Quick Monk Question

[SteelDraco]

I'd probably use a feat or two to let people with reach weapons fight adjacent to themselves. Something like the following should work.

Close Fighting [Fighter]
You are able to use a long weapon against an opponent who is close to you.
Benefit: As a move-equivalent action that does not provoke an AoO, you can switch between normal use of a reach weapon and a stance that allows you to threaten the squares adjacent to you.
If you are using this close stance, you threaten all adjacent squares, as if the weapon you are using did not have reach. However, you suffer a -4 circumstance penalty to all attack rolls due to awkwardness. Note that you threaten only your basic, natural reach when fighting in this manner. For most Medium humanoids, this is 5'.
Normal: While using some reach weapons, you threaten the squares 10' away from you, but not those immediately adjacent.

Improved Close Fighting [Fighter]
You are well trained in fighting adjacent opponents while using a reach weapon.
Prerequisites: Close Fighting, BAB +4
Benefit: While using a reach weapon that normally threatens only squares 10' away, you also threaten the squares adjacent to you. However, you suffer a -2 circumstance penalty to attack rolls when attacking an adjacent enemy, to reflect the difficulty of using the weapon in this manner.

 

[Deset Gled]

Re: aha. staff is poorly named

What's all this with people hurting other people with converted farm implements? Next time I'm going to cast my STP as Plowshares to Plowshares.

It's actually a reference to japanese history. I won't pretend to know the specifics, or even a great amount about the whole thing in general, but I believe that during the Major Restoration, there were laws that made litteraly any any weapon illegal. Unfortunately, there was still fighting going on, so peope turned to using whatever items they owned as weapons, some of the most common things being farming equipment.

 

[smetzger]

Re: Re: aha. staff is poorly named

It's actually a reference to japanese history. I won't pretend to know the specifics, or even a great amount about the whole thing in general, but I believe that during the Major Restoration, there were laws that made litteraly any any weapon illegal. Unfortunately, there was still fighting going on, so peope turned to using whatever items they owned as weapons, some of the most common things being farming equipment.

Many European polearms had origins as farm tools. This is because:
1) Very few standing armies
2) Peasants had to fight to defend their lord.
3) Peasants were not supplied with weapons
4) Peasants were farmers.

 

[shurai]

Re: Re: aha. staff is poorly named

It's actually a reference to japanese history. I won't pretend to know the specifics, or even a great amount about the whole thing in general, but I believe that during the Major Restoration, there were laws that made litteraly any any weapon illegal. Unfortunately, there was still fighting going on, so peope turned to using whatever items they owned as weapons, some of the most common things being farming equipment.

This is what I remember, in case you're interested:

It's not the Major Restoration, it's the Meiji Restoration, though it was also a pretty major restoration if you want to call it that. : ]

In any case, I think that although many of the Okinawan weapons were more widely used in Japan after the Restoration, they originated in a much earlier era. It's not really Japanese history either, so much as it is Okinawan history. The Okinawans, long before the Meiji Era (like 500 years before), were banned from owning swords and I believe other weapons as well. The Okinawans, helped by their system of karate, learned to use certain farming implements (nunchaku, kama, tonfa) as weapons, from which we get the nunchaku and kama for D&D monks. Some people say the nunchaku was a rice flail originally, others say it was part of a bridle for a horse. The kama was obviously a sickle, and I believe the tonfa were scythe handles.

Also, on the Three Section Staff: I can't speak to its origin, but I know for a fact that it very much deserves the 1.5x str bonus, because often a practioner will hold one section in both hands and swing the thing around rather like an unflexible long weapon.

Truthfully, I don't think any of the D&D weapons truly represent all that the weapon is capable of, but of course that sort of thing would make the combat system much more complicated, to say nothing of endangering play balance.