Weapons you wished you'd see sometimes.

[green slime]

This is just a little question, but where did the spiked chain come from? There is no historical equivalent, I can't recall any movies off hand that used it (as it cannot be realistically wielded), nor any fantasy books that used it either. Did it exist in 2e and was carried over for sentimental reasons?

No, it did not exist prior to 3e.

My guess is that it is loosely based on some oriental weapons.

 

[Nyeshet]

No, it did not exist prior to 3e.

My guess is that it is loosely based on some oriental weapons.

Ahh . . .

However, the only oriental weapon that comes even close to this is . . . I forget its name, but it was a length of thin but normal chain with a weight at the end - sort of a chain mace without a hilt / handle and a much longer chain. Did they start with that and add slashing damage? To say that the weapon is unrealistic is an understatement. Well, perhaps unless you are wearing guantlets all the time, and those would wear away the edges on the chains rather quickly as it was handled, whirled around, etc.

That is one of the reasons I do not use it - and considering this, if I did use it I would make it an exotic monk weapon - requiring both levels in monk and the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat. And probably special gloves (dragonhide?) as well to prevent partial damage to self each time it was used.

 

[BadMojo]

Another vote for Spears.

The film "Hero" really makes the spear look like a cool option. The poor, unloved spear.

Short Sword and spiked gauntlet is a nifty combination too.

 

[TheYeti1775]

I have longed to play a character with a heavy pick.
Right now, I play a trident-wielding cleric.
In my group, I've heard the following reasoning for not picking a wierd weapon: When we find a magic weapon, it's almost always a long sword or a dagger, and we loose on the trade-in value.
I guess that makes sense for not varying your weapon selection.

I had a Deep Gnome Fighter that used a Keen Shocking Heavy Pick +3. And he loved to pick a fight Gave the party headaches because of his drinking and hot-headedness. Hey had to play a Cha of 6 somehow.

In a Dawnforge game I had a Large-sized Ogre Fighter that used Two-Weapon Fighting and medium Halbreds. But later determined he wasn't that fun to play for the party dynamic we had. Then there was something about an illegal duel in the street and then a quiet offer aboard a pirate ship and he left the group. And a sword and board fighter assisted the party in a fight after that.

 

[mmadsen]

This why I get annoyed in D&D by all the people wearing armor around town in peacetime, or worse, while traveling overland on a quest. It just doesn't make good sense and would be really really cumbersome. I hate when I have to wear armor on stage for a couple hours, much less all day in the sun.

The Roman legions wore armor and carried big, heavy shields all over Europe -- all while carrying other supplies too. In fact, infantry have been carrying 80 to 100 lbs for hundreds of years.

(Walking around armed and armored in town in peacetime is a separate issue, but do remember that it was perfectly normal for the upper class to go about armed at all times up until very recently.)

 

[Ace]

I've mostly seen the same weapons Nightdawn mentions. I think players typically don't want to have to take Exotic Weapon Proficiency or Martial Weapon Proficiency just to use something different. You get too few feats as it is.

Now if I expand on Nightdawn's question beyond the other types of weapons available in various supplementary books: I just saw the wuxia movie Seven Swords the other night, and it would be pretty entertaining to see some of the crazy weapons in that movie show up in a D&D game.

Flying guillotine - if you think spiked chains are bad you should see one of these!

A flying guillotine is easy to do in D&D

use spiked chain stats -- change piercing to slashing and make it a keen vorpral spiked chain

the FX is that big hat thing

viola Flying guillotine 1 blow in 10 takes off a head --

if you allow Improved Cit to stack as I do in the hands of a weapons master (say Fighter Kensai variant X Exotic weapon master 3 Weapon master PRC x you get a character who can chop off a head 1 blow in 5 -- ouch!

As for weapons that need to be seen more-- no preference. If I want more glaives or something I'd just give them to an NPC