Homebrew weapon: War Anchor

[Erberor]

At the request of one of my questers, I brewed up a new weapon for his character. Inspired by the League of Legends character Nautilus, I give you the War Anchor!

War anchor
two handed exotic weapon
cost: 50 gp
damage: 2d8
critical: x4
weight: 30 lbs
type: piercing or bludgeoning

notes: attacks are at a -1 penalty to hit due to the weight and unwieldiness of the War Anchor

I'd like to ask two things:
first, is this weapon balanced? I made it an exotic weapon, but I fear that the damage dice combined with the x4 crit might make it a tad powerful. If it isn't powerful, then is the -1 to hit justified? I'm only a first-time DM, but I take game balance fairly seriously.

second, should this weapon be a reach weapon? I've been wondering about this for a while, and while it isn't a major concern, it's been bugging me.

Any feedback is greatly apprieciated

[TheFamilarRaven]

I'm just gonna spout some thoughts out loud here then form a gernal consensus at the end, if you don't mind.

As far as my knowledge goes. the Scythe is the only weapon that has x4 crit, and that's 2d4 damage.

2d8 damage is equivalent to a large bastard sword. Which means a large war anchor is 3d8, then 4d8 etc ...

So monkey grip combined with enlarged person is a 4d8 +1.5STRmod weapon with a x4 crit.

Granted, it only crits on a 20 and that a -4 to attack, which in my experience is easily mitigated by bless, weapon focus, STR mod and bard effects.

Exotic weapons have to have some kind of schtik to make them worth taking the feat to get them. Warmaces, for example, are the only 1d12 one handed weapons, that come at a cost of -1 ac and only has a x2 crit.

this weapons schitk is that is does LOT of damage.
So I would keep the damage at 2d8, make it a x3 crit to avoid fight ending crits and have it -1 to AC, rather than attack.

[RoyVG]

As far as my knowledge goes. the Scythe is the only weapon that has x4 crit, and that's 2d4 damage.

I can find 3 others in Arms and Equipment Guide (so they might not be relevant. Technically it's 3.0, but technically also never upgraded to 3.5)

-Lucerne Hammer, x4 crit, 2d4 damage, Large, Reach, martial 2H weapon
-Gnome Battle Pick, x4 Crit, 1d6, Small, exotic 1H weapon
-Mercurial Longsword, x4 Crit, 1d8 Damage, Medium, exotic 1H weapon
-Mercurial Greatsword, x4 Crit, 2d6 damage, Medium, exotic 2H weapon.

Otherwise there is the Goliath Greathammer in Races of Stone (which is 3.5), 1d12 damage, x4 Crit and +2 to sunder the opponents weapon

as well as piercing and slashin weapons made out of Kaorti Resin (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031014a)


So monkey grip combined with enlarged person is a 4d8 +1.5STRmod weapon with a x4 crit.

Granted, it only crits on a 20 and that a -4 to attack, which in my experience is easily mitigated by bless, weapon focus, STR mod and bard effects.

Or play a race with Powerful Build like Goliath, and laugh at the -4 to attack.


Exotic weapons have to have some kind of schtik to make them worth taking the feat to get them. Warmaces, for example, are the only 1d12 one handed weapons, that come at a cost of -1 ac and only has a x2 crit.

this weapons schitk is that is does LOT of damage.
So I would keep the damage at 2d8, make it a x3 crit to avoid fight ending crits and have it -1 to AC, rather than attack.

If you want an example of a Schtik weapon, look no furhter than the Spiked Chain. A Spiked Chain can hit at 5' AND 10' (which is special as most weapons have either one, but almost never both), can be used to Disarm (with +2 bonus), can be used to trip, is Finessable, and it still has a 2d4. Only a x2 crit, but that is not what you use if for, do you?

I think this weapon is pretty good, looking at comparable exotic weapons. The -1 to attack traded for an average +1 to damage is decent but never game breaking. early on the player that uses it will hit 5% of te time less, but will deal something like 10% more damage. At higher levels, both these numbers will decrease, until they are irrelevant.

[Erberor]

Hey, thanks for the feedback.

I originally chose the x4 crit because I figured the crit behavior should be similar to war picks, which are similar in shape if much smaller and less awesome. THough I have to say that when he gets a crit, everything changes. I distinctly remember a dire wolf incident...He crit the thing for 60 or so damage at level 2. Then he took the wolf head back to the village and used it during his epic war speech. (*holds up wolf head* "We will end this wolf menace!")

The extra damage had a fair deal to do with the weight, and how the weapon is swung. More than half that weight is in the end that is swinging in a massive arc, so it seemed appropriate to have that high damage.

[TheFamilarRaven]

Hey, thanks for the feedback.

I originally chose the x4 crit because I figured the crit behavior should be similar to war picks, which are similar in shape if much smaller and less awesome. THough I have to say that when he gets a crit, everything changes. I distinctly remember a dire wolf incident...He crit the thing for 60 or so damage at level 2. Then he took the wolf head back to the village and used it during his epic war speech. (*holds up wolf head* "We will end this wolf menace!")

The extra damage had a fair deal to do with the weight, and how the weapon is swung. More than half that weight is in the end that is swinging in a massive arc, so it seemed appropriate to have that high damage.

Fair assessments. But remember, DnD is a game, so you have to draw a line with the 'realism" of weapon damage. Because if I stab someone with a dagger, they're proabably just as dead as if I stabbed them with a longsword.

That being said, it's my general guideline when making weapons to never make a weapon have a higher crit multiplier than x3, if it does more damage than a greataxe. (Barring the murcurial greatsword)

[Averis Vol]

So, I like nautilus personally, he's one of the few junglers I don't blow with, so to help a bit in hopes that this will get used, How about something like:

War Anchor
Exotic weapon
50GP
30 LBS
3d6 Dmg.
Bludgeoning
x3 crit
-1 to hit
Special: As a full round action the War Anchor can be thrown at a range of 30 feet. If you hit, and after you deal damage, you may immediately make either a grapple check or a trip attempt with a -2 to whichever you choose. If the grapple check succeeds you may choose to pull them forward five feet. After thrown, the war anchor requires a standard action to retrieve.

This all together gives you High damage, devastating crits should they be rolled and Dredge line as a special ability. the downsides are the lowered crit range (Quite frankly because it was unnecessary; crits from this thing are already going to hurt, and if the player wants it higher they can get a Kaorti resin War Anchor), the singular damage type as an anchor curves down and is generally not all that sharp and many times are rounded off.

Hope this helps.