The main point of contention I've seen with the spiked chain in my group had to do with a character that used it with his Improved Disarm, Improved Trip feats. Without getting into the balance side of it, I know that for the GM, it was really, really annoying.
Recently, as a character I faced a group of monks who had gone the Imp Trip route, and it made for a nightmarish couple of rounds. Fine in small doses, but I could see how it would get old fast. It made me think back to that old game, and I could see why the GM would get frustrated. Basically, any humanoidish-type monster (something that relied on using a weapon or standing) either had to be built to withstand disarms and trips, or was effectively neutered. (Disarm is easier to get around than trip, a locking gauntlet being an easy item to toss in, but trip is a bit thornier.)
As a weapon that can threaten adjacent and at Reach, the spiked chain is a good buy for an Exotic Wpn. If you wanted to limit it, you could throw in move-equivilent action to switch between its Reach and Non-Reach quality, but honestly that just seems nit-picky to me.
For my money, if Imp Trip and Disarm were "fixed" (hey, that's another thread), a lot of the spiked chain's seeming offensiveness would disappear. At least, that's how I saw it in my group. YMMV.
Recently, as a character I faced a group of monks who had gone the Imp Trip route, and it made for a nightmarish couple of rounds. Fine in small doses, but I could see how it would get old fast. It made me think back to that old game, and I could see why the GM would get frustrated. Basically, any humanoidish-type monster (something that relied on using a weapon or standing) either had to be built to withstand disarms and trips, or was effectively neutered. (Disarm is easier to get around than trip, a locking gauntlet being an easy item to toss in, but trip is a bit thornier.)
As a weapon that can threaten adjacent and at Reach, the spiked chain is a good buy for an Exotic Wpn. If you wanted to limit it, you could throw in move-equivilent action to switch between its Reach and Non-Reach quality, but honestly that just seems nit-picky to me.
For my money, if Imp Trip and Disarm were "fixed" (hey, that's another thread), a lot of the spiked chain's seeming offensiveness would disappear. At least, that's how I saw it in my group. YMMV.