Strange Combat Styles

[Ninja_Grand]

Anyone got any strange combat styles? We all have done a Sword and Board, Dual Wielding, ect. But what about a warhamer and dagger, with a "Hammer the nail" attitude. Or dual Whips?

So what kind of crazy styles have you used?

[TeChameleon]

I rather enjoyed the 'smack you from across the room' paladin that I built for a one-shot... Goliath Paladin with a reach weapon, a paragon path that extended his reach by one, some gauntlets that extended his reach, and... I think an enchantment on the spear that extended his reach still further. Ended up with a guy that could stab you from something like 25 feet away without needing to move

[DM Nate]

Had one player of mine play an ex-bartender character based around the Dude from The Big Lebowski. He took feats for using improvised weapons. Our starting session, he neutralized an enemy spellcaster fighting in his bar by picking up one of the chairs and smashing it over his head.

It was a beautiful thing to behold.

[veti]

I've seen PCs take weapon proficiency in 'Fellow PC (wielded)' and 'Fellow PC (hurled)'.

In fact, I've seen it so often it hardly even qualifies as 'strange' any more.

[FidgetySquirrel]

I've seen PCs take weapon proficiency in 'Fellow PC (wielded)' and 'Fellow PC (hurled)'.

In fact, I've seen it so often it hardly even qualifies as 'strange' any more.

One time, some low-level bad guy triggered the self-destruct for his base. We didn't understand the language, and he wouldn't tell us how to turn it off. My brother, in all his wisdom, picked up the bad guy and started bashing him into the computer, head first! The self-destruct deactivated, and that baddie was never the same after his devastating concussion that day.

[Vizzerdrix]

A grappler that used Shapesand. Worked by pinning and turning the shapesand into manacles, spiked armor, or anything else needed.

[JBPuffin]

Would switching between a blowgun and a fullblade count? That was a 4e DnD character I had, blowgun being a silly but surprisingly potent addition...

Dual Hand Crossbows - the twin Uzis of the medieval world.

Twin Shields - Captain America + Shield Bashing. Good times, good times...

Hand axe as a melee weapon. Just the axe. Nothing else.

[The Oni]

(PF) My current character dual wields shields and overrun opponents by flying. My last character used a large-sized flying blade attached to a chain that replaced his arm and either swung it around it or, once suitably upgraded and homebrewed, shot it like a harpoon gun. My character before that combined White Haired Witch with Snake Style so he impaled people with hair tentacles. (D&D not PF) And before that I had a rather effete looking Hengeyokai who caught his opponents off guard by dressing as an unarmed woman and then murdering them with war fans.

I've also seen, just in my groups, a samurai who specializes in the heavy flail, a Tengu Cleric/monk using Panther Style to become the ultimate combat medic (because no one was willing to actually AoO him for fear of retribution), and a lumberjack-themed Orc fighter who used a greataxe and throwing axes.

[Raimun]

The ultimate stealth combat weapon!

What's that? Well it's...

Spoiler

Show

... a twohanded hammer. Fit for Huge-sized giant. Wielded by the said Huge-sized giant. For stealth kills.

And normal kills...

[Knaight]

The oddest I've had was a character who dual wielded a hammer and sickle, while trying to lead a populist revolution.

[Ninja_Grand]

The oddest I've had was a character who dual wielded a hammer and sickle, while trying to lead a populist revolution.

Wow these are some great styles! New one from my game.

Staff and sword! Shure you might say "Gandalf" but when you stab the sword through the staff, you get the coolest battle pick I have seen!

[Jay R]

In SCA fencing, there are five common combinations:
Single rapier
Rapier and dagger
Rapier and buckler
Rapier and cloak
Two rapiers

I once fought buckler and cloak. Against two rapiers.

And won.

[DM Nate]

Wow these are some great styles! New one from my game.

Staff and sword! Shure you might say "Gandalf" but when you stab the sword through the staff, you get the coolest battle pick I have seen!

Also works great vs. vampires!

[TheCountAlucard]

For those wanting to emulate a Jackie Chan movie, Exalted's new edition will have "Heaven's Ladder Style" in the core book.

