weapons questions

[Sanackranib]

What are the most common PC weapons in your game?

Does anyone use the more exotic ones?

 

[Oni]

I'd say the most commonly used weapon is the longsword. My guess for the most carried weapon would be a dagger, I've hardly ever seen an inventory on a character sheet that didn't list one.

You'd think bows would be more common, but I've noticed a lot of people don't bother with them until after they've been horribly maimed by a flying creature that they couldn't effectively combat.

the oddest was a character that fought almost exclusively with a spiked guantlet.

 

[Zander]

Does anyone use the more exotic ones?

I have a fighter/barbarian dwarf who uses a ranseur (actually a partisan - same stats) as his weapon of choice.

He doesn't have a long sword, but does have a light crossbow.

BTW he probably sounds like a munchkinish PC from the description above (dwarf, fighter/barb, reach weapon), but he has been killed before because I play him in character.

 

[Richards]

In a 1E game, I ran a monk who preferred wielding a spetum.

In our current 3E game, though, longswords and greatswords are the weapons of choice.

Johnathan

 

[Czhorat]

Weapons....

There are still an absurd number of longbows and longswords so far as I've seen. The free elvish weapon feats meant that, in the game I just left, even the elvish wizard carried a longbow. I agree that everyone carries a dagger, but I've very rarely seen one actually wielded in battle.

There was one player who decided that the weapon specialization bonuses weren't worth using up feats and taking away the flexibility of being able to switch weapons based on the circumstances. He would carry something one-handed (I think a longsword), something blunt (a warhammer) and something big for when he wanted to bash two-handed and not bother with a shield (I think a masterwork heavy flail he found someplace). I thought that the variety added something to the game.

 

[d4]

i've got a dwarf barbarian/fighter character who uses his dwarven waraxe pretty much to the exclusion of anything else. (and this is in 3e, so he had to blow a feat slot to use it one-handed.) the only ranged weapon he carries is a couple of throwing axes.

my previous character, a dwarf cleric/fighter, used a warhammer.

 

[isoChron]

We have a rapier/dagger wielder with longbow as primary weapon, a shifter who uses greataxes in trollform (scary), a greatsword wielder, a second archer with double shortswords as backup, a bastardsword wielder and an elf wizard with longsword an longbow.

I think in all groups I played there was a variety of weapons with no weapon dominating.
BYE

 

[Czhorat]

Do any of you find that the racial weapon familiarity bonuses tend to stereotype non-human non-fighter characters? It seems that if I were playing a Dwarven cleric, for example, I'd almost always use the dwarven war axe rather than spend a feat on a different martial weapon. In some ways I'd rather they took all these extra weapons away (including the elves' sword and bow use). Then there'd be no reason to follow the expected form.

 

[d4]

It seems that if I were playing a Dwarven cleric, for example, I'd almost always use the dwarven war axe rather than spend a feat on a different martial weapon.

even in 3.5, a single-classed dwarf cleric will not start with proficiency with dwarven waraxes.

the racial familiarity ability only turns the weapon from exotic to martial -- it doesn't give it for free. since clerics don't start with any martial weapon proficiencies, a dwarf cleric is still not going to be proficient with the waraxe.

 

[Wombat]

Axes and swords are the most popular choices, followed by longbows.

On the "less than common" end we have seen pigs wielded in anger...

Most of the "dire flails" and other such bits of innanity have been banned from my games as utterly unwieldy.