Exotic or Martial?

[RndmNumGen]

I'm toying around with the idea of having a mechanical glaive with a lever built into the handle; when pulled, the blade rotates and the weapon turns into a scythe. This sounds somewhat like an exotic weapon to me, but exotic weapons generally require specialized training to use effectively; how much training is needed to pull a lever? Both the scythe and the glaive are martial, and the only real advantage this weapon confers over either of them is the ability to switch from a reach to a melee weapon fairly easily(which admittedly is fairly powerful, though not nearly on par with the spiked chain).

[Lhurgyof]

Perhaps operating it in the middle of combat is a little awkward.

Something like: Either having the quickdraw feat or exotic wep. prof. is enough to let you switch as a swift action. Otherwise, it's a movement action.

[Veyr]

If I'm burning a feat on that, I'd want it as a Free Action.

But doing it as a Move (including being able to switch while moving a la drawing a weapon) without a feat seems reasonable.

[dgnslyr]

Well, I guess it depends on how long it takes to pull the lever. Maybe you can pull the lever as an Attack of Opportunity-provoking move action? I'd say that should be reasonable.

The only reason it might be exotic if it's a free, non-provoking action to switch, and the weapon itself is unusually cumbersome for a glaive or scythe. It actually sounds pretty fun.

What kind of character is going to use it? A gnome comes to mind, or maybe a dwarf, considering both tend to have mechanical aptitude, though gnomes more so than dwarves. Of course, it could just be a zany human. Seriously, humans are crazy enough to do just anything. I mean, half-trolls, half-ogres, half-golems...

[Lhurgyof]

half-golems...



:eek:

Easter Egg!

[dgnslyr]

Well, they're more like evil fantasy cyborgs than, you know, actual offspring, but knowing humanity, you never know. Anyways, let's not get off-topic with brain-searing imagery, shall we? :smallwink:

[RndmNumGen]

Hmm... So maybe something like the Bastard Sword, only instead of one-handed vs two-handed it's move action to switch vs free action? That seems fair.

I was going to have it be crafted by gnomes, but used by a human mercenary.