[Braininthejar2]

It is quite common but I haven't seen it in the thread - dual kukris high crits build.

unarmed without monk levels - my party once had an npc who never quite recovered from being baleful polymorphed for a long time - she was a barbarian/ranger/fist of the forest (early entry through feats from disadvantages) and regularly killed armed attackers using only teeth and nails.

one of the Icewind Dale games featured a giant's axe, which was too heavy for human sized people to wield, so some guy shortened the handle and had it enchanted as a giant throwing blade or returning.

[endoperez]

Strange weapons / weapon combinations? There's this guy on Youtube...

Most of these weapons are things that don't have English names that people recognize. There aren't many pictures either, and I can't embed all these videos either, so I'll do my best in trying to describe them.

I'm overusing the word "imagine" here, sorry.


Swords... and some other things.

Spoiler: Swords and sword-like weapons

Show

Sun moon crescent dao
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXgjjRjQpTI

Bat'leth, the klingon weapon. Or, the double sword. With extra blades. Darth Maul's double light-saber, except it's actual sabers on both ends. And some extra sharp parts in the middle because why not.


Suen Bung Crutch Jian
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5HJqoBmeJw

Imagine a sword. One-handed, straight, small simple handguard. A jian, if you know it - it looks a bit like a viking sword, or like a slightly bigger gladius.
Imagine someone wants to stab people to death with it. Except he doesn't believe in stabbing. He wants to cut people. While stabbing.
Imagine this someone replacing a sword's narrow tip, with a wide crescent blade, the width of a large handguard, so he can slash as he thrusts, and cut as he points.


Garn, or, Sword-mace
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4C7LEW2D4U

Take a one-handed straight sword. A jian.
Replace the sharp blade with a blunt, heavy metal stick.
You are left with a mace-like thing with a sword handle and handguard. Obviously you can dual-wield it no problem.
This gets bonus points from me for bearing resemblance to a weapon mentioned in Gene Wolfe's Wizard Knight duology. It was Swordbreaker there, and it was used by a character who had sworn not to use actual swords, but who still needed a classy weapon.

Weird combinations
This is for all those dual-wielders who don't want to stick to the classics.

Spoiler: Weird combinations

Show

Horse tail whisk with jian , or.... Whip and Sword
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlI-VFKpv50

Well, a fly-swatter and a sword, really. Horse tail whisk or horse tail whip is a bundle of hair, about as tall as a horse's tail, in the end of a stick. Really handy for swatting flies away. Not so handy as a weapon. That need not stop you!

Dual-wielded two-headed spears
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0f9lrY1a-c

To dual-wield a spear, you have to make it shorter. Since it's shorter, it's not much of a spear... but hey, you can always attach another spearhead to the other end of spear!

2x Killing Pen of the Hell Judge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEQHBv_Q3cE

Killing Pen of the Hell Judge is one of the coolest names for a weapon I've ever come across. It's more or less a warpick. You know, a mace with one spike. The fancy version of a board with a long nail in it. The only difference is that someone spent a lot of time making it in the shape of a human hand holding a writing instrument, the writing instrument being the spike, the nail, the nasty part that kills your opponents.
Now, even if you disregard the cool name... dual-wielded war picks.

Dual-wielded tonfa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv7k60_OsdQ

Tonfa. These days its used by the police, as a baton, but Wikipedia claims it was traditionally wielded in pairs.

Double daggers with chain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJKIHyiqSPw

Take two daggers. Connect them with a chain, which you can draw taut to block things... or something.

Mandaring duck knives
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-hHcMcOqRc

Imagine a dagger with 9 cutting blades and 4 stabbing points. That's the mandaring duck knife.
Hard to visualize? Take a circle, cut it in two identical parts, and move the halves closer until you have two overlapping crescents. Sharpen each edge and each point. Add a handle so you don't cut yourself.

Hidden rotating palm-nail. Times two.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YZP0r04sfA

Imagine someone holding a nail in his hand, so he can stab you. This nail is attached to a metal ring. I guess it helps it stay in your fist and not slip away.

Sword and Scabbard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBs9LMGNk8M

When you want to dual-wield, but only brought your sword.

Saber and Tonfa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeDEM9TjH00

A saber and tonfa, dual-wielded.

