Situational Advice

[olejars]

There's a group of three of us that are consistent players in the group I'm apart of. Because of this the person that's dming next is really talking with us as to what we want to do. Keep in mind we dont really powergame, we'd rather go for fluff with a character than crunch.

We've decided that I will play a unspecialized human wizard and the other player will be a dragonmarked human scout Ranger1/Scout4 under house Orien. We're essentialy going to be sent to start up a community for the house along a trade route, at least thats what was said.

Feats are as follows:
1:Weapon Finesse
B(Human):Two Weapon Fighting
3:Least Dragon Mark Feat (was EWP:Spiked Chain until DM wanted one of us to take it for story purposes)
B (Scout): Swift Hunter

The issue I'm having is that not being a strong melee combatant, this player wanted to go with a spiked chain for the ranger/scout to better keep people away and threaten more area. The DM made a comment about it being a horrible wilderness weapon because it needs wide open spaces to be useful. (Obviuosly not saying you cant use it, just cautioning against it)

I don't see how a weapon that can be used to attack adjacent targets, as well as those ten feet away, would be hindered in anything but really tight spaces such as a narrow passage or short ceiling.

Am I just being too relaxed on interpretation or is it more the DM being nitpicky. Thoughts?

[Toliudar]

Clearly, you've got a different mental image of how the weapon is used than the DM does - perhaps he's envisioning a lot of wild overhead swinging, and you're picturing something a lot more controlled. D&D combat doesn't really get into these kinds of specifics.

I'd suggest the player and DM chatting about how the DM might see the weapon penalized in close quarters, in terms of game mechanics. Confirm that other weapons - perhaps all reach weapons, for example - would have the same kinds of penalties. Then the player can make an informed decision about whether to stick with the spiked chain.

[Telonius]

Yeah, this sounds like the DM has some houserules he has in mind. If I were you, I'd try to clear up exactly what they are before you start. Some DMs have a beef against Spiked Chain as an inherently silly weapon (i.e. in actual real-world use you'd brain yourself each time you swung it), and that might be part of the reaction. But yeah, try and get from him what (if any) mechanical penalties there are going to be, before continuing with the build. If they're severe enough you might want to re-assess the plan.

[rot42]

Depending on how that discussion goes, you might be interested in the Short Haft feat from PHB II. It lets you use your guisarm as a reach *or* non-reach weapon each round.