Weapons you wished you'd see sometimes.

[Immak Antunel]

The tank in my drow game used a falchion, the druid had a spear, and the frost-giant bard NPC had a plus-size short sword (hey, it's certainly atypical for a giant). The exalted barbarian in a later game has a scythe. My 1/2-orc cleric of Zarathustra had a longspear and a spiked gauntlet for backup. Overall, the common weapons may be common, but they're never ubiquitous.

But as to what I want to see: Halberd (I've got some great minis with them), hammers of every style (well, maybe not "gnome hooked"), and flails. Nothing else is quite as menacing as a spiky chunk of metal hanging from a chain. Especially if it's ridiculously oversized, like in Return of the King.

 

[Pillsbury]

The spiked chain is so annoying I gave the Fighter in my campaign a +4 Greatsword just to make him switch weapons. Stupid spiked chains.

 

[Ciaran]

My new fighter totes a heavy flail. Of course, we do have some house rules involving knockdown and variable armor benefits versus different weapon types that make it a lot more useful than in vanilla 3.x rules, so I'm not sure that counts.

 

[megamania]

I once decided I wanted to lessen the amount of swords in a longsword heavy party. So I threw in the classic rust monster and the lot was gone in no time. The previous room (which the rust monster couldn't get in) was an old armoury, and so had plenty to pick from. Except swords it seemed...

Caused an amuseing fight where they used practicaly the entire armoury a little at a time, to fight the rust monster. They passed weapons to the fighter who hit with it and then discarded it as it fell apart.

The result was that they all left with diferent weapons than before, and only the fighter actually went back to useing a sword.

nicely done.

 

[megamania]

All time party favorite= Bastard Sword.

Also used a lot are rapiers and Falchions.

 

[GreatLemur]

I think the answer (if you think this needs an answer) lies more in the other direction. More weapons should be mechanically identical with their particular shape being pure flavor. I always liked the Warhammer FRP "hand weapon".

Oh, so true. As long as we've got rules to represent the important mechanical trade-offs (like two-handed for more damage, or less damage for an entangling property, etc.), I don't see why we need stats for specific weapons. I'd be happy to take a "two-handed, martial, melee weapon" and call it a big damned hammer, even though it's mechanically identical to the "two-handed, martial, melee weapon" that some other guy is calling a claymore (obvious difference in damage types aside).

A while back, I tried coming up with some kind of "design your own weapon" system, where base damge is assigned for weapon size (light, medium, two-handed) and requirements (simple, martial, exotic), and then reduced in exchange for extra features (reach, throwability, improved crit ranges and modifiers, etc.). My True20 version went rather nicely, but the d20 version never felt close enough to the balance of the existing weapon list.

 

[replicant2]

Oh, so true. As long as we've got rules to represent the important mechanical trade-offs (like two-handed for more damage, or less damage for an entangling property, etc.), I don't see why we need stats for specific weapons. I'd be happy to take a "two-handed, martial, melee weapon" and call it a big damned hammer, even though it's mechanically identical to the "two-handed, martial, melee weapon" that some other guy is calling a claymore (obvious difference in damage types aside).

A while back, I tried coming up with some kind of "design your own weapon" system, where base damge is assigned for weapon size (light, medium, two-handed) and requirements (simple, martial, exotic), and then reduced in exchange for extra features (reach, throwability, improved crit ranges and modifiers, etc.). My True20 version went rather nicely, but the d20 version never felt close enough to the balance of the existing weapon list.

One of the best fixes I've ever heard proposed is basing weapon damage solely on character class -- i.e., wizards do 1d4 damage regardless of weapon type, rogues 1d6, clerics 1d8, and fighters 1d10. This eliminates the annoying "everyone uses a longsword" tendency, and makes something like daggers lethal again.

You even tweak things a bit by allowing a two handed weapon to move you one damage category up, keep reach intact, etc.

 

[atomn]

I always like the phalanx or valkyrie imagery spears give. I also love the look of the net and trident gladiator. And I'd like to see a harpoon in use. I tried to work out some neat combos to take advantage of its ability or with a PrC but nothing really made it stand out.

 

[BadMojo]

My Barbarian/Sorcerer is wielding a Great Axe just so the d12 can get out of the dice bag more often.

I think the movie "300" is going to create an increased interest in the whole spear and shield thing.

 

[dagger]

What would you equate with a 1e Broadsword in 3.5?