Weapons you wished you'd see sometimes.
- Thread starter Nightdawn
- Start date
Andor
First Post
I make a point of using spears occasionally, since it was history's most popular weapon and all.
I'm in a pbp game using the UA Weapon Group rules, it seems to have shaken up somewhat what weapon everyone uses. My Artificer is proficient in flails but not sword for example. Mind you in that game I'm using an unspiked chain as a backup weapon (using the stats from OA) the GM has not objected to my using a weaker weapon for flavor.
While it's true that the rapier was a civilian weapon that would have had issues with the heavy armour of the day (As would any sword for that matter, the Hvy armour of the day was often bulletproofed) it was descended from the Estoc which was a weapon purpose designed to defeat heavy armour. Since they don't have the estoc I'm willing to call it a wash.
As for historic weapons I'd like to see, I've always been fond of the Falcata.
I've always been annoyed by the 'Reach but not close' rule. I think there should be a [Choke up] feat to allow you to switch ranges as a free action or at least a [Haft Strike] feat to let you threaten and attack your immediate area with (1d6 x2 b) damage.
I'm in a pbp game using the UA Weapon Group rules, it seems to have shaken up somewhat what weapon everyone uses. My Artificer is proficient in flails but not sword for example. Mind you in that game I'm using an unspiked chain as a backup weapon (using the stats from OA) the GM has not objected to my using a weaker weapon for flavor.
While it's true that the rapier was a civilian weapon that would have had issues with the heavy armour of the day (As would any sword for that matter, the Hvy armour of the day was often bulletproofed) it was descended from the Estoc which was a weapon purpose designed to defeat heavy armour. Since they don't have the estoc I'm willing to call it a wash.
As for historic weapons I'd like to see, I've always been fond of the Falcata.
I've always been annoyed by the 'Reach but not close' rule. I think there should be a [Choke up] feat to allow you to switch ranges as a free action or at least a [Haft Strike] feat to let you threaten and attack your immediate area with (1d6 x2 b) damage.
JRR_Talking
First Post
if i see another spiked chain wielding orc in a living greyhawk adventure again im gonna give up playing......
are there writers locked in erm, locked rooms, thinking..."ive an excellent+original idea, if i give these orc fighters a spiked chain...."
are there writers locked in erm, locked rooms, thinking..."ive an excellent+original idea, if i give these orc fighters a spiked chain...."
Tetsubo said:
Agreed. Not that I have any grudge against the idea of fighting with a chain, it's just for some reason it's hugely more powerful than any other exotic weapon. I'd like to see the other exotics get some love from WotC but no, everyone from demons to eladrins to elves in the illustrations is using the damn spiky chain.
I had a half-dragon fighter once whose primary weapons were a light flail and a trident liberated from some skum. I've also got a paladin at the moment whose weapon of choice is a greatclub (which looks cooler if you ignore the PHB illustration of a crude lump of wood, and go with something like a big iron-studded tetsubo). On a side note, I find reach weapons to be good for some Large creatures, because they can threaten 15-20ft with their weapon and from 5-10ft with their gore or bite.
Something I dislike about 3.0 is that the single-weapon feats punish you if you want to use multiple types of weapon. And of course, the treasure system, where a double sword specialist will never find a magical example of his favoured weapon. I much prefer UA's weapon groups, where a single proficiency will let you apply feats to multiple weapons that are thematically similar ("blunt weapons", "bows" or "pole weapons").
Imperialus
Explorer
I played a hexblade with a Halbard once rolled a max damage crit on it once while it was set to recive a charge, 78 points of damage at 4th level ![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
too bad it was against a mook. Also played a ranger/barbarian who used a spear javalins and a spiked shield. I played a fighter based off a Saxxon Fryrdman who used a spear, battleaxe, and a large shield. Played a paladin/hunter of the dead who had a flail of spell storing made out of a lich skull. Played a ranger/assasin who used daggers. I like variety in my weapons. Last character I played who wore a longsword was an elf wizard.
too bad it was against a mook. Also played a ranger/barbarian who used a spear javalins and a spiked shield. I played a fighter based off a Saxxon Fryrdman who used a spear, battleaxe, and a large shield. Played a paladin/hunter of the dead who had a flail of spell storing made out of a lich skull. Played a ranger/assasin who used daggers. I like variety in my weapons. Last character I played who wore a longsword was an elf wizard.Elder-Basilisk
First Post
Mechanically, the biggest offender by far in the "why does everyone use weapon X" is the Exotic Weapon Master prestige class. The only non-double weapon that you can easily get flurry of blows with is the spiked chain. If there weren't a special "must use a spiked chain" prestige class that gave an extra attack, the spiked chain wouldn't be nearly so popular.
