and sing happy tunes to themselves.

Historical chain weapons have lengths of "smooth" links. They are also almost all Bludgeoning or Slashing weapons. Those that would fall into the Piercing category are basically daggers that can be retrieved via the chain.

The SC is not historical. It isn't even based on a historical concept. It is silly.

You just referenced the historical concepts yourself. There are plenty of chain-based weapons in history, TSR just added spikes to them.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Spiked Chain is far too much mo-better than the rest of the exotic weapons to not be considered anything other than broken.

Thats sort of like saying Skill focus Concentration is too good compared to Combat Casting, so it must be broken.

 

[Tetsubo]

Didnt Kill Bill have a "spiked chain" type weapon on the girl lieutenant of the crazy 88's?

It was a steel ball (hollow or solid?) that had spikes on it. The chain itself was unaltered links. In game terms it would have been a Bludgeoning/Piercing weapon like a Morningstar. It also only had a striking head on one end of the chain.

 

[Tetsubo]

It is probably someone looking at historical chain weapons (kusari-gama and the like) and had the brainstorm of adding barbed wire to it.

Regardless of historical accuracy, it exists in the game as a weapon. That is all there is to it.

After all, if we get into historical accuracy, we can always speak of the so-called "scimitar", "falchion", "rapier", etc. family of inaccurate naming.

Complaining about naming inaccuracies is what weapon experts do for fun...

But throwing an item into the game that has no basis in reality isn't the same thing...

 

[Tetsubo]

It's a weapon you'd have to be some kind of flawlessly-coordinated superhero to use without injuring yourself. Granted. But why single it out as more outlandish than a hundred other things in D&D that allows a human being to tackle ten-ton steely-skinned monsters?

I see it as the biggest example in the game of bad design. Of thoughtlessness on the part of the people that wrote the rules. Weapons play a MAJOR role in RPGs. I think they deserve more consideration and time...

Of course, I also sketch weapons as a hobby...

 

[Tetsubo]

Now you're putting an interpretive limitation on what a combatant could or could not do, when we're clearly discussing a game that allows your characters to become superhuman. A level 20 human monk has a base land speed of 90' per round, which means they can walk 9 miles an hour and hustle 18. Hustle isn't even running, and yet this speed is only marginally slower than the fastest speeds achieved by humans while sprinting over short distances. This same monk could easily long jump nearly 60 feet (that's on an average jump check), more than double the world record. I'm all for real-world logic in games, but not as much when it comes to the physical limitations of obviously superhuman characters.Yeah, so can a lance. Does that make any more sense? No. Just because it's piercing doesn't mean the DM should cover their eyes and sing happy tunes to themselves.You just referenced the historical concepts yourself. There are plenty of chain-based weapons in history, TSR just added spikes to them.

The Monks abilities are magical in nature. A chain weapon is mundane. Mundane items should be usable...

If a DM has to make a house rule for a mundane weapon, the weapon itself is broken... as for a lance, unwieldy yes, impossible to use underwater? No.

All the things that TSR can be blamed for, the Spiked Chain isn't one of them. Even TSR didn't come up with such a silly concept...

And adding those spikes turns a viable weapon into a useless one...

 

[The Blow Leprechaun]

The Monks abilities are magical in nature. A chain weapon is mundane. Mundane items should be usable...

Fast Movement (Ex): At 3rd level, a monk gains an enhancement bonus to her speed, as shown on Table: The Monk. A monk in armor or carrying a medium or heavy load loses this extra speed.

It is not magical in nature.