The Concept Is... he DOESN'T use a sword.

[takyris]

As a DM, you can also encourage creativity with flavor text:

It's a heavy-bladed broadsword with a long blood groove.

It's a single-edged saber often used by mounted opponents.

It's a medium-length leaf blade, razor sharp on one end, sharp halfway along its back end, made heavy at the tip for good cuts.

It's a heavy cutlass with a basket hilt to guard the wielder's hands.

It's an exotic-looking sword, wide and heavy at the tip, whose blade curves forward instead of back, with a simple one-piece grip.

Each and every one of those swords is a longsword with different flavor text. I mean, they don't HAVE to be -- you could say that the broadsword is closer to being an axe, or that the saber is a slashing rapier, or that the exotic sword whose name I forget is really more like a scimitar -- but if you want to encourage diversity, flavor-text it up a bit.

(Or just make a greathammer, yeah. )

 

[Arcane Runes Press]

Sometimes, I get sick of the preponderance of sword use among warrior types in D&D.

Don't get me wrong, I like the sword as well as anyone, but I get tired of seeing swords & sword-like weapons being used all the time.

So, I find myself creating fighters (paladins, whatever) who dress in plate and wield, say, an axe or a pole axe, or a big spear, or maybe a warhammer or military pick.

You know, common weapons which knights used all the time, but which rarely seem to be used with the knight concept in D&D. I don't really get the urge to give them really exotic stuff, like kukri or anything - just common stuff that gets ignored.

I find that, since the gamers I've known are so heavily into the cult of the sword, the mere fact that my character is specialized with a pole axe makes him really stand out, even if he is otherwise mechanically identical in every way to a sword based companion.

In other words, I've seen so many sword fightin' knights, that different sorts of common melee weapons become actual character hooks.

Anyone else find this?


Patrick Y.

 

[Sir Osis of Liver]

I used to pick odd weapons a lot, but now that you mention it sence 3e came out i've sort of fallin in to the sword habbit myself.

 

[Herremann the Wise]

Hi Arcane Runes Press,

Have to agree that it does get a lttle boring to see fighters always taking the Longsword. Only recently have I convinced the worst offender of my players in this regard to "advance" to the Bastard Sword for something different - he still whinged about having to waste a feat on Exotic Weapon by I urged him strongly to give it a go.

However, one of the most interesting characters in one of my games specialised in the trident - not some niminy piminy fish poker but a 50 lb. chunk of metal. It really individualised the character and made him memorable for the other players.
In my new game, someones doing interesting stuff with a Glaive which again will make the character stand out from the rest.

As for the Knights that you mention, I'm playing a Paladin Knight that uses the longsword so I suppose I'm as poorer offender as most .

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[Uzumaki]

One of my favorite characters fought with a halberd. Any reason why the halberd wasn't considered a reach weapon in 3e? I mean, it's a polearm. That's kinda the point. Did it get changed in 3.5?

 

[Tsyr]

One of the few paladins I ever played and enjoyed used a warhammer... Would probably do it again if I ever played another paladin.

Of course, in most games, stats for non-sword weapons really, really encourage fighters to take swords...

 

[talinthas]

my fighters tend to either use axes, spears, or polearms. now that weapon speed doesnt matter, using that glaive guisarm isnt so sucky =)

 

[Darkness]

My players tend toward using swords, axes and pole arms (well, only the naginata). Oh, and bows/crossbows.

What they don't do is emulate the knight archetype. There generally are no heavily-armored fighters among our PCs - but there are heavily-armored clerics and a sometimes a paladin. Most characters - paladins included - tend toward light armor.

 

[Crass]

I was in the process (yesterday, actually) of creating a fighter 8 who used the ranseur for reach, and had quickdraw to switch to heavy flail or halberd as required. He also was going to carry 5 throwing axes as backup, and wear full plate. Then my DM gave me his opinion on sunder, trip and disarm - all of which my fighter was going to be using (saving WF and WS for higher levels)... so... anyone got ideas for a DIFFERENT fighter concept, please (!) throw them my way... pretty please?

 

[Piratecat]

It's all about the bohemian earspoon, baby.

Actually, one of my favorite "stock" characters to bring into RPGA Living events is a gravedigger.. a gloomy and fatalistic fighter who fights with a shovel.