Where the heck did the siangham come from?


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Janx said:
Sais were based on farming implements. I've not seen a means to use them as such myself, though I could imagine them being akin to a pitchfork head. As I was told, they were used in the field (but not as pitchforks).
Janx

Not 100% sure on this, but I seem to remember being taught that the sais were farming implements, used for placing seed. One would merely "stab" the sai into the soil, up to the where the side prongs touched the soil, drop the seed in, cover and move on.

Again, not 100% sure.

Peterson
 

ARandomGod said:
I believe they're modified spades. In a pinch one could use a real spade similiarly.

I may be wrong on the origin of 'chuks, but a spade is a shovel. Looks completely different from a sais.

a spade would be more akin to a bo or spear, in that it has a big long stick, and something heavy on the end to whack and jab with.

And I'd heard the same thing as Peterson on using sai as a farming tool for poking seed holes. Somehow that seems overkill when a stick would do.

Janx
 

Nope, that's exactly right. Sai are used (to this day) in rice paddies to dig a deep narrow hole. You need the weight of the metal to get deep enough. You just stab the sai into the mud, drop the rice seedling in there and move on. It works great.

Nunchaku were used for threshing rice as also has been pointed out.

A Kama is used (to this day) as a small scythe to cut grasses / rice / whatever. I have one for my flower boxes.

A Tonfa was the handle from a grinder. It's hard to explain, so check out this page…

http://md.essortment.com/japaneseweapon_raap.htm

Anyway, I had never heard of the siangham until I saw it in DnD. Then again, I had never heard of a dragon either. Some original things are fine in DnD. That said, I think most monk weapons suck (and the class is a bit weak overall) so I have monk weapons do the same damage as the monk's unarmed damage (at the cost of a feat). It has actually made people play monks again!

But even with that, I haven't seen anybody pick up a siangham yet!

-Tatsu
 

I'm pretty sure I'm going to switch siangham to the halfspear (3e). It's ideal for the setting: it's simple to use, easy to make, decent range, light enough to carry multiples, heavy enough to be a melee weapon in case a predator manages to close.

It's *almost* too useful a weapon to allow flurrying but feh, the 3e monk has enough working against them.
 

Janx said:
I may be wrong on the origin of 'chuks, but a spade is a shovel. Looks completely different from a sais.

a spade would be more akin to a bo or spear, in that it has a big long stick, and something heavy on the end to whack and jab with.

And I'd heard the same thing as Peterson on using sai as a farming tool for poking seed holes. Somehow that seems overkill when a stick would do.

Janx

A spade is a type of shovel. OR to say, all spades are shovels but not all shovels are spades. Something used to dig a deep, narrow hole could be accurately described as a spade...
 

After watching various Jackie Chan Crouching Hero movies with dude's with spears, it seems some sort of spear is in the monk genre...

Can anyone post a pic of a siangham? I forget what they look like...

Janx
 


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