Two Handed Weapon Feat?

[Titanium Fox]

Hey all.

I'm currently rolling a cleric of Zarus. I want her to use her patron diety's weapon, which is the Greatsword. However before I picked out Zarus (due to storyline reasons), I had invisioned a cleric that utilizes a shield. Is there a feat in any of he splash books that allows a character to use a two handed weapon in one hand for a low / for no penalty? I've glanced through a few splash books and sources and haven't spotted anything off hand.

[GodGoblin]

Sadly I dont but would you use a buckler? With improved buckler defence its just as good as a light shield but you cant bash

[Daftendirekt]

Closest I can think of is Monkey Grip, which lets you use a weapon of one size category larger. The example given in-feat is a medium creature using a large-sized longsword in one hand at -2 (instead of having to wield it in two hands, probably with a -4?)

[Titanium Fox]

Monkey Grip is about what I'm looking for, looks like I can't take that till next level though. (Damn medium BaB.) I may just pick up a buckler in the meantime, I have the cash left over. Thanks for the advice guys.

[LordBlades]

Hey all.

I'm currently rolling a cleric of Zarus. I want her to use her patron diety's weapon, which is the Greatsword. However before I picked out Zarus (due to storyline reasons), I had invisioned a cleric that utilizes a shield. Is there a feat in any of he splash books that allows a character to use a two handed weapon in one hand for a low / for no penalty? I've glanced through a few splash books and sources and haven't spotted anything off hand.

You can either use a buckler (and wield the Greatsword two-handed) or pick a race with Powerful Build (or take Monkey Grip if that's not possible) and use a large Longsword in one hand, which is mechanically identical with a Greatsword (2d6 damage, 19-20/x2). Might require slight houseruling if you are gaining your Greatsword prof. from War domain.

[Titanium Fox]

My DM has been pretty strict on this so far, so I doubt I'm going to get away with a Longsword over a Greatsword... I'm probably going to wait till second level and take Monkey Grip. That -2 on a Cleric is going to hurt though. I may be able to get around that with magical items once I get my hands on enough money...

[HunterOfJello]

please DO NOT take monkey grip as a feat. Strongarm bracers are much better and don't cost a feat.


Also, you want to get an Animated Shield. Then you can use a Greatsword while benefiting from a shield at the same time.

[GodGoblin]

Ah no you are misinterperating Monkey grip! It lets you use a weapon one size larger, so that would let you use the Large Longsword in one hand Not a Medium Greatsword in one hand.

Exactly the same mechanically but if your DM is picky like you said it doesnt actually work

[starwoof]

Actually they are interpreting it right, which is weird. Everyone said that using a large longsword one handed would be good if his DM would allow it to 'count as' a greatsword.

This disappoints me as I had my image of Morbo shouting MONKEY GRIP DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY all ready to go.

[Titanium Fox]

Oh, Derp. My bad on that one. XD

Strongarm Bracers seem pretty good for what I'm looking for. However they are gonna be waaay too expensive at 1st/2nd level. Same issue with an Animated Shield unfortunately. I'm sitting on a whopping 1gp, 84sp, and 88cp at the moment after character creation; I seriously doubt we're picking up 5999GP each first session. xD

[GodGoblin]

[QUOTE=starwoof;10417863]Actually they are interpreting it right, which is weird. Everyone said that using a large longsword one handed would be good if his DM would allow it to 'count as' a greatsword.QUOTE]

But his DM wont allow it sadly, so do we know of a way to actually wield a 2 handed weapon in one hand? Not just a larger one handed one?

[hewhosaysfish]

If a Large creature can use a Medium greatsword as if it were a Large longsword (at a -4 wrong-size penalty) and a Medium creature with Monkey Grip can use a Large longsword in 1 hand (with a -2 penalty)...

Could a Medium creature use a Medium-greatsword-being-used-as-if-it-was-a-Large-longsword in one hand with a -(4+2)=-6 penalty?

[starwoof]

Actually they are interpreting it right, which is weird. Everyone said that using a large longsword one handed would be good if his DM would allow it to 'count as' a greatsword.

But his DM wont allow it sadly, so do we know of a way to actually wield a 2 handed weapon in one hand? Not just a larger one handed one?

He could use a small greatsword... otherwise I don't know of any.

[Titanium Fox]

I may have to resort to that, although I'm not sure how happy Zarus would be with her about that. Hey, a 1d10 is respectable... Right? XD

[Eloel]

Get another hand somehow?
I believe Kobolds can use their tails to wield stuff with a couple feats. Shield on tail would be awesome

[GodGoblin]

There is a race in the Dragon Compendium called Diopsid who has 4 arms but the lower set are there to 'stabalise' the upper hands. So they can wield Greatswords in one hand and ashield in the other.

The downside being you a really stupid looking insect

[Greenish]

If a Large creature can use a Medium greatsword as if it were a Large longsword (at a -4 wrong-size penalty)

A Large creature using Medium greatsword would have -2 penalty, and would use the greatsword as a one-handed greatsword, not "as a longsword".

A medium creature with Monkey Grip couldn't use a medium-sized two-handed weapon as a one-handed weapon since the wording on Monkey Grip specifically forbids it.

A medium creature with Powerful Build could arguably use a medium-sized two-handed weapon in one hand without penalties.

[Titanium Fox]

Just as a note, I am bound to being a human. Zerus is a diety who's entire thing is the betterment of human-kind and their "superiority over all other races". So as a non-human, I wouldn't exactly be able to worship him. XD

[Greenish]

Just as a note, I am bound to being a human.

How human, exactly?

A silverbrow human would qualify for Dragon Tail + Prehensile Tail combo.

