Wielding the Biggest Weapon

[Drelua]

Looking for ways to build a character that can use an absurdly giant weapon, and ways to mitigate some of the impracticalities. I've seen similar threads, but they seem to overlook my favourite weapon. Here's what I have so far.

Sunblade. It's the size of a bastard sword, and can be wielded like a short sword. So a medium character should be able to use one made for a huge character as a two-handed weapon at a -4 penalty. Bastard swords can easily be 4 feet long including the handle, so 4 * 2 * 2 is 16 feet. Or, play a halfling so you can fit your weapon in more places, and still be the same size relative to it.

Titan Fighter 1/Titan Mauler 3. Both use similar wording,
can use two-handed weapons meant for creatures one size category larger so I'm not sure these archetypes help except to reduce the penalties. A gargantuan creature's light weapon can be used as a two-handed weapon by a large creature, but it isn't quite a "two-handed weapon meant for" a large creature. Would you allow this ability to work for a medium creature trying to use a gargantuan light weapon? If so, that's a 32' sword.

And for ways to mitigate the penalties, you can tie on an effortless lace to reduce the penalties by 2, and use irongrip gauntlets for another 2. For situations where you're in a narrow corridor or small room and can't possibly swing a telephone pole around, Giant Slayer's Handbook has 2 other magic item options. Unfortunately, resizing isn't helpful for this, as you don't have a choice when picking up the weapon, it automatically changes it to your size. A ring of perfect sizing, on the other hand, doesn't really say how it's activated, so I assume it defaults to a standard action?

The question then is what happens with the 2 size category limit. By the strictest reading, it can't shrink it to your size so it doesn't work. But, with Titan Mauler/Fighter, it's only 2 size categories too big for you to use. Takes a permissive reading, but I don't think it's OP, just very silly. Or, if that doesn't work, just get a wand of resize weapon. Or, if allowed, a custom use-activated magic item, which according to the price estimation guidelines should be 15k. (Spell level 3 * caster level 5 * 2000, divide by 2 because of the 24 hour duration) Though this would be better than a ring of perfect sizing which costs 16k, so maybe it should at least be the same price.

So, a few questions. How much of this would you allow? Are there any weapons that could end up bigger than a Sunblade? Are there any other options I'm missing that would help with this? And, how much damage would this do? The chart in the equipment chapter doesn't go that high, so you'd have to either use the progression for natural weapons, or find a Gargantuan creature with a bastard sword.

Unfortunately, I don't know of much that would give you more reach other than Lunge, so even if you can swing a 32' sword around, you somehow can't hit someone from 10' away with it.

Thanks for reading, hope you're having a good weekend!:smallsmile:

[exelsisxax]

So some of this does not work. A sunblade is a shortsword - a light weapon. Titan mauler and titan fighter explicitly cannot work with it, as they only enable oversized two-handed weapons (for the relevant thing you're trying to use). The penalty reduction parts would work. Secondarily, each explicitly states one size larger than you are, so they don't do anything for size+2 weapons anyway.

Shortswords, being light weapons, don't benefit in any way from effortless lace. The oversized penalty reduction only applies to one-handed weapons. To get rid of the remaining -2 penalty you'll need titan X, as i'm unaware of anything that can complement the irongrip gauntlets.

Helpfully for you, there's no rules limiting how you may be able to use a huge-sized sunblade, as per RAW you can indeed swing around a telephone pole in a 5' room without penalty. A GM that lets you do the rest of this nonsense is going to let you use it though.

[Drelua]

Interesting, thanks for the feedback. I think I disagree with one bit though.
So some of this does not work. A sunblade is a shortsword - a light weapon. Titan mauler and titan fighter explicitly cannot work with it, as they only enable oversized two-handed weapons (for the relevant thing you're trying to use). The penalty reduction parts would work. Secondarily, each explicitly states one size larger than you are, so they don't do anything for size+2 weapons anyway.

Shortswords, being light weapons, don't benefit in any way from effortless lace. The oversized penalty reduction only applies to one-handed weapons. To get rid of the remaining -2 penalty you'll need titan X, as i'm unaware of anything that can complement the irongrip gauntlets.

I'm not sure a Sunblade is a shortsword. Here are some relevant quotes from the item description:

This sword is the size of a bastard sword... sun Blade is wielded as if it were a short sword... the wielder feels and reacts as if the weapon were a short sword...In normal combat, the glowing golden Blade of the weapon is equal to a +2 bastard swordMore than once it says "as if it were a short sword," which to me says that it isn't. Then it says "the weapon is equal to a +2 bastard sword." My takeaway from this text is that it's more accurate to say it's a bastard sword than can be used as if it were a short sword, than a short sword than does bastard sword damage. So I think the effortless lace would work.

I thought that by RAW Titan Mauler/Fighter doesn't let you use a weapon more than 1 size too big, guess we can scrap the archetypes. You can still get colossal weapon damage with enlarge person and impact or lead blades though, so good enough I guess!


Helpfully for you, there's no rules limiting how you may be able to use a huge-sized sunblade, as per RAW you can indeed swing around a telephone pole in a 5' room without penalty. A GM that lets you do the rest of this nonsense is going to let you use it though.

This is true, though I can't imagine any GM allowing you to fit a 30' object in a 10 x 10 room. That's just telling your GM you do something physically impossible, they'll certainly say no. I'm not sure there's a rule saying I can't walk through a solid wall either. Though swinging it in a hallway is a bit more of a rules grey area, since it's at least possible to bring it in there.

Anyway, looks like we're stuck with only a huge Sunblade. Or play a halfling with a large Sunblade, and you can take that anywhere no problem.