Crusader shield and kusari-gama

[Tvtyrant]

I really like the Shield Counter maneuver that the Crusader gets. The ability to effectively force a miss is awesome, but sword and board sucks in general. I was thinking of going Kusari-gama and a heavy metal shield, to allow me to still use lock and crackdown abilities with reach while being able to shield bash.

My big worry is that the damage output will be lowered significantly, because you cannot two handed wield a kusari-gama to get 1.5 strength to damage.

[Draz74]

I like shield/kusari-gama on Crusaders. As far as the damage issue goes ... Meh, there are plenty of other ways of getting damage bonuses. You'd have to be pretty dang strong before you're going to notice the difference between 1x STR and 1.5x STR when you're tossing out a Divine Surge for +8d8 damage.

[Greenish]

You could pick up the spinning sword instead of kusara-gama. It doesn't allow tripping, but it is an one-handed weapon instead of light.

Now that you have one-handed exotic weapon, you take a dip into Exotic Weapon Master, pick Uncanny Blow, and get 2:1 PA returns on your one-hander.