Specific weapons for specific characters

[Mikalo]

I've always been fascinated about this kind of trope, where the characters wield not a type of weapon but a very specific one (like almost every final fantasy and anime character)
I always had some kind of special weapons with specials enhancements on them for my characters. My psion had a knife with a living human eye on the blade near the hilt, my warblade had a cricket bat shaped one handed sword too heavy to be wielded by anyone but her or people with her strenght (she had a +9 if I remember correctly) my loli tibbit (savage technologist/bard/unarmed swordsage) could do well just with punching things but she had a steampunky pistol-sword cane hidden inside the flute, we called it the "Weabooz" for obvious reasons.
I'm not a huge anime fan (I love stuff like Cowboy Bebop, GTO, Trigun though) but I always had this habit to create specific gear for chacters with a strong personality or look.
Am I the only one?
Name one of the unusual weapons your character is wielding or you want to have!

[mauk2]

Am I the only one?


Oh, heavens no, I love that sort of stuff. :)

I'm a big fan of 'family heirloom' weapons and gear that grows with your character as you level, and it should be cool and distinctive and fun.

Sounds like you have the same notion going on! You are not alone!

[PraxisVetli]

All of my characters have one weapon they use exclusively.
The most iconic was Rain, my monk with her kusari kama and chakram combo.
I also had a gnome ranger with an Atlatl. That was fun.

[KillianHawkeye]

The claim that "almost every" Final Fantasy character uses a specific weapon rather than a type (or types) of weapons is objectively false. The only examples I can think of are NPCs, like Sephiroth and his Masamune.

Finding new weapons and other equipment is a staple of the genre. While I haven't played either of the MMO Final Fantasies, I can't imagine they would remove finding or buying of equipment.

[Mikalo]

@mauk2: In my group we always take the final fantasy route if someone specify he/she wants to play with a specific weapon. Example: my tibbit started with a flute, it was fun playing the flute while kicking stuff in the meantime, she then modified it to be a secret sword cane, she then found a pistol sword cane and replaced it with the old sword, then she put a revolver instead of the pistol (this is homebrew though but it wasn't so insane to receive a no from the master). What I had at the end of the quest was a magic revolver sword cane inside a flute. We tend to improve what we have following our style or desires

@PraxisVetli: No no no I don't mean "strange and exotic weapons on strange and exotic characters" but unique weapons you or your master personally created or you just want to have. A chakram or atlatl aren't so special per se but a chakram fused with a chainsaw? Yesh it is! Hooray for mad science!

[Kelb_Panthera]

I occasionally run warrior types with a special relationship wth their weapon; supremacy fighter, kensai, etc. Outside of those, most of my warriors will send their weapon off to the artificer for upgrades rather than buying a new one at every down-time shopping session unless the DM is houseruling WBL and settlement GP limits.

If the weapon isn't the character's primary method of interacting with the world around him, though, I don't usually worry about it.

[bahamut920]

I've always been fascinated about this kind of troop, where the characters wield not a type of weapon but a very specific one (like almost every final fantasy and anime character)
I always had some kind of special weapons with specials enhancements on them for my characters. My psion had a knife with a living human eye on the blade near the hilt, my warblade had a cricket bat shaped one handed sword too heavy to be wielded by anyone but her or people with her strenght (she had a +9 if I remember correctly) my loli tibbit (savage technologist/bard/unarmed swordsage) could do well just with punching things but she had a steampunky pistol-sword cane hidden inside the flute, we called it the "Weabooz" for obvious reasons.
I'm not a huge anime fan (I love stuff like Cowboy Bebop, GTO, Trigun though) but I always had this habit to create specific gear for chacters with a strong personality or look.
Am I the only one?
Name one of the unusual weapons your character is wielding or you want to have!
Sounds like you want Weapons of Legacy for your characters. Although I recommend putting your head together with your DM to make one, because most of the WotC ones are garbage, IIRC. It's not something I've personally done, at least not pre-epic, but one of the other players at my RL gaming table has the Blade of the Last Citadel, a weapon from the Tome of Battle that improves with its user.

Most of my weapon-using characters (I do admittedly play a lot of casters) focus on one type of weapon, and due to the fact that our DM allows us to upgrade magical weapons rather than buying new ones, they frequently end up technically using the same weapon for a while, but they (and I) rarely form attachments to them or expend significant effort coming up with a name or special appearance for them.

That said, I had an epic-level bard/rogue/dragon disciple who used a homebrew dragon-themed artifact sword called the Wyrmfang Sword for maybe half of his adventuring career, and his off-hand weapon was a Sunblade. And my current factotum/chameleon has a homebrew epic weapon called the Chain of the Briar King, a spiked chain formed from the essence of a kyton lord we slew.