Nunchuck and saber
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjESEVTRG6M

A nunchuck, or a threshing flail, is two sticks connected by a chain. It's used for threshing wheat... or people. In this case, it's used with a saber.

Metal rings
Yes, there's enough stuff here for a category. Not because there are many weapons of this sort... but because I hadn't even known this category existed before I found this guy.

Spoiler: Metal rings and wheels

Show

Gold Hard Ring
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMG-b_dfdns

It's a small, metal hula hoop. It doesn't go around your hips, instead, you carry it arond your neck and shoulder. Still. A small, metal hula hoop...


Subdue tiger lohan double rings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pac9FEVJ5FI

A lohan is a disciple or follower of Buddha who has achieved enlightenment. There's a story where a lohan beat up (subdued) a tiger. With not one, but TWO metal rings. Because they're designed (?) for dual-wielding, they're smaller than the Gold Hard Ring above.

Wind and Flame wheel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_i3l1C_lx4

Imagine a chakram. Someone wants to use it in melee, so part of the ring is made into a handle. Then some extra spiky things are added.

Big, somewhat ridiculous weapons
I don't mean ridiculous as in foolish. I mean ridiculous as in fantastic, unbelievable, awesome. These look like they'd fit right in next to a spiked chain, or orcish double-axe, or some other fantasy weapon.

Spoiler: Big weapons

Show

Tai Yue - Big Axe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFvNmlqK9Tg

First, imagine a bow.
Second, imagine that instead of a string, you have a straight, wooden shaft, something you can grab. The wooden arc isn't under tension, as it would be in a bow, but naturally curved.
Third, replace the arc of the bow with a curved blade, sharpened on the outside. It's a two-handed "axe" of some sort, with a thin crescent-like blade going from one end of the straight handle to the other.


Wolf Teeth Staff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCVhIYE00_s

Imagine a dagger. Then imagine a spear. Visualize all the changes one would need to make the dagger into the spear. That was practice.
Imagine a one-handed mace with a really nasty, spiky head in the end. I hope you see where this is going... make it into a huge two-handed mace with nasty spikes which looks like something most orcs would ban on behalf of it looking too evil.


Nine Teeth Nail Rake
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guGpm5EhW8k

Imagine you're a farmer, raking. You know, moving leaves in the autumn, or whatever.
Then something jumps on you and you barely beat it.
You start feeling a bit paranoid afterwards, and decide to never be unarmed, ever again. And hey, you already have this rake, right here... Maybe, if I add a few spikes here, a curved blade there... I wonder if an axe blade would be too much?


Swallow Lance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBOBLUejYKE

Someone was making a trident. For some reason, he decided to instead make a spear with one blade pointing forward, with two curvy wavy lines zigzagging perpendically from the central blade to both sides.
It looks like a metal snake was impaled on a spear.

Monk Crescent Spade, or Weaponized Shovel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4mRCots28s

Take a shovel. Make the shovel part thin, straight, metallic, and a bit smaller so that it's better for killing people. Make the other end sharp too. You now have something that doesn't work as well as a digging instrument, but works better as a weapon. Could be handy if you make a hobby out of digging graves, and want to make sure there's enough bodies to keep you busy.

Three Sections Staff, or Triple-nunchuck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLWe8vV2xbw

Nunchuck is a flail with two wooden sticks connected by a hinge or chain. Now take a quaterstaff, cut it into three parts, and add two hinges or chains... and you have this.

[HalfTangible]

-I know a character who once picked up a cat, tied knives to said cat, and then used the cat as a thrown weapon resulting the death of a police officer sent to apprehend him for murder. Not much else to say about that.

-My Dawn Caste (Exalted) wields no weapons personally. Instead she steals her opponents' melee weapons and uses them to kill their original owner. It kind of stunts itself, doesn't it?

-Gioco was a god of games and ice. He primarily fought with a two-handed sword, but he also had the ability to turn the fight into a turn-based game of his choosing. This meant that he could literally activate a trap card. Which he did. I have since rebooted him in a LoC game, and intend to focus on game-based combat instead of ice when he fights.

[GrayGriffin]

A walking stick. Although technically, thanks to a blessing from her god, it could get a sword-shaped aura around it. Later on the character got an actual sword of her god, although she ended up using it only for big things, keeping her walking stick around, seeing how it also has non-combat uses.

