Why is it "Chain, spiked?"

[Asmor]

Seriously, this is something that's always bugged me and I don't think I've seen it come up before... Why the heck is the spiked chain listed as "Chain, spiked?"

It makes sense for the swords to be "Sword, short" and "Sword, bastard," since you think of each of those items as a sword, and it's also likely that you might want to look at all the swords, and there are a lot of different swords so it's nice to group them.

How many chain-based weapons are there in 3.x, by the RAW? I don't think there's a "Chain, weighted" or even a "Chain, normal." In fact, the only weapon I can think of off the top of my head which is predominantly based on a chain is a kusarigama, and I don't see anyone confusing that with a spiked chain by name, appearance or function.

This makes sense, none.

 

[Set]

Seriously, this is something that's always bugged me and I don't think I've seen it come up before... Why the heck is the spiked chain listed as "Chain, spiked?"

It makes sense for the swords to be "Sword, short" and "Sword, bastard," since you think of each of those items as a sword, and it's also likely that you might want to look at all the swords, and there are a lot of different swords so it's nice to group them.

How many chain-based weapons are there in 3.x, by the RAW? I don't think there's a "Chain, weighted" or even a "Chain, normal." In fact, the only weapon I can think of off the top of my head which is predominantly based on a chain is a kusarigama, and I don't see anyone confusing that with a spiked chain by name, appearance or function.

This makes sense, none.

Perhaps they intended to have Chain, Weighted, Chain, Bicycle and Chain, Battleship as well, but they were cut to save space?

Then there was the Chain, Double Dire Flailing Razor, but it was too difficult to draw.

 

[Klaus]

Seriously, this is something that's always bugged me and I don't think I've seen it come up before... Why the heck is the spiked chain listed as "Chain, spiked?"

It makes sense for the swords to be "Sword, short" and "Sword, bastard," since you think of each of those items as a sword, and it's also likely that you might want to look at all the swords, and there are a lot of different swords so it's nice to group them.

How many chain-based weapons are there in 3.x, by the RAW? I don't think there's a "Chain, weighted" or even a "Chain, normal." In fact, the only weapon I can think of off the top of my head which is predominantly based on a chain is a kusarigama, and I don't see anyone confusing that with a spiked chain by name, appearance or function.

This makes sense, none.

I'll see you one better: why is it "spiked" at all? Why not just be "chain"?

 

[MarkB]

Then there was the Chain, Double Dire Flailing Razor, but it was too difficult to draw.

It kept getting entangled with the scabbard?

 

[szilard]

Don't forget the Chain, Lightning!

-Stuart

 

[der_kluge]

Chain, letter - recipient must make a Will save or become enraged.

 

[Random Axe]

Chain, of fools -- but this was originally listed in the NPC section...

 

[Tetsubo]

The editor tried changing it to Chain, Cheese but the munchkin writer got annoyed.

Simple solution that I use and advocate: Drop the Spiked Chain (or Chain, Spiked) from your campaign. It's the dumbest weapon idea ever conceived of for D&D. Shortly followed by the Dire Flail and Mercurial *anything*.

 

[Pbartender]

Chain, Fast Food?

 

[Klaus]

The editor tried changing it to Chain, Cheese but the munchkin writer got annoyed.

Simple solution that I use and advocate: Drop the Spiked Chain (or Chain, Spiked) from your campaign. It's the dumbest weapon idea ever conceived of for D&D. Shortly followed by the Dire Flail and Mercurial *anything*.

Or...

You just drop the "spiked" part and have a real-world weapon.

For the dire flail, just have a staff with hinged heads on each end, like the heavy flail of 2e.

For the mercurial weapons...

... nah, just toss them away.