You Bastard Sword!

[Hypersmurf]

Hypersmurf: You don't want to tell me that that character would get any profit from doing so.

That's why I'd allow it, even though by the letter of the rules, it's illegal

If a monk character elected to take the Improved Unarmed Strike feat, I wouldn't stop him.

-Hyp.

 

[Crothian]

Now, what if he didn't have the EWP? Just Martial?

-Hyp.

Still not a problem. Bastard sword is a medium, martial weapon. Notice, under it's description, it does not say small sized creatures need a EWP to use it.

 

[Black Knight Irios]

If he only has MWP he can't take Monkey Grip and that's all.
Because in this way he can't wield a bastard sword anyway which would prevent him from even having a Focus on that weapon. You can check out the FAQ there is something like this explained in the following way: a small charakter wielding a weapon in two hands is the as a medium size chrakter wielding the same weapon in one hand. This regards only the purpose of proofing a given characters weapon profiencies.
You can expand this test in both directions for smaller an bigger creatures.

 

[dkilgo]

Crothian does have a good point.

 

[Black Knight Irios]

@dkilgo: if you have read my post carefully you would have noticed that my post implies that the gnome must have EWP to wield it anyway and if you don't like it you can search the FAQ for it, there is a question with answer covering this thematic. And watch out the example used is nearly the same as mine.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Heh. Way to go for internal consistency in the FAQ - a search on "Bastard Sword" reveals two answers.

1. There is no Strength requirement to use a bastard sword. A
bastard sword is a Medium-Size weapon. It follows all the rules
for Medium-Size weapons, except that a Medium-Size creature
wielding the sword in one hand takes a -4 attack penalty with it
unless she has Exotic Weapon Proficiency (bastard sword).

2. If you're Medium-size, you have to be proficient with a
bastard sword to use it in one hand; if you're not proficient, you
don't have the option to use the sword one-handed at all.

By answer 1, Crothian is correct. By answer 2, BKI is correct

-Hyp.

 

[Crothian]

I like it when I'm right half the time!!

 

[dkilgo]

But, I am still unable to find anything saying that a small character must have EWP to wield it if he already has Monkey grip.

 

[Black Knight Irios]

Here is teh excerpt of the FAQ I meant:
Just what does a Small character have to do to use a
bastard sword? I have gotten the impression that a halfling
can use a bastard sword as a two-handed weapon provided
that she has a Strength score of 13 or better and she takes
Exotic Weapon Proficiency (bastard sword). Correct?
There is no Strength requirement to use a bastard sword. A
bastard sword is a Medium-Size weapon. It follows all the rules
for Medium-Size weapons, except that a Medium-Size creature
wielding the sword in one hand takes a -4 attack penalty with it
unless she has Exotic Weapon Proficiency (bastard sword). A
Small creature using the sword in two hands is just like a
Medium-Size creature wielding it in one hand. So, your
halfling (or gnome) takes a -4 attack penalty when using the
sword two-handed and takes no attack penalty if she has Exotic
Weapon Proficiency (bastard sword) and uses two hands;
because the sword is Medium-Size, a Small character cannot
use it one-handed.

Now do you get the point I mentioned.

 

[Hypersmurf]

So, your halfling (or gnome) takes a -4 attack penalty when using the sword two-handed and takes no attack penalty if she has Exotic Weapon Proficiency (bastard sword) and uses two hands; because the sword is Medium-Size, a Small character cannot use it one-handed.

Now do you get the point I mentioned.

The prerequisite for Weapon Focus is not "ability to use the weapon", it's "Proficiency with the weapon".

Bastard Sword has both Martial and Exotic proficiencies.

A Gnome fighter has proficiency with medium Martial weapons. He can therefore take Weapon Focus with a bastard sword; he's just to small to swing the thing without penalty. With Monkey Grip, he can use it one-handed.

-Hyp.