As for the rest, I really don't think it should be that much of a bother that people will often take the same weapons and armor. IRL, nearly every culture had their preferred weapons (which were usually the ones that were effective in that particular era). The classical greeks? Longspear, shield, breastplate and shortsword/dagger for hoplites. Peltasts and auxiliaries might have just carried a buckler and javalins or slings. The Romans? javalins, spear, tower shield, shortsword, for the legions. Longsword, heavy shield for cavalry. Lorica segmentata, and lorica hamata (and one other armor I don't remember atm) for armor. The viking era? Chain shirt, heavy shield, spear, javalin, shortbow, battle axe, great axe, longsword, and dagger for the vikings. The era of the Norman conquest? Chain mail, lance, longsword, heavy shield, and shortbows for the Normans; chainmail, greataxes, heavy shields, longswords, and shortbows for the saxons. Feudal japan? composite longbows, naginata (glaive?), katana (bastard sword), wiashizi (short sword), dagger, and banded mail for the samurai. Primarily bows and spears (though cannons and handguns were used on occasion) for the others. Even in the sixteenth century, you had longbows for the English, crossbows for rest of Europe, pikes, halberds, and greatswords for the Landsknecht and Swiss; longsword, buckler, and breastplate for the spanish, etc. A few muskets showed up in the wars, but they hadn't entirely displaced the crossbow and longbow (as is demonstrated by the longbows on the wreck of the Mary Rose and Cortez's use of crossbowmen in the conquest of Mexico).
As for what weapons I've actually seen in play...
my characters:
Fighter/mage: Guisarme, longsword, light flail, composite longbow
Cleric: Greatsword, longsword, heavy mace
Ranger/Rogue: Composite longbow, rapier, light mace
halfling melee mutt: longsword, lance, shuriken
cleric: spells--he owns a crossbow and a club but hasn't used them for five levels or so
Fighter/barbarian: Bastard sword, javalin
Fighter: Heavy mace, heavy shield
Cleric/Rogue/Shadowbane Stalker: Lancea (Player's Guide to Arcanis), flintlock pistol, dagger
Fighter/Barbarian/PsyWar/Warmind: Tralian Hammer (Player's Guide to Arcanis), Composite Longbow
Cleric: spells (but she has a gladius (Player's guide to Arcanis) and a spear)
Paladin: Initially, halberd, now scimitar
Prospective character (replacing the paladin who became king of a kingdom and had to retire): werebear--long axe, claw, claw bite
That's actually a pretty good variety, come to think of it. I've seen nearly every other martial or exotic weapon used by other players except the light pick, light hammer, urgrosh and doublesword. The ones I see used the least are double weapons (I've only seen one dire flail and the character was later rebuilt so as not to use it), picks (again, I've seen one character with a heavy pick... but only one), and Ranseur (disarming isn't nearly as nice as tripping and those who don't care about manuevers pick the glaive for the extra damage). The one I've seen way too many of is the spiked chain. (See above for the cause of this).
As for the rest, I really don't think it should be that much of a bother that people will often take the same weapons and armor. IRL, nearly every culture had their preferred weapons (which were usually the ones that were effective in that particular era). The classical greeks? Longspear, shield, breastplate and shortsword/dagger for hoplites. Peltasts and auxiliaries might have just carried a buckler and javalins or slings. The Romans? javalins, spear, tower shield, shortsword, for the legions. Longsword, heavy shield for cavalry. Lorica segmentata, and lorica hamata (and one other armor I don't remember atm) for armor. The viking era? Chain shirt, heavy shield, spear, javalin, shortbow, battle axe, great axe, longsword, and dagger for the vikings. The era of the Norman conquest? Chain mail, lance, longsword, heavy shield, and shortbows for the Normans; chainmail, greataxes, heavy shields, longswords, and shortbows for the saxons. Feudal japan? composite longbows, naginata (glaive?), katana (bastard sword), wiashizi (short sword), dagger, and banded mail for the samurai. Primarily bows and spears (though cannons and handguns were used on occasion) for the others. Even in the sixteenth century, you had longbows for the English, crossbows for rest of Europe, pikes, halberds, and greatswords for the Landsknecht and Swiss; longsword, buckler, and breastplate for the spanish, etc. A few muskets showed up in the wars, but they hadn't entirely displaced the crossbow and longbow (as is demonstrated by the longbows on the wreck of the Mary Rose and Cortez's use of crossbowmen in the conquest of Mexico).
