Three Swords

[Blueiji]

One of my player wishes his new character for an upcoming campaign to wield three swords; one in each and, and a third in his mouth. I think he got the idea from a manga, but I'm not sure which one in particular.

I initially assumed that wielding a sword in one's mouth would be impossible in 3.5e, but I decided to bring the question here, as I'm not as versed in the sourcebook as many of you here.

So, short of some sort of re-fluffing (such as calling a bite attack a third sword), is there any way to wield a sword in one's mouth in D&D 3.5e while also carrying a sword in each hand?

[Starbuck_II]

One of my player wishes his new character for an upcoming campaign to wield three swords; one in each and, and a third in his mouth. I think he got the idea from a manga, but I'm not sure which one in particular.

One piece has Ronolo Zolo, a pirate hunter who wields exactly like that.


I initially assumed that wielding a sword in one's mouth would be impossible in 3.5e, but I decided to bring the question here, as I'm not as versed in the sourcebook as many of you here.

So, short of some sort of re-fluffing (such as calling a bite attack a third sword), is there any way to wield a sword in one's mouth in D&D 3.5e while also carrying a sword in each hand?

Well, Mouth Pick is an official weapon in Savage Species that is wielded in the mouth. But he'd have to reflavor the pick as a sword.

[Edge of Dreams]

I've never heard of a way to do that.

Thri-kreen are a playable race from Complete Psionic that have four arms, if all he wants is to be wielding more than two swords. They also might be a starting point for figuring out what kind of drawbacks, costs, or power level would be associated with having a homebrewed race/class/feat that allows wielding weapons with your mouth, as it would be comparable to the value of having a third arm.

[LanSlyde]

One of my player wishes his new character for an upcoming campaign to wield three swords; one in each and, and a third in his mouth. I think he got the idea from a manga, but I'm not sure which one in particular.

I initially assumed that wielding a sword in one's mouth would be impossible in 3.5e, but I decided to bring the question here, as I'm not as versed in the sourcebook as many of you here.

So, short of some sort of re-fluffing (such as calling a bite attack a third sword), is there any way to wield a sword in one's mouth in D&D 3.5e while also carrying a sword in each hand?

If he can acquire a bite attack (Eberron Shifter?) the Mouthpick enchantment from Lords of madness would allow him to wield a weapon in his mouth and make iterative attacks with it. That said, the multiweapon fighting rules don't really take this sort of thing into account so you might have to tweak them somewhat for it to work.

[Pyromancer999]

I believe the inspiration is drawn from Roronoa Zoro from One Piece (http://onepiece.wikia.com/wiki/Roronoa_Zoro).

As for what to do about it, you could extend two-weapon fighting by adding penalties for the mouth-weapon, require a feat to do so, or both. Also, re-fluffing a bite attack could work, although you should require him to take an action to "draw" the weapon in his mouth.

That's all I can really think of for now.

Edit: Wow. Swordsage'd. I suppose allowing him to affect the third sword with the Mouthpick enhancement mentioned in exchange for something could work.

[Alabenson]

There's also the Mouthpick Weapon special ability from Lord's of Madness.
By RAW he would need a bite attack to wield it, but you could waive that if you wished.

[Sacrieur]

Sure there is, with homebrew. It's santoryu (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1073539&postcount=10).

It won't break your game or anything (it's a pretty worthless feat to take).

[pres_man]

Three swords. Oh. I thought you meant something like this:
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q261/pres_man/swordandsorcerer.jpg

[Hiro Protagonest]

One piece has Ronolo Zolo, a pirate hunter who wields exactly like that.

...

Alright, I've seen Zolo, but Ronolo? What translation are you reading?

[Piggy Knowles]

It has been mentioned by a couple of people, but again, the mouthpick weapon property from Lords of Madness can be applied to a melee weapon so that you can wield it with your mouth.

As has been said, you need a bite attack to use a mouthpick weapon. But there are a lot of ways to pick one up, including...


the Deformity (Teeth) feat (requires the Willing Deformity feat, must be evil)
the Jaws of Death feat (must be a warforged)
being a darfellan, longtooth shifter or kobold
the Hunger domain (requires a way of picking up a domain granted ability, such as being a cleric or a 5th-level wizard)


Those are just the first things that came to mind - I'm sure there are myriad items and prestige classes that can get you a bite attack with minimal investment, and totemists have more ways of gaining bite attacks than you could possibly have need for.

I'd suggest a one-level dip in cloistered cleric, personally. Take the Hunger and Travel domains, and trade out all but the Hunger domain for Travel Devotion and Knowledge Devotion. Knowledge Devotion is a guaranteed +1 to attack and damage with minimal skill investment, so it more than makes up for your slight hit to BAB (especially because it can easily be +3 to each attack with a decent roll). Hunger domain gives you a secondary bite attack, which you can use to wield a mouthpick sword. Travel Devotion lets you move your speed as a swift action each round, which is huge for any melee character - it puts pounce to shame.

[Blueiji]

Thanks, you've all been very helpful and I'll let my player know of all these options.

[Invader]

Allow him to wield any weapon he wants from his mouth and then, the first time he hits anything with it have it smash all the teeth out of his head and then admonish him for dumb ideas :smallamused:

[Hiro Protagonest]

Allow him to wield any weapon he wants from his mouth and then, the first time he hits anything with it have it smash all the teeth out of his head and then admonish him for dumb ideas :smallamused:

Ahh, the "don't tell player he can't, but apply realism so that he can't" idea. Worst one ever.

[Gavinfoxx]

I would say, 'you need to be overtly superhuman to do this and have it work. Have some supernatural feat or something, and be higher than 6th level.'

[Sacrieur]

In D&D realism doesn't seem to apply. For instance, so long as you keep leveling up, your strength score can easily go to superhuman levels, you can take massive falls and not have your bones break, and have a level of dexterity unmatched by any Olympic human.

I don't think it's too far to say it's not possible, at least in the D&D world. And besides, it is a feat. If you think it does need another feat to it, make some "iron jaw" feat and use that as an additional prerequisite.

Zoro has been basically training nonstop since he was a kid and it took him well over a decade just to manage santoryu effectively enough to fight. Of course, in one piece human limits are pushed to DBZ levels (at least for humans).

But, as I said, it's a worthless skill to have. The point of having more attacks is so you can deal more damage. You have -6 to hit, it's unlikely you're going to deal much damage with some d6 short sword, and worse, have thrown away a feat that would have actually been useful.

[Gavinfoxx]

I'd also tell the palyer, "If you want to be awesome in combat, then trust me, don't do this. The system hates that you have this idea, and punishes you severely for even thinking of having a combat style like this."

[Flickerdart]

There's also the Mouthpick Weapon special ability from Lord's of Madness.
By RAW he would need a bite attack to wield it, but you could waive that if you wished.
There's a couple of feats and spells that grant bite attacks, so they're not even that hard to get.

[Sacrieur]

Yeah, it takes a massive power addition like ToB just to make martial characters playable (that or a munchkin).