[jiriku]

Once, long ago, my druid was trying to defend a farmer and his family from orcish marauders. I had ran of spells in mid-fight and an orc sundered my staff, so I dual-wielded a pair of live chickens to kill the remaining orcs.

[elliott20]

optimized, just weird but fun, just plain weird, or just fluff description?

Optimized, there are only a few styles/combos that is really worthwhile in any D&D game.

weird but fun is a bit more open, but those are probably a lot easier to come by, and if you want, watch some bad kungfu flicks for inspiration, then go to town with ToB.

plain weird can get a little whacky and will often times not be very practical nor fun, so be careful there. But that, again, you can pretty much take your queues from any anime and go from there. (i.e. Setzer from FF6 throws cards at people without the benefit of being Gambit)

Fluff, or the cinematic description, really, is really just taking the time focus more on describing the action itself then worry about mechanics, and that is literally just a change in how you look at describing combat.

[Doorhandle]

I've seen PCs take weapon proficiency in 'Fellow PC (wielded)' and 'Fellow PC (hurled)'.

In fact, I've seen it so often it hardly even qualifies as 'strange' any more.

Honestly, I think every game these day should have rules for this because it's going to come up eventually

Had one player of mine play an ex-bartender character based around the Dude from The Big Lebowski. He took feats for using improvised weapons. Our starting session, he neutralized an enemy spellcaster fighting in his bar by picking up one of the chairs and smashing it over his head.

It was a beautiful thing to behold.

Improvised weapon users are fun. I have a barbarian who has used a pitchfork and a battering ram to great effect.

Garrotes and razorwire don't seem to get much love is most systems, let alone D&D.

Also, there are underrated gems like improvised use of a weapon, as seen below:

Spoiler

Show

[endoperez]

Improvised weapon users are fun. I have a barbarian who has used a pitchfork and a battering ram to great effect.

Also, there are underrated gems like improvised use of a weapon, as seen below:

Spoiler

Show

They're not that uncommon in the real world though...

Pitchfork is a trident with bad balance. If you change the shaft and maybe straighten the spikes, you get a weapon called "military fork". Or, in some Asian areas, "Tiger fork" which was supposedly used to hunt tigers.
Other weapons that are in some way related to farming implements: tonfa, nunchuck, flail, various polearms (bill, hook, war-scythe) etc.

Katanas as knuckledusters is a silly idea, but half-swording isn't - it's an actual group of maneuvers that's a big part of fighting in armour. Since you can't cut through armour, you might just as well use the sword as a lever.

[BWR]

The oddest I've had was a character who dual wielded a hammer and sickle, while trying to lead a populist revolution.

That style also works against Nazi zombies

[Fenreed]

I was rolling very poorly duel-wielding pistols, then got boss kill by throwing one of them...

This was on an illusionist character, and I was able to deal more (psychic) damage with imaginary pistols than I ever could with my real ones.

[Magic Myrmidon]

Doesn't apply so much in most fantasy settings, but I've been wanting to try a gunkata character for a while. Could be cool with sets of powder pistols.

[Doorhandle]

They're not that uncommon in the real world though...

Pitchfork is a trident with bad balance. If you change the shaft and maybe straighten the spikes, you get a weapon called "military fork". Or, in some Asian areas, "Tiger fork" which was supposedly used to hunt tigers.
Other weapons that are in some way related to farming implements: tonfa, nunchuck, flail, various polearms (bill, hook, war-scythe) etc.

Katanas as knuckledusters is a silly idea, but half-swording isn't - it's an actual group of maneuvers that's a big part of fighting in armour. Since you can't cut through armour, you might just as well use the sword as a lever.

Good point with half-swording, but there are rarely any rules for it.

Also the red guy with the military forks is dual wielding them, which is basically unheard of.

[DigoDragon]

Strangest combat style I've ever seen was a dual wield Medallion-on-Gold-Chain and Suit-Jacket. The PC took on three dudes with handguns and beat them all without getting shot once.

[Socksy]

My Nekomancer has a Kobold Fighter 20 as her bodyguard. He wears spiked armour, boots, codpiece, helmet, everything, and proceeds to hug people to death.