The Gaming Den

Utterfail wrote:Warhammers become martial weapons that, as a medium size weapon, are "1d8 or 2d6; 20x4 or 20x3; Piercing or Bludgeoning". It's the ol' hammer on one side, pick on the other not-quite-a-double-weapon weapon.

And finally there's a reason to use them!

angelfromanotherpin wrote:You could do longspears/lances as simple in two hands and martial in one hand. That way you can still have peasant spearmen, but also Spartan phalanxes and knightly lancers.

Genius.

Why the upgrade to the warhammer? It's already the best basic martial weapon, being basically just like the Battleaxe except you can do Piercing or Bludgeoning instead of Slashing.

-Username17

Honestly? Because it made sense from an out of game standpoint when I thought about hammers.



And since picks are apparently crap, I figured sticking crap on the other end of a weapon didn't matter much. If it's too much though I can change it back, I'm not married to the idea.

FrankTrollman wrote:Why the upgrade to the warhammer? It's already the best basic martial weapon, being basically just like the Battleaxe except you can do Piercing or Bludgeoning instead of Slashing.

-Username17

Excepting the 3e kusarigama

It kicks the battleaxe's ass, but the axe was always on the weak end of the martial spectrum. The main reason the warhammer becomes so good is the option of using the high damage type against crit-immune or low HP foes like skeletons, and the high crit type against bigger vulnerable foes.

My thought for making weapons like the war hammer more realistic is the 'spike' weapon addon. It would be a low damage piercing crit x3 (like a spear) bit that you could just stick on the opposite side or end of an axe, hammer, pole arm, or whatever. I'm not sure what the tradeoff world be in comparison to standard weapons, or if there should even be one.

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A more ideal system might have axes that deal bludgeoning and slashing damage, maces as martial bludgeoning & piercing weapons (leave pure bludgeoning to simple clubs), and piercing or slashing swords that are all on the bastard track, but fundamentally the weapon system isn't broke. It's imbalanced, but the imbalances have about as much impact as the inclusion of burning hands in the core rules.

How would magic weapon resizing work? Does the weapon always resize to be appropriate for the attuned user? Could the fighter command his sword to resize to be a throwing dagger?

Game On,
fbmf

Don't see why not.

Bastard Sword: A character with exotic weapon proficiency can wield a bastard sword as if they were one size larger than they are.

Does this mean that a medium creature can wield a medium bastard sword one-handed or a large bastard sword two-handed? Is that the intended use of this, or is it only supposed to mean that a medium creature can wield a medium bastard sword one-handed because:

You may not use a weapon that is a larger than yourself. A Large character can use a Large (or smaller) object as a weapon, but may not use a Huge (or larger) object as a weapon.

As written, the specific case would override the general, and you'd be able to wield the large bastard sword two-handed.

CatharzGodfoot wrote:As written, the specific case would override the general, and you'd be able to wield the large bastard sword two-handed.

That is wonderful. Thanks for clarifying, I thought that was the case but I wanted to make sure it wasn't just me.

Hmm.... If I were to change weapon types....

I might try the following:

Chop: Chopping attacks always deal double damage to objects and creatures larger than the attacker, they take a standard action. Only Bladed (Swords, Daggers, Voulges, WarScythes, etc.) and Axe-type attacks Chop.

Bludgeon: Bludgeoning attacks always ignore Physical Armour, they take a standard action. Only Weapons that have Bludgeoning damage may Bludgeon.

Thrust: Thrusting Attacks Strike Flat Footed Armour Class, they take a standard Action. Only Swords and Piercing attacks may do this.

Pierce: Against a target denied their Dexterity Modifier to AC, a Piercing Attack counts as a Coup de Grace attempt (aka auto-crit), they take a standard action. Only Piercing attacks may do this.

Which... isn't too bad. Only NPCs and PC should use these, to save DM brain power; at lower levels, melee combat becomes much more brutal; and melee type warriors could still threaten PCs even into higher levels. A bunch (5) of low level (1) ninjas could actually kill a moderately powerful character (6), if they get the drop on them.

It also lets fighters use weapons more effectively; if they attack even once, it's going to count when they hit; then they can land a bunch of other hits, or one good attack, and move back.

Also, having melee types actually chop dragons in half sounds interesting. Not sure how any of that would turn out though; a lot of my own game's PCs are casters, or natural weapon users.