arguskos
2011-03-02, 07:42 PM
In the current weapon thread in Roleplaying that is talking about how 3.5's weapon system is terrible, Maeglin_Dubh mentioned the idea (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10478846&postcount=34) of a Simple Weapon Mastery feat that gave you special options with select Simple Weapons. I thought that might be a neat idea for a feat, so I'm making two such feats, one for simple and one for martial, to give your weapons a bit more punch. I may also add similar feats for specific exotics, to make them worth it for the discerning wielder.
Note: this is NOT ABOUT REALISM. This is about badassery and having a good time. I try to keep it reasonably realistic, but in the end, if you want realism, I suggest that you play a different game (GURPS can be quite good at times, and there are other excellent games for such things).
Simple Weapon Mastery [Fighter]
You have trained with your favored category of weapons, and learned the secrets behind a few clever tricks.
Prerequisites: Proficient with all simple weapons
Benefits: You gain the following abilities with the indicated simple weapons:
You may use a spear in one hand.
You may use a quarterstaff to disarm enemies, gaining a +2 to your disarm checks (including the roll to avoid being disarmed if your attempt fails).
You may reload a sling as a free action.
Light and heavy crossbows may be used as clubs (hitting someone with the butt of the crossbow).
Normal: The indicated weapons can't do any of the above.
Martial Weapon Mastery [Fighter]
You have trained with your favored category of weapons, and learned the secrets behind a few clever tricks.
Prerequisites: Proficient with all martial weapons.
Benefits:You gain the following abilities with the indicated martial weapons:
You can use tridents to entangle a creature. On a successful hit with a trident, you may release it, entangling the target until they take a standard action to remove the trident (dealing themselves the trident's base damage).
You may use handaxes in a grapple without penalty. Additionally, handaxes provide you with a +2 bonus to disarm opponents of shields (but you do not gain this bonus to resist being disarmed, or at any other time).
You can use picks for sunder attempts, and gain a +2 bonus when doing so (light picks ignore the -4 penalty for being light weapons).
You may use spiked shields while in a grapple.
Normal: The indicated weapons can't do any of the above.
Designer Notes:
The simple mastery feat is the clearer one. All of it is reasonable. The spear buff permits the hoplite character to matter, and the others are all inoffensive. In fact, the feat may not be good enough, but I couldn't think of anything else to add! :smalleek:
The martial mastery feat is a bit fuzzier. The trident buff is so people actually remember the weapon exists, and the entangled condition A. sucks, B. is easily removed, and C. is granted by nets as well (but they're tough to escape from, so the EWP is warranted). The handaxe buff is cause handaxes historically were used to disarm shields (and they should be better anyways). The pick buff is just cause why can a pick (a tool used for breaking through stone) be unable to break other stuff? :smallconfused: The spiked shield buff was just something nice I thought of. Spiked shields are already pretty good though, so I didn't want to give them too much.
Note: this is NOT ABOUT REALISM. This is about badassery and having a good time. I try to keep it reasonably realistic, but in the end, if you want realism, I suggest that you play a different game (GURPS can be quite good at times, and there are other excellent games for such things).
Simple Weapon Mastery [Fighter]
You have trained with your favored category of weapons, and learned the secrets behind a few clever tricks.
Prerequisites: Proficient with all simple weapons
Benefits: You gain the following abilities with the indicated simple weapons:
You may use a spear in one hand.
You may use a quarterstaff to disarm enemies, gaining a +2 to your disarm checks (including the roll to avoid being disarmed if your attempt fails).
You may reload a sling as a free action.
Light and heavy crossbows may be used as clubs (hitting someone with the butt of the crossbow).
Normal: The indicated weapons can't do any of the above.
Martial Weapon Mastery [Fighter]
You have trained with your favored category of weapons, and learned the secrets behind a few clever tricks.
Prerequisites: Proficient with all martial weapons.
Benefits:You gain the following abilities with the indicated martial weapons:
You can use tridents to entangle a creature. On a successful hit with a trident, you may release it, entangling the target until they take a standard action to remove the trident (dealing themselves the trident's base damage).
You may use handaxes in a grapple without penalty. Additionally, handaxes provide you with a +2 bonus to disarm opponents of shields (but you do not gain this bonus to resist being disarmed, or at any other time).
You can use picks for sunder attempts, and gain a +2 bonus when doing so (light picks ignore the -4 penalty for being light weapons).
You may use spiked shields while in a grapple.
Normal: The indicated weapons can't do any of the above.
Designer Notes:
The simple mastery feat is the clearer one. All of it is reasonable. The spear buff permits the hoplite character to matter, and the others are all inoffensive. In fact, the feat may not be good enough, but I couldn't think of anything else to add! :smalleek:
The martial mastery feat is a bit fuzzier. The trident buff is so people actually remember the weapon exists, and the entangled condition A. sucks, B. is easily removed, and C. is granted by nets as well (but they're tough to escape from, so the EWP is warranted). The handaxe buff is cause handaxes historically were used to disarm shields (and they should be better anyways). The pick buff is just cause why can a pick (a tool used for breaking through stone) be unable to break other stuff? :smallconfused: The spiked shield buff was just something nice I thought of. Spiked shields are already pretty good though, so I didn't want to give them too much.