The claim that "almost every" Final Fantasy character uses a specific weapon rather than a type (or types) of weapons is objectively false. The only examples I can think of are NPCs, like Sephiroth and his Masamune.

Finding new weapons and other equipment is a staple of the genre. While I haven't played either of the MMO Final Fantasies, I can't imagine they would remove finding or buying of equipment.
Fine, then. Let's go with Secret of Mana, or the Suikoden series of games, where each character has a weapon that they "reforge" to improve.

[Mikalo]

@KillianHawkeye: Squall's gunblade, Lightning's gunblade, Cloud's buster sword, Quistis's whip, Tidus's Brotherhood sword.
I'm sure there are a lot more but nah my statement is not false
I mean my tibbit could drop her flute-gun and go on with her life, she was unarmed focused afterall but in my group she was well know for that weapon. In ff you can buy different stuff too, in final fantasy 12 you can equip everyone with everything but it is hard to imagine Balthier without a gun or Fran without a bow. Do you get what I mean?

[noce]

I'm currently playing an Earth Dwarf Kensai, who is an archeologist. My kensai weapon is, obviously, a Dwarvencraft Dire Pick.
In my party, a warblade managed to kill a murderer with a bounty, smashing his head with a hammer. For that reason, he was then given the title of Lord Hammer and he uses a Maul since then.

[rrwoods]

Seconding a custom Weapon of Legacy; custom penalties that are much less drastic but more personally engaging are especially cool.

[bahamut920]

@KillianHawkeye: Squall's gunblade, Lightning's gunblade, Cloud's buster sword, Quistis's whip, Tidus's Brotherhood sword.
I'm sure there are a lot more but nah my statement is not false
I mean my tibbit could drop her flute-gun and go on with her life, she was unarmed focused afterall but in my group she was well know for that weapon. In ff you can buy different stuff too, in final fantasy 12 you can equip everyone with everything but it is hard to imagine Balthier without a gun or Fran without a bow. Do you get what I mean?
To be fair, the Buster Sword is Cloud's starting weapon, and you've almost certainly replaced it by the time you leave Midgar. Most of his weapons are other BFSs, but the actual Buster Sword sees comparatively little use in the game. Quistis doesn't have any of her weapons particularly associated with her, AFAIK, and you certainly didn't mention a specific weapon beyond "whip"; and characters using a category of weapons but none being associated with them is exactly what Killian was rebutting your statement with. Tidus' Brotherhood is a better example, because with proper upgrades it does remain relevant throughout the game, even if it's not his "ultimate weapon". Squall (and possibly Lightning; I haven't played XIII) is the only "true" example you've given; he's the only one on your list to use a single weapon from beginning to end (IIRC; I forget exactly how FF8's system worked due to not having played it in like 15 years), which gets upgraded instead of replaced.

And he's right; even if the examples you gave (minus Quistis) are all of FF characters who do have an iconic weapon, most don't. There are nine other numbered Final Fantasy titles you haven't mentioned a character from, and it's because they don't have any characters who have a powerfully iconic single weapon associated with them. And don't even bother mentioning that two of them are MMOs, because then I get to bring up the spin-offs, like Tactics and Crystal Chronicles, which further inflates the number against you.

There are plenty of games in which a character either starts with or gains an associated iconic weapon; Final Fantasy is simply a poor example as a series. You could even say that Chrono Trigger has a character like that, in Frog; the Masamune is iconic, associated with him, and while it's not the only weapon he uses throughout the game, it (and its upgraded form) are his most powerful, and used for a significant portion of the game.

[Mikalo]

@bahamut 920: I was just trying to make people understand what I was trying to say, are we so picky to turn this thread over something so meaningless? Who cares if final fantasy characters can buy new weapons, I didn't open the thread to talk about this hahahaha

[DrMotives]

The Suikoden series has every character with a single weapon to use throughout the whole game. You could pay cash at smiths to level up the weapon, which would sometimes change the name to a more epic sounding name, but it was still everyone finished with the same weapon.

[KillianHawkeye]

@bahamut 920: I was just trying to make people understand what I was trying to say, are we so picky to turn this thread over something so meaningless? Who cares if final fantasy characters can buy new weapons, I didn't open the thread to talk about this hahahaha

It's just that using an example which demonstrates the opposite of what you're trying to convey isn't very useful for making people understand you.

But sorry for derailing your thread. :smallredface: