Best One Handed Melee Weapon?

[Yogibear41]

What is the best one handed melee weapon in your opinion and why? Doesn't matter if its simple, martial, or exotic. Looking for weapons that could possibly make using a one-hander and a shield worthwhile and seeing if anything beats the ole bastard sword for effectiveness, or maybe even some sort of utility one hander with some nice special abilities tacked on for when sheer damage output isn't what you are looking for.

[Sian]

Spinning Sword from Secrets of Sarlona is certainly a contender ... Damagewise it might not be anything to cheer about, but it's basicly a onehanded Spiked Chain with Reach that also threatens close :)

[Grayson01]

Warmace D12 Damage -2 AC midigated by the Tower Sheild. probably not worth the feat tax though.

[Sayt]

Pathfinder's Falcata is pretty good, 1d8 dmg, 19-20/x3 crit threat/ratio.

[TuggyNE]

It's hard to argue against the sheer efficiency of a morningstar. Core, 1d8 bludgeoning and piercing simple weapon. Done.

[Leon]

It's hard to argue against the sheer efficiency of a morningstar. Core, 1d8 bludgeoning and piercing simple weapon. Done.

Quoted for Truth

[some guy]

The flail for trip and disarm (even though the heavy flail is better in the disarm aspect).
The dwarven waraxe or bastard sword because an Exotic Weapon Master may treat those weapons as two-handed for "purposes of determining his bonus on damage rolls".

[Seharvepernfan]

The flail for tripping and disarming, the trident for versatility (decent damage, can be thrown, can be set against a charge), the warhammer for damage (1d8, x3, B). The whip can be very useful for the right build, but I think it's actually treated as a ranged weapon.

[Xefas]

A solid gold bastard sword does 2d8 damage and grants a +4 circumstance bonus to your swagger. You just need to take Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Heavy Bastard Swords) instead of Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Bastard Swords).

*Gold weapons in Magic of Faerun.

[OldTrees1]

It's hard to argue against the sheer efficiency of a morningstar. Core, 1d8 bludgeoning and piercing simple weapon. Done.

And it can nauseate (Three Mountain is one of the decent Weapon Style feats)

[Fax Celestis]

Kusari-gama is basically a one-handed spiked chain.

Dragonsplits are one-handed double weapons (:smallconfused:)

Hand crossbows are always good, especially paired with Hand Crossbow Focus and Versatile Combatant (DotU).

Levels in Cavestalker (DotU) let you wield spiked chains as one-handed weapons and get neat tricks with them. Seriously underrated PrC: not Incantatrix level of badass, but seriously pretty awesome.

[Xefas]

Dragonsplits are one-handed double weapons (:smallconfused:)


As great as it would be to have stats for warglaives, unfortunately, the MMIV text says:


Dragonsplits are not double weapons. Instead, a wielder chooses to use either the piercing edge for a greater critical threat range or the slashing edge for a devastating (but rarer) quadruple-damage critical.

[herrhauptmann]

Longsword.

Iconic, and if doing random loot, I believe they're the most common melee weapon.

[Fax Celestis]

As great as it would be to have stats for warglaives, unfortunately, the MMIV text says:

Even still, it's either a 18-20/x or a 20/x4, and it's a one-handed weapon that counts as a light weapon for TWF, so you can power attack and TWF at the same time.