Longest reach melee weapons in Pathfinder?

[Ellrin]

I've been away from d20 for a few years (been playing an IKRPG campaign recently), but a guy I know is slowly setting up for a PF campaign in the vaguely foreseeable future. I haven't actually played PF before, though I have a little familiarity with the system beyond having played 3.5 before.

Anyway, I'm toying around with some rough ideas for character concepts right now, and one of the things that's set me to wondering about is whether there are any weapons in the game that provide reach greater than 10' before tacking on feats, spells, and other effects. There's the whip of course, but that's non-lethal and doesn't threaten. Is there anything that can actually threaten at a range of 15+ feet for a medium character (regardless of whether it threatens within that range)? Pretty sure some 3.5 book or other had an exotic spear or pike or something that could reach that far out.

[denthor]

Spiked chain 15 foot reach lethal.

Bows & arrows :smalltongue: in cheek

Everything else I can think of is 10 feet.

For 5 feet I like halberd two hands to wield three times damage on critical and two different types of damage plus trip.

[Stone Heart]

Spiked chain 15 foot reach lethal.


In Pathfinder they have 5 foot reach.

To the best of my knowledge for Pathfinder the only weapons with greater than 10' reach would be the whip and potentially the scorpion whip (there is a lot of argument about how that weapon works). However there are feats which make Whips deal lethal damage (and get by natural armor) as well as threaten for AoO's.

[Ellrin]

In Pathfinder they have 5 foot reach.

To the best of my knowledge for Pathfinder the only weapons with greater than 10' reach would be the whip and potentially the scorpion whip (there is a lot of argument about how that weapon works). However there are feats which make Whips deal lethal damage (and get by natural armor) as well as threaten for AoO's.

I was kinda afraid of that, and it looks like the highest threat range you can get even with those feats is 10' (assuming your normal reach is 5'). Ah, well. Improved Whip Mastery and Prehensile Whip look neat, but I don't think I want to build a character THAT focused on whips just yet. Thanks for the info!

[thecrimsondawn]

This may be a bit outside what you are looking for, but to boost reach, the best way to do that feats aside, would be to become larger then medium. The best way I have found to do that is to just play a summoner, but there are many other ways to go about that.

Here are a few things to look at for plotting your reach build tho. Depending on what your DM will allow content wise, you can get some rather crazy reach.

Lunge feat is a given
Enlarge Person spell or effect as well as Mythic enlarge person if you use mythic rules in your next game.
PoW's Warder class has a serious threat range boost when recovering moves.
PoW's Mithral Current style has a lv1 stance that boosts the range of your first attack by 5ft
PoW's new PrC Landsknecht has some nice built in bonuses for reach.
eidolon evolution's for summoner have a way to boost your reach, as well as your size, and it gets kinda crazy from there. You can also give yourself the ability to use weapons instead of natural attacks, allowing you to use a reach weapon with your already insane reach if you want to go that route.

There are some for ranged attacks too, but its sounding like you are wanting to go melee. Not sure if any of this will help as much of it is path of war, or magic, but it should put you on the right track.

[grarrrg]

and potentially the scorpion whip (there is a lot of argument about how that weapon works).

Not as much argument after they did the FAQ (http://paizo.com/paizo/faq/v5748nruor1g1#v5748eaic9t9r)

"If you are proficient with both scorpion whips and whips, you can use a scorpion whip in either the normal way, as a typical light performance weapon, or as a whip. When you use a scorpion whip as a whip, it is otherwise equivalent to a whip, but it deals lethal damage and can harm creatures regardless of their armor bonus."
...
What this means is that the scorpion whip is normally a light performance weapon with no other special weapon features, but that someone with both proficiencies can also use it as a whip, in which case it acts precisely like a whip in all ways... except that it deals lethal damage and can harm creatures regardless of their armor bonus.
So you need not one, but TWO Exotic Prof's in order to use a Scorpion Whip as a slightly better whip, while losing the Performance and Light qualities.
And honestly, if you are willing to go that far to use a Whip, you are better off skipping Scorpion and just taking the Whip Mastery Line of feats anyway.

[Ellrin]

This may be a bit outside what you are looking for [...]

Yeah, kinda. Thanks for the advice, but what mostly got me interested in finding out was whether there was a weapon that could let a squishy support character provide threat at maximum range to help out flankers while staying out of arm's reach, himself. I'll keep your advice in mind if I try out a reachmancy build at some point, though.

[Second Arrow]

The Sarissa (http://www.archivesofnethys.com/EquipmentWeaponsDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Sarissa) might be what you are looking for - it is a reach weapon that triples your natural reach, but at the expense of only being able to attack a certain area every round (you decide), due to how large and unwieldy it is. It's a martial weapon, so no exotic weapon proficiency needed.

[Tohsaka Rin]

Or take the Aegis (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes/aegis) class for seven levels, and then pick up the Reach customization, and get an extra 5 feet of reach on your character.

The class is fun to play for other reasons, too. It's also stupid-simple to combine it with a Soulknife build, and have a character chock-full of equipment and pseudo-items that can never be taken away.

[Kurald Galain]

...take a one-level dip in Magus and cast the Long Arm spell as part of your first full attack?

[Wolfofmibu66]

An interesting option for ridiculous reach and battlefield control would be the White Haired Witch Archetype http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/witch/archetypes/paizo---witch-archetypes/white-haired-witch. Eventual 30 ft reach, grappling, trips, strangle and constrict...overall nastiness.

[Hamste]

Boarding Pike of Repelling has 20 ft reach for a swift action (I'm working on a build built around this, armor spikes and combat patrol with allies who force the opponent to trigger)