Even a normal human can pick up Dragontouched to qualify.

[Titanium Fox]

Human human. Zarus views any non-standard humans or human hybrids (Half-Orc, Half-Elf, Half-Dragon, etc...) as impure and abominations needing to be purged.

[Darrin]

I'm currently rolling a cleric of Zarus. I want her to use her patron diety's weapon, which is the Greatsword. However before I picked out Zarus (due to storyline reasons), I had invisioned a cleric that utilizes a shield. Is there a feat in any of he splash books that allows a character to use a two handed weapon in one hand for a low / for no penalty? I've glanced through a few splash books and sources and haven't spotted anything off hand.

If you pick up the Touchstone feat (Sandstorm version), there's a touchstone site that offers something similar to Powerful Build: Sunken City of Pazar. It only works 1/day for 1 minute, but you can meet the feat requirements at ECL 3 with 500 GP (250 GP touchstone key + 250 GP ritual components). This would allow you to wield a medium-sized greatsword as if you were a large creature. You still take a -2 size penalty.

Actually, I think this is easier to pull off with a spell you may already have... enlarge person (Strength domain) increases your size to large. So: drop your greatsword so it's no longer in your possession. Cast enlarge person to increase your size to large. Pick up your medium-sized greatsword with one hand.

All you really need, however, is an extra arm. If you can wait until 5th level, you can cast girallon's blessing. This gives you two arms for a greatsword, one for a shield, and one for spellcasting/wands/scrolls/etc. According to Savage Species p. 60, you can use permanency on girallon's blessing. Permanency would cost: 5 (spell level) x 13 (caster level) x 50 (spellcasting services) + 7500 GP (XP costs) = 10750 GP.

Hmm. That's almost as much as a Spare Hand (12000 GP, MIC p. 137), but I'm not sure the Spare Hand can hold a heavy shield.

Arm of Nry (12800 GP, Defenders of the Faith) is good-only, and has the additional problem of losing the arm first. A graft might also work, but Clawed Arm (50000 GP, Fiend Folio) is really expensive. Zombie Arm (25000 GP, Libris Mortis) is half the price, but still not that cheap. Arm of the Ancestor (8500 GP, Magic of Eberron) is the cheapest, but it sounds like its grafted onto an existing arm, and it channels positive energy... not so good for an LE cleric.

[GodGoblin]

Also the Stone boned template give you powerfull build. You are still human but your bones grow and start to protrude out of your skin Doomsday style

Spoiler

Show

[dextercorvia]

Hmm. That's almost as much as a Spare Hand (12000 GP, MIC p. 137), but I'm not sure the Spare Hand can hold a heavy shield.

Hold it sure, but it requires an infusion to wield stuff.

[ThirtyThr33]

Instead of making your great sword 1 handed, why don't you make your shield 0 handed?

You said you are lvl 1 so an animated shield enchantment is still out of your budget, but you can still get a Gnome Battle Cloak, Races of Stone p155. Its a cloak that provides a +1 shield bonus if you are proficient with it. Since it provides a shield bonus and is listed as a shield in the equipment chart, you can enchant it with shield enhancements, even though you're just wearing it on your back. Basically it just saves you the expense of having to buy an Animated shield. You can't make a shield bash with it, but you can make Disarm attempts with it (and you get a +4 bonus), though you have to wield it as an off hand weapon like a light shield to do so. Requires Exotic Shield Proficiency to use properly, which can be gotten with either a feat or a level of Fighter and using an alternate class feature to trade Tower shield proficiency for it at lvl 1.

With minimal house ruling you could get your DM to allow you to trade your tower shield prof for exotic prof like a fight could, or you just suck it up and buy the feat. Crunch wise your using a 2h sword and a cloak, but fluff wise, you just say your holding a 2h sword in 1 hand and a shield in the other.

I got this info from Person Man's guide here: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=123630

[Titanium Fox]

After a bit of arguing my side and explaining, I got the DM to agree to Monkey Grip counting towards the Greatsword in one hand. Thanks again everyone for all the tips and assistance; I will definitely keep all these builds, feats, and items in mind for the future. I may actually pick up that cloak on my Rogue/Monk, that would DEFINITELY be useful.

[Greenish]

You said you are lvl 1 so an animated shield enchantment is still out of your budget, but you can still get a Gnome Battle Cloak, Races of Stone p155. Its a cloak that provides a +1 shield bonus if you are proficient with it. Since it provides a shield bonus and is listed as a shield in the equipment chart, you can enchant it with shield enhancements, even though you're just wearing it on your back.

You don't get any of the benefits from just wearing it. It takes a hand to use as a shield.

[Welknair]

Sorry if this has been mentioned, but wouldn't the aforementioned Monkey Grip do the bit in conjunction with the Weapon Scaling rules (Forget where). A Large-sized Longsword is the same as a Medium-Sized Greatsword, according to those scaling rules, and Monkey Grip lessens the penalty...

Edit: And now I read two posts above me. Oh well.

[Greenish]

Sorry if this has been mentioned, but wouldn't the aforementioned Monkey Grip do the bit in conjunction with the Weapon Scaling rules (Forget where). A Large-sized Longsword is the same as a Medium-Sized Greatsword, according to those scaling rules, and Monkey Grip lessens the penalty...

Those weapon scaling rules are 3.0.

[Welknair]

Those weapon scaling rules are 3.0.

I think they were put in one of the 3.5 supplements... Perhaps UA?

[Curmudgeon]

I think they were put in one of the 3.5 supplements... Perhaps UA?

Nope; that was Arms and Equipment Guide, a 3.0 supplement. Points to Greenish for the superior memory.