Space for Weapons

[kitcik]

That's what SHE said...

 

[Sekhmet]

Longsword, you say?

The vertical reach of a medium character per the Jump skill is 8 feet.

A longsword is 3 feet long.

Therefore, you cannot freely swing a longsword in an area with a 10' ceiling.

Therefore, the character will actively try to avoid swinging overhead, although they forget and/or be forced to in the heat of battle.

This can be worked in by changing the automatic miss from 1 to 1-3 with the entire range being a fumble range - whoops, I just clanged my longsword off the ceiling, my bad. Then you would need to also determine whether the longsword breaks based on its hardness in comparison to the ceiling and the strength of the character swinging it.

Casters, on the other hand, rarely suffer from these difficulties and can generally operate quite well in confined spaces.

You're implying that the proper use of a longsword involves extending your arm all the way up, locking it out, and holding the sword tip as high as you can.
You can swing a longsword, with slightly less than full force, in a space less than one foot wider, one foot taller, one foot to the rear and one foot to the fore of you.
It is easier with a short sword or a dagger, yes, but you can do it.

Also, a longsword that broke after grazing or clattering or being swung against a ceiling is a poorly made longsword indeed, with pockets of air and impurities of ore.
Considering the material of choice for a longsword is steel and not iron, we can infer that no such impurities or pockets exist, and even a hard strike against a ceiling will not damage the weapon.

 

[jasper]

Guys you thinking too much real life into this. With 3.x just used the squeeze rule and maybe a -1 or -2 circumstance mod.
With < 3.x just hit subtract 2 from the to dice.
Yes not realistic. But sometimes you have choke down on your real world knowledge to play the game.
I used to ignore most of squeeze rules since me my friends did play SCA and had good 3 man team which sword and board (2) and 1 polearm/spearman. Then I decided the SCA nevers evers has to fight orcs, elfs, or dragons.

 

[Umbran]

The thought occurred to me that a fighter with a spiked chain or cleric with a longspear should not be able to use those weapons effectively in certain situations, such as if they were fighting in a 5x5 dungeon corridor, or in a doorway.

The spiked chain will have some issues if you don't have room on either side to swing, yes. But not the longspear. Longspears are for thrusting. In the real world, they're used in massed formations, where the spear-wielders are shoulder to shoulder - room to the sides is not only not required, it is contraindicated. The more room there is on the sides, the easier it is for the opponent to get past the tip of the spear.

So, what kind of room you really need depends on the weapon.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Casters, on the other hand, rarely suffer from these difficulties and can generally operate quite well in confined spaces.

Which is why unlike most in this thread, I'm not gonna go out of my way to make it harder on noncasters in tight spaces than what the rules already restrict. *shrug*

And that Underdark entry has at least one error. You can also use shuriken while prone, not just a crossbow.

 

[Hellknight]

It would make sense being able to use a shuriken while prone, but how about other throwing weapons? Darts, for instance, should be just as useable, I'd say.
Throwing knifes, axes, hammers - might be useable, but perhaps with a penalty.
But is the use of shuriken RAI, RAW, or Houseruled? I can't find it in the SRD, and don't have the time to go leafing through my books atm.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Combat Modifiers :: d20srd.org

Table on the left, superscript #3.

 

[anest1s]

Hmm...now that I think of it, fellow party members are something much harder to avoid hitting by mistake than static walls. How to reflect that in the game though?

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Hmm...now that I think of it, fellow party members are something much harder to avoid hitting by mistake than static walls. How to reflect that in the game though?

Ok, someone please tell me that this thread is one giant stream of massive sarcasm. PLEASE! O_O

 

[Sekhmet]

It would make sense being able to use a shuriken while prone, but how about other throwing weapons? Darts, for instance, should be just as useable, I'd say.
Throwing knifes, axes, hammers - might be useable, but perhaps with a penalty.
But is the use of shuriken RAI, RAW, or Houseruled? I can't find it in the SRD, and don't have the time to go leafing through my books atm.

The proper form for throwing a shuriken draws the arm across the body, as opposed to proper form for darts, knives, axes, hammers, javelins, and other projectiles, which is to throw outside the body.

To put it more clearly, if you're right handed, you throw a shuriken with your right hand, starting under your left shoulder and projecting your arm forward.
With other projectiles, you throw with your right hand, starting either above your right shoulder or by twisting your hips and using their momentum to throw from outside the body (meaning your arm is semi protuding from your typical form).

Surprisingly, the chakram is thrown in the same fashion as the shuriken, but can also be thrown from outside the form like a frisbee.