Sci-Fi Channel's "Grendel": Quadruple Crossbow???

[hong]

Bauwolf? Glendale? Have you got some kind of weird auto-spellcheck thing running? Or voice control, maybe?

If you had read the thread, you would have known that Moon-Lancer was talking about WoW. Please check your facts before posting nonsense to messageboard threads, as I always do.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think it's great that there are so many MMORPGs now, there's one based around an individual bone.

 

[Mortellan]

Ugh, Scifi and its cheesy monster movies. Did Beowulf even use a sword by the end?! Who played Beowulf, let me guess...Dean Cain?

 

[Moon-Lancer]

Bauwolf? Glendale? Have you got some kind of weird auto-spellcheck thing running? Or voice control, maybe?

yeah, i do have some weird ass spell check. sucks that its stuck in my head and i cant turn it off. This time my mind was someplace else, so again how would a movie show Beowulf ripping of Grendels arm without destroying any believability?

hong, thanks for sticking up for me, but what thread are you talking about? I'm really interested now. did I cross a wire in the ethereal? I ask because i never played wow.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

I turned it off after he picked up Hank's bow.

 

[GreatLemur]

If you had read the thread, you would have known that Moon-Lancer was talking about WoW. Please check your facts before posting nonsense to messageboard threads, as I always do.

No, I don't think you do.

 

[Thurbane]

Didn't the 1E Unearthed Arcana waffle on about Paladins and Cavaliers not using ranged weapons?

Anyhow, it's relatively irrelevant to today's rules, unless a DM is enforcing it as a houserule...

 

[Sejs]

Have double or more crossbows ever been given stats in D&D?

Thanks again!

I know there's been an article in Dragon recently all about crossbows. Can't recall the issue though. It did have stats on a double crossbow (though no more than that) and rules for mounting a bayonette on your crossbow. On the whole, a very worthwhile article.

 

[Laman Stahros]

Yeah, they should have read the entire story instead of giving up after the first paper because of the difficult language. Beowulf didn't need a bloody uber-crossbow, Grendel escaped back to his lair after having his arm ripped off, Grendel's mother was a hag not a bloody gargoyle ...

Well, I'm not trying to defend the movie (Grendel, that is), but the crossbow only hit twice and one of those was when it's bayonet was jammed into Mama's back.

Beowulf cut Grendel's arm off with his sword in the movie, instead of ripping it off. I can see what they may have been trying to do there. "The legend overstates what happened, here is what really happened."

I have to agree about Grendal's mother, though. She should have been an ogress or some such.

 

[Felon]

That's priceless!

But seriously, I believe a Paladin should ONLY employ a ranged weapon in extreme emergencies. Such as, there's a flying creature that CANNOT be engaged in hand to hand combat, but the Paladin has no choice because he has to defend the populace, that sort of thing.

But if the option for melee combat exists, the Paladin, by default, MUST choose that course.

Well, let's take a look here:

"Code of Conduct: A paladin must be of lawful good alignment and loses all class abilities if she ever willingly commits an evil act. Additionally, a paladin’s code requires that she respect legitimate authority, act with honor (not lying, not cheating, not using poison, and so forth), help those in need (provided they do not use the help for evil or chaotic ends), and punish those who harm or threaten innocents."

I suppose the notion of "acting with honor" might preclude using a ranged weapon against an opponent specifically because said opponent lacked the ability to retaliate in kind, thus making for an easy kill. But to be quite frank, it's pretty obtuse to apply this rationale as an absolute. If goblins are rading a village and attacking noncombatants, shooting them down with a bow seems a lot better way of protecting innocents than clomping around in plate mail attacking one at a time. OTOH, if the paladin jumps on his warhorse and starts trampling the little buggers to death, that works pretty darn well, but mowing down three-foot-tall guys from the comfort of your medieval John Deer is hardly any more fair or honorable than shooting them with a bow--and yet, I suspect fewer DM's would object to that simply because it's a cool visual. It's way more "in-your-face" than using a bow.

As with most judgments of character, it's far more wise to look at patterns of behavior than applying some unilateral rule to every situation.

Do you mean to say you have your Paladins who go around with ranged weapons?! I've got news for you.....your powers are GONE!

Says who? Sorry, you're just pulling that outta your ear.