One step back and two steps forward

[JonSetanta]

In case I wasn't clear: I was asking whether that's a real weapon.

Oh, hell no.

[MagnaSecuris]

In case I wasn't clear: I was asking whether that's a real weapon.

Oh, hell no.

I don't think you could make a combat weapon like that, because there's no way you could include any sort of functional tang.

[Username17]

In case I wasn't clear: I was asking whether that's a real weapon.

Oh, hell no.

I don't think you could make a combat weapon like that, because there's no way you could include any sort of functional tang.

Usually made short, for obvious reasons.

-Username17

[JonSetanta]

Usually made short, for obvious reasons.

Obviously. But those aren't katanas, and as direct result lose all weeaboo cred.
Must be 100-plus-fold monk-crafted ancestral katanas of an ancient lost dynasty, at that. Since, you know, all the best katanas are.

In a fantasy setting I'm imagining that doublekatana sounding something like a giant tuning fork, really. Perhaps one could injure foes with harmonic vibration more than ridiculous overcompensation.

[MagnaSecuris]

Oh, hell no.

I don't think you could make a combat weapon like that, because there's no way you could include any sort of functional tang.

Usually made short, for obvious reasons.

-Username17

Your examples all have a 'main' blade, clearly not the same as the nonsense in the illustration.

[Surgo]

Your examples all have a 'main' blade, clearly not the same as the nonsense in the illustration.

Well...

Obviously, it's a polearm and not a close combat weapon.

[Draco_Argentum]

Tridents aren't bladed either. The double katana fails because you don't need two blades to trap your opponent's weapon. The dagger Frank posted is a more reasonable and lighter way to achieve the desired effect.

[CatharzGodfoot]

Magical weapons should look something like this:

Fire Katana (aka Firebrand +3 vs. water elementals and plant creatures)
When activated, deals Devastating & Fire damage as a one handed weapon, sets any struck foe on fire (insert 'on fire' rules here), and provides illumination as a torch. It can also be used to set something on fire as a touch attack. For as long as the wielder performs an all-out defense action, she is surrounded in a fireshield effect.
When not activated, deals Devastating damage as a normal sword.
The fire katana can be activated as a free action.


If this seems a lot like an item from the Tome of Gears, that's because I'm always trying to steal the ideas of Keith and Frank.


I also need to come up with a good fireshield. Something like 'Any attack on the warded character takes Fire damage. An attack destroyed by the fireshield has no effect.'


[Edit]
For comparison..

torch
A torch deals devastating damage as a light weapon.
When activated a torch can be used to set something on fire as a touch attack. A torch provides illumination as a torch 8)
A torch can be activated with a standard action.
[/Edit]

[Draco_Argentum]

I have to say I agree with your take on magic weapons. Thats more interesting than 3.x and also isn't required to keep you on the RNG.

[CatharzGodfoot]

exposition:
I'm going to run some Dungeon Crawl Classics for my gaming group. If you haven't heard of these, they're pretty much what they sound like: 1e modules with really campy art and fun maps (like the 4-ring rotating dungeon controlled by a construct-building intelligent russian doll-style construct).

I'm going to limit PCs to a more 'classic' class lineup: Barbarian, Fighter, Mage, and Thief. The rules will be mostly Tome-series.

crunch:
I'm doing yet another alteration to the skill rules.
1.a Every class has "automatic skills", which every member of that class has at full ranks (multiclass or otherwise). Examples include all barbarians getting Athletics and Survival, all Thieves getting Acrobatics, Devices, Hide, and Search, and all Mages getting Arcana.

1.b Every class has "bonus skills" (think "bonus languages"), of which they get 2 + Int. Bonus skills also come in class-based lists, and tend to have things like Move Silently (Barbarian, Fighter, and Thief), Persuasion (all), Spot (all), and Listen (all). These skills also always have


I'm also writing up a new class (barbarians and fighters are as RoW). The thief is designed to be a rogue that is not obsessed with getting lots of attacks. To this end, sneak attack is replaced with "backstab": once per round as a free action, a thief can cause a yet-unresolved attack to be a backstab. If the backstab is made against a target that is flanked of denied its Dex to AC, the attack deals extra damage equal to three times the thief's thief level.

At higher levels, the backstab will also come with status effects: sickened, nauseated, stunned, blinded, and so forth (DC is Dex-based).


Thoughts?

[Amra]

this end, sneak attack is replaced with "backstab": once per round as a free action, a thief can cause a yet-unresolved attack to be a backstab. If the backstab is made against a target that is flanked of denied its Dex to AC, the attack deals extra damage equal to three times the thief's thief level.

Thoughts?

Heheh! I call 2nd Edition: w00t!

All you need to do now is to make it x3 total damage, reintroduce the concept of facing without having any rules for it and stop these ridiculous attempts to define specific conditions under which the target might be susceptible. :twisted:

[Amra]

You know, I wouldn't mind TWF as much if it was a defensive, feint and counter-attack oriented ability. The modern spin with the flailing about with two swords or whatever (worse when its axes) tends to irritate me.

Yeah, damn that Manciolino and his fancy modern 16th-century ways! And what about all those rapier-and-main-gauche fighters, swanning in here with all their stupid hippy two-weapon crap.

Seriously though, there are weapons training manuals referencing due spada techniques with a pair of cut-and-thrust swords going back to at least the 1480's.

I've no idea whether two-axe-fighting styles have anything like real historical references, although I've seen some of my colleagues more into Dark Age combat duel with twin hand-axes. That may well have just been for shits and giggles though; my impression on watching them was that they'd get slaughtered by an axe-and-shield wielder.

[mlangsdorf]

There's a lot of historical references to axe and blade - Don Juan fought that way at the battle of Lepanto, and skirmishers in the French and Indian wars often used knife and hatchet - but most are post-Renaissance.

The Celts and the Africans seemed to use balanced and unbalanced sticks in a 2 weapon style, and presumably that could be adapted to axe-and-knife. I don't know if anyone actually *did*.