As for what weapons I've actually seen in play...
my characters:
Fighter/mage: Guisarme, longsword, light flail, composite longbow
Cleric: Greatsword, longsword, heavy mace
Ranger/Rogue: Composite longbow, rapier, light mace
halfling melee mutt: longsword, lance, shuriken
cleric: spells--he owns a crossbow and a club but hasn't used them for five levels or so
Fighter/barbarian: Bastard sword, javalin
Fighter: Heavy mace, heavy shield
Cleric/Rogue/Shadowbane Stalker: Lancea (Player's Guide to Arcanis), flintlock pistol, dagger
Fighter/Barbarian/PsyWar/Warmind: Tralian Hammer (Player's Guide to Arcanis), Composite Longbow
Cleric: spells (but she has a gladius (Player's guide to Arcanis) and a spear)
Paladin: Initially, halberd, now scimitar
Prospective character (replacing the paladin who became king of a kingdom and had to retire): werebear--long axe, claw, claw bite
That's actually a pretty good variety, come to think of it. I've seen nearly every other martial or exotic weapon used by other players except the light pick, light hammer, urgrosh and doublesword. The ones I see used the least are double weapons (I've only seen one dire flail and the character was later rebuilt so as not to use it), picks (again, I've seen one character with a heavy pick... but only one), and Ranseur (disarming isn't nearly as nice as tripping and those who don't care about manuevers pick the glaive for the extra damage). The one I've seen way too many of is the spiked chain. (See above for the cause of this).
cignus_pfaccari
First Post
I used Spiked Chain once. Then I realized I wasn't doing any damage, and things were not automatically being disarmed and tripped. And it was about useless on non-humanoids. Then the character died, and I replaced it.
The weapons our group was using in the last set of games were:
Human paladin/Fist of Raziel: Falchion
Human psion: None (not even a dagger)
Dwarf fighter: Waraxe
Human wizard: Whatever staff he was using
Warforged Juggernaught: Battleaxe
Warforged Scout Artificer: None (just used scrolls)
Elven ranger: Double Scimitar
Goliath barbarian/warpriest: Great Falchion (referred to as a "Mountain Blade")
Dwarf wizard/Jade Phoenix Mage: Waraxe
Dwarf Hammer of Moradin: Warhammer
Funky weapons were usually purchased or commissioned; though the DMs occasionally would place some, we usually never got around to getting them.
In general, we've decided that weapons with higher crit ranges are more useful than those with high multipliers. My dwarf fighter crit ONCE in the entire Eberron campaign she was in, and it was on a scrub. Whereas my goliath barbarian crit like mad in the Birthright game and it made a difference in a lot of fights.
Brad
The weapons our group was using in the last set of games were:
Human paladin/Fist of Raziel: Falchion
Human psion: None (not even a dagger)
Dwarf fighter: Waraxe
Human wizard: Whatever staff he was using
Warforged Juggernaught: Battleaxe
Warforged Scout Artificer: None (just used scrolls)
Elven ranger: Double Scimitar
Goliath barbarian/warpriest: Great Falchion (referred to as a "Mountain Blade")
Dwarf wizard/Jade Phoenix Mage: Waraxe
Dwarf Hammer of Moradin: Warhammer
Funky weapons were usually purchased or commissioned; though the DMs occasionally would place some, we usually never got around to getting them.
In general, we've decided that weapons with higher crit ranges are more useful than those with high multipliers. My dwarf fighter crit ONCE in the entire Eberron campaign she was in, and it was on a scrub. Whereas my goliath barbarian crit like mad in the Birthright game and it made a difference in a lot of fights.
Brad
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