Pimping Disarm

[Skjaldbakka]

I'm looking for ways to be better at disarm. If it helps, specifically disarming swords, but I doubt that is relevant. I'm playing a dragon in an upcoming game, and the thing he collects are swords, so I plan to be very proactive about acquiring them, even in combat.

Obviously Improved Disarm for this, but are there other feats to boost that further? Or magic items?

[Darrin]

I'm looking for ways to be better at disarm. If it helps, specifically disarming swords, but I doubt that is relevant. I'm playing a dragon in an upcoming game, and the thing he collects are swords, so I plan to be very proactive about acquiring them, even in combat.

Obviously Improved Disarm for this, but are there other feats to boost that further? Or magic items?

Get a Flindbar (MMIII p. 62). One-handed exotic weapon, 2d4 damage, crit 19-20/x2. +2 on disarms, and you get a free disarm attempt whenever you threaten a critical. Add the Keen property for a 20% chance to disarm on every attack. Wield it two-handed for a +4 on disarm checks (and Power Attack multipliers). Consider adding the Pitspawned template (+1000 GP, DMGII p. 278) for a +2 bonus to confirm crits.

Helm of Battle (2000 GP, MIC p. 111). 3/day +2 on next attack, ability check, bull rush, disarm, overrun, sunder, or trip attempt.

Strongarm Bracers (6000 GP, MIC p. 139). Wield a large-sized flindbar, damage goes up to 2d6. Add the Heavy Weapon property (+7000 GP, Magic of Faerun p. 179) to increase 2d6 -> 2d8. Add size increases and/or Greater Mighty Wallop for more damage.

Glove of the Master Strategist (3600 GP, Ghostwalk p. 71). Works as a Glove of Storing, allowing you to swap out whatever is in your hand (such as the flindbar) as a free action. Useful for the Snatch Weapon feat (see below) if you need to get both hands free to grab something big.

Phylactery of Change (11200 GP, A&EG p. 135). All-day polymorph up to 7HD, to get access to really big creatures with high Str (oh, if only the Remorhaz had hands...). Treants aren't bad for core, but Ormyrr (MMII) is ideal.

Feats:

Jotunbrud (Races of Faerun). Regional feat, human-only. Sorta a nerfed version of Powerful Build, you get to treat yourself as Large-sized on opposed checks where size matters, which includes disarm.

Cobalt Expertise (Magic of Incarnum). +1 insight bonus on attack rolls, skill checks, or ability checks when attempting to make disarm/feint/trip attempts. Also +1 AC bonus/essentia when using Combat Expertise. Unless you have essentia you're not using elsewhere, not really worth it.

Snatch Weapon (Song & Silence). This isn't a very good feat, and mechanics-wise it has some issues (off-hand penalty?), but it's extremely satisfying to get a free attack against an opponent with his own weapon.

To get this to work, you need a free hand (if you're wielding the flindbar two-handed, you can take one hand off as a free action and thus catch your opponent's weapon), and presumably you have to hope your opponent is wielding a light weapon. Otherwise, your off-hand attack has a:

-10 penalty (no TWF, non-light weapon)
-8 penalty (no TWF, light weapon)
-4 penalty (yes TWF, non-light weapon)
or -2 penalty (yes TWF, light weapon).

I'm assuming the feat allows you to still make the off-hand attack even if you aren't full attacking, but if you are full-attacking, ask your DM how he wants to handle the off-hand TWF penalty if you haven't already factored it into your attacks for that round (my best guess would be to give the rest of your attacks that round a -2 TWF penalty, and politely ignore the fact that your previous attacks may not have had that penalty.)

You can mitigate some of this with the right magic items: Strongarm Bracers let you treat medium-sized one-handed weapons as light weapons, and medium-sized two-handed weapons as one-handed weapons (although you may incur a size penalty). Gloves of the Balanced Hand (8000 GP, MIC p. 105) gives you the TWF feat or Improved TWF. If you've got feats to burn, consider adding Oversize TWF (Complete Adventurer) to treat one-handed weapons as light weapons. Since you're most likely two-handing the flindbar, you *can* add TWF on your own, use armor spikes/netcutter spikes as your off-hand weapon, and take one hand off of the flindbar to use Snatch Weapon as an alternate off-hand attack (drop your opponent's weapon and re-grip the flindbar are also free actions).

Other than that, get bigger. Check Person_Man's guide for increasing size.

[Person_Man]

Any Stun effect also makes enemies drop everything they're holding.

Also, is there a reason you need to Disarm the sword, and not just kill the person who's holding it? Because that would be easier.

[HunterOfJello]

Don't forget to buy a Locked Gauntlet. If you somehow happen to fail to disarm an opponent, they get a chance to try and disarm you. The Locked Gauntlet gives you a +10 vs. being disarmed.

Best Martial Weapon for the job would be a Heavy Flail. The Best Exotic Weapons would be a large sized Flindbar (for auto disarms) or a Spiked Chain (since it's can do lots of other stuff too).

~

Also, you might as well grab Improved Trip so you can trip someone up, steal with weapon and then kill them while they're at the height of their humiliation.

[Ernir]

Have to echo Person_Man, here. The best way to disarm someone is to pry the weapon from their cold, dead hands.

[The Gilded Duke]

My favorite disarm method:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/po...eticThrust.htm
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/telekinesis.htm

Disarm up to 15 separate weapons in a standard action and chuck them all at one of your foes. Will save to resist, but against the right sort of enemies, it will be hard for them to hit it.