Weapons you wished you'd see sometimes.

[Darklone]

A similar thing bugs me more about most RPGs: The number of weapon a char carries.

D&D doesn't support walking armories due to the need for magic weapons. E.g. in LARP I carried a twohanded hammer, a longbow, shortsword, left-hand axe, some daggers, some throwing daggers, some shuriken, two throwing axes, a clawbuckler and some hidden things.

 

[Hypersmurf]

We're about to start a campaign with a Norse flavour; the DM asked me to stat up a bunch of gestalt Barbarian 1s. So everyone has access to either Rage or Whirling Frenzy, and a decent Str score.

The weapons are pretty heavily biased based on that; greataxe, battleaxe, warhammer, longsword, longspear. A couple of bows, but mostly spears for ranged attacks - one problem with bows is that a/ getting composite bows that account for Str bonus is well outside a 1st level character's means, and b/ getting a composite bow that can be used to full efficiency with both raging and non-raging Str score is impossible. The thrown spears work either way...

One halberd, for the Jotunbrud tripper. And the skald (gestalt barbarian/bard) uses either paired battleaxes, or battleaxe and whip.

-Hyp.

 

[Darklone]

Throwing axes and hammers (Mjoellnir!) are stylish for viking types, Hyp.

Large shields (think about the ships, these shields haven't been decoration) and bastard sword like longaxes (I'd use dwarven waraxe stats) would be fitting as well.

Not according to D&D vikings were renowned archers. You might get around this by using the berserk optional class ability from PHB2, e.g. as soon as you rage you're not interested in your bow anyhow.

 

[jmucchiello]

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.

Try this thread. It's a full discussion of weapon as special effect.

 

[Set]

I'd like to see more mace, morning star, spear, hand axe and quarterstaff love. In 3.0, we had a house rule that the quarterstaff counted as a Monk special weapon and could be used by Rangers for their virtual two-weapon fighting, it was nice to see those kinds of restrictions loosened up in 3.5.

For blades, I like naginatas, kukris, scimitars (in the hands of desert dwelling dervishes, not spider-worshipping emo elves!), falchions, katar and my absolute favorite, congo throwing irons (to save time, I'd just use throwing axe stats).

A *non-spiked* chain is also a very cool weapon idea. That thing they call a spiked chain isn't even a mechanically viable weapon, so I don't care what sort of stats it has...

 

[FnordBear]

I think the most creative use of an rare weapon I have ever seen was a DM who made a boss battle Orc fighter using enchanted Orc Shotputs (Arms and Equipment Guide) each enchanted with flaming burst and a returning enchanment.

Party went nuts trying to figure out how to deal with this orcish "sorceror" who was throwing "fireballs" that could hurt the party members who were protected from fire. They were also really confused becasue he could "cast fireballs" while in fullplate.

Oh that was a good game.

 

[kenobi65]

I think my next character might us a double-sword for the flavor of it...

On that thought.... I've never heard of anyone using a double-sword.

I've seen several PCs use it. If you're going the TWF route, it's a pretty darn good weapon. It gives you a d8 in the off-hand, while still counting as a light weapon in that hand. And, while it does cost you one feat slot for Exotic Weapon Proficiency, all the other weapon-specific feats (Weapon Focus, Improved Critical, etc.) only need to be bought once for them to apply to both hands.

The only real downside (other than the reduced damage output compared to a two-handed weapon) is that you look like Darth Maul.

For me, I see too many fighters using either greatswords or greataxes (or, rarely, falchions). They're mechanically the strongest damage-dealers, and so, choosing anything else winds up a sub-optimal build.

 

[kenobi65]

The 1E broadsword was basically a longsword that did 2d4 instead of 1d8, right?

In that case, it's basically a longsword, still.

IIRC, in the 1E rules, the broadsword was described as only having an edge along one side of the blade, while a longsword had edges on both sides. It makes the broadsword sound more like a cutlass or saber or something; I can't say I've ever heard the term "broadsword" applied to a weapon of that description anywhere else but 1E AD&D.

 

[rose4100]

dual dwarven waraxe and handaxe for me man. Or a simple dagger with my rogue.

 

[Janaxstrus]

I don't care what kind of weapons people use. The game is all about fun. If they decide it's fun for everyone to use a longsword, or a hand axe or a club, it's all good with me.

In my never humble opinion, why should people be forced to use non-standard or sub-optimal weapons? Just have the NPCs use them if you feel like the naginata being under-represented is hurting your game.