Top 10 odd D&D weapons

[lukelightning]

Two-bladed Sword is the only feasible double weapon in the PHB.

Other than the quarterstaff, of course!

 

[painandgreed]

You have to spell it siangham. I gather most people leave the first 'a' off when they're googling.

Trouble is that everything you google is either a gaming article or an easily edited wiki where I could create just about anything I wanted just to settle andargument.

 

[lukelightning]

IIRC from childhood experience playing with the boomerang that I was given, I could see how it could be used for hunting birds or other small animals.

A mercurial greatsword could be used to hunt birds or small animals too, but they never were.

 

[CRGreathouse]

I don't have any problem at all with spiked armor. I do agree with you that it should have an AC penalty -- at least, most should -- and I'd be generous and make it -1 or possibly -2. I think that in a world with monsters that eat you whole spiked armor makes a lot of sense, even if it does make you a bit easier to hit.

How long are these spikes that you are imagining?

Long, since they need to discourage large monsters from swallowing you whole. Probably as long as 2". On armor designed for footmen, the spikes on the upper half of the body would be curved downward to reduce the amount of force they'd catch on a typical blow; for horseman armor, only the upper portion would have spikes (to protect the horse as well as to avoid trapping a blow).

Smaller spikes resembling boss spikes could be set on places that aren't typically hit, as they'd be needed only to hurt grapplers and the like. Placing these so as to avoid restricting movement would be a major design point, and probably most of the expense of adding them.


Why, what are your thoughts on spiked armor? I'd be happy for any advice you could give.

 

[sjmiller]

I guess it depends on your definition of "highly toxic." Something that kills in a milligram dosage strikes me as pretty toxic. It accumulates over time with repeated exposure. It causes brain damage and birth defects.

You have to remember, this is for ingesting (eating, drinking, swallowing) not for dermal contact (on or through the skin), or contact to the eyes. Being hit by a sword that breaks and splashes on you is not highly toxic. At most, dermal contact will cause redness and irritation. Sometimes working in the environmental engineering business, with access to Material Safety Data Sheets actually proves useful in gaming.

 

[Snapdragyn]

One-handed. It requires a lot of strength to use, actually, since you're putting great strain on arm and wrist, and can be used two-handed for extra effect too. Fits the D&D definition of a one-handed weapon.

Ah, good to have the insights of someone who has seen the weapon in use. I was going from the linked article which mentioned deftness as more important than strength in use.

It's got to be a reach weapon like a spiked chain, since you can attack someone right in front of you and someone ten feet away (probably 15 ft away) too.

How long is it, though? The article said 5 1/2' at most. Perhaps this is one of those areas where D&D physics (where a greatsword or rapier has no reach) has to outweigh RL physics for game consistencey? (I could certainly be persuaded otherwise on this, however.)

 

[frankthedm]

How long is it, though? The article said 5 1/2' at most. Perhaps this is one of those areas where D&D physics (where a greatsword or rapier has no reach) has to outweigh RL physics for game consistencey? (I could certainly be persuaded otherwise on this, however.)

Maybe the whip-like mechanics would better fit the weapon? Something that flexible is going to choke on armor, no damage on anyone wearing metal armor or on natural armor over 3. I'd be cool with it being a finess weapon.

Reach? no, those are sword length.

I use those for my Chain based weapons [IMHO only polearms should 'reach'], make melee strikes up to 15' away, but only threaten within 5'.

 

[kigmatzomat]

Trouble is that everything you google is either a gaming article or an easily edited wiki where I could create just about anything I wanted just to settle andargument.

I'll see if I can find the notes but I did actually find the siangham as a weapon. Only it wasn't a weapon, per se. It seems chinese judges had special brushes/pens for their legal calligraphy and they had a big, hard pointy cap. Some judges were so disliked that they developed a way of fighting with their cased pens.

Ahhh, here's a link to a martial art store that sells them:

http://www.hdmartialart.com/proddetail.asp?prod=judgespen

 

[zakon]

I'm surprised the glaive from Krull never made it in as an exotic weapon. Now that was one ridiculous weapon.

Xen'drik boomerang. It looks EXACTLY like that.


Oh, and about the "toxic greatsword"...

FEAR MY +5 UNHOLY FLAMING BOTULISM GREATSWORD!

 

[Kwitchit]

Other than the quarterstaff, of course!

I think the Dwarven Urgrosh was probably usable, as would be any other "haft-with-a-spear-on-the-end". I've seen a lot of ancient spears/pikes where the butt was pointed so that it could be used on someone who managed to get past the points. In fact, I might use these house rules for spears:
Spearbutts can be pointed or round. Pointed do the damage of a shortspear sized for the wielder, rounded do damage equivalent to a quarterstaff one size smaller than the wielder. A spear with a pointed butt costs an extra 5 sp.
A spear butt is not a reach weapon, and people attacking with it take a -4 nonproficiency penalty unless they have the Exotic Weapon Proficiency (spearbutt) feat. Having this feat also allows them to threaten adjacent squares with their spear.

Then maybe introduce another feat, requiring EWP (spearbutt), to use a spear as a double weapon with TWF a la Sky from Hero. Call it Double-ended Spearfighting.