What weapon represents humanity?

[SnowleopardVK]

...Elves don't use katana, but tengu probably do, yet human samurai are it's predominant user.

Isn't there a whole country of samurai elves in the official setting?

...Sorry, I'm nitpicking.

I'd probably go with the bastard sword or some kind of polearm for a specific human weapon (and not just because I love the humans are bastards implications in there).

 

[gamerprinter]

Isn't there a whole country of samurai elves in the official setting?

...Sorry, I'm nitpicking.

I'd probably go with the bastard sword or some kind of polearm for a specific human weapon (and not just because I love the humans are bastards implications in there).

Golarian might, but as a standard setting trope, this usually isn't the case. Since I don't use Golarian, I didn't know about the samurai elves...

I'm looking at all the D&D world settings: Greyhawk, Mystara, Forgotten Realms, not just Golarian, which in many ways is unique to those prior settings.

In my Kaidan setting, which is an island regional setting that can be placed into any existing world setting, it cleaves to Japanese folklore very closely and in a standard Japanese setting, there generally are no such thing as elves.

 

[Burn_Boy]

This is just my two cents, and heavily influenced by other games and fantasy settings (mostly Lord of the Rings and World of Warcraft) but to me, just the sword, not the longsword nor bastard sword specifically, just the SWORD, itself, to me, seems to be the Human weapon. Swords for humans, axes for Orcs, hammers for Dwarves, bows for Elves.

But you're right, humans, being as versatile as they are, can't really be said to have a specific weapon since we can basically start with any due to extra starting feats and such.

 

[SteelDraco]

I would say straight-bladed swords. I always picture elven swords as curved, even if they're long swords or bastard swords. The long sword would be the most iconic human weapon for me.

 

[dragonis111]

My thoughts here would be to just add a houserule that if a human was raised or grew up primarily in another races culture, that human would have knowledge of how to properly use their weapons.

 

[Rampant]

Does our unique mix of inventiveness and cruelty count?

 

[Burn_Boy]

My thoughts here would be to just add a houserule that if a human was raised or grew up primarily in another races culture, that human would have knowledge of how to properly use their weapons.

That's the Adopted trait. The best, and one of the only real productive application of this trait is the ability to use racial weapons, like the Elven curveblade or those Orc weapons, as martial weapons. I suppose the other application is languages since the other stuff can't just be taught like the ability to trance or dark vision.

Adopted

You were adopted and raised by someone not of your actual race, and raised in a society not your own.




Benefit: Select a race trait from your adoptive parents’ race.

 

[Systole]

Also, anthropologists credit the throwing arm as being mankind's first distinct evolutionary hunting advantage over animals, and the javelin is probably the perfect example of this, but they may be again too common.

Off-topic:

Persistence hunting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"It is likely that this method of hunting evolved before humans invented projectile weapons, such as darts, spears, or slings."




On-topic:

Polearms, definitely. Humans seem to be the only race that uses phalanx tactics in any fantasy world that I can think of. A dwarf would think polearms are crazy weapons because they're eight foot sticks of wood don't work well in tight underground tunnels with low ceilings. Elves would think they're crazy because a polearm doesn't work well with skirmish tactics in dense forests.

 

[SteelDraco]

Polearms, definitely. Humans seem to be the only race that uses phalanx tactics in any fantasy world that I can think of.

I've always had dwarves as big phalanx warriors, based on their tendency to cooperate and a preference for defensive combat styles.

 

[Set]

In Golarion, the 'god of humanity,' Aroden, had the longsword as his favored weapon, and the 'inheritor' to his mantle, Iomedae, also has the longsword as her favored weapon.

Still, as has already been mentioned in this thread, the longsword may be relevant in Avistan, but the scimitar is the weapon of choice to the east and south, and by the time one reaches the Mwangi expanse, swords in general are likely to be less common than spears, making the longsword a bit too regionally specific to be a perfect 'generic human' weapon of choice.

If spears didn't generally blow in D&D/PF, I'd totally vote for the spear, to give humans a weapon that doesn't tread on the elven 'bow and blade' or the dwarven 'hammer and axe' niches, and a weapon that's likely to see use from the Mwangi Expanse to Arcadia to Qadira to Taldor to the Lands of the Linnorm Kings.