Barbazu beard nonsense?


Rules Questions


Hi there. The exotic weapon barbazu beard from the Cheliax Companion interests me a rather a lot, but I have a few rules questions about it.

1. The beard does not have the same rules clarifications as armor spikes, that is it doesn't seem to prevent a beard wielder from adding on the beard as an extra (although bad) off-hand attack, if he's already using two weapons. (Of course I'm thinking of a Roronoa Zolo-type character). Could a beard wielder take...Three-Weapon Fighting? Probably not...

2. So I really like the beard, but I'm not really keen on suffering an AoO for actually stabbing people with it. If a beard wielder took

a) Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Barbazu Beard
b) Two-Weapon Fighting
c) Two-Weapon Defense

and, well, threatened people with his big metal beard but didn't actually attack with it, would he get the +1 AC from Two-Weapon Defense? It says you have to wield two weapons, does that mean you have to attack with both to get the bonus? I'm actually thinking of a barbazu-esque pit fighter who wields a beard and a glaive (and spiked gauntlets, natch). Obviously the beard doesn't have reach, so it doesn't even really do much good to even take EWP if you're also going to use a polearm. Eh...it seemed like a good (I mean silly) idea at the time.

That's about it!


Erm...anyone? Would anyone like to take a stab at answering these silly questions? Thanks for your time.

Sovereign Court

ohako wrote:

Hi there. The exotic weapon barbazu beard from the Cheliax Companion interests me a rather a lot, but I have a few rules questions about it.

1. The beard does not have the same rules clarifications as armor spikes, that is it doesn't seem to prevent a beard wielder from adding on the beard as an extra (although bad) off-hand attack, if he's already using two weapons. (Of course I'm thinking of a Roronoa Zolo-type character). Could a beard wielder take...Three-Weapon Fighting? Probably not...

2. So I really like the beard, but I'm not really keen on suffering an AoO for actually stabbing people with it. If a beard wielder took

a) Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Barbazu Beard
b) Two-Weapon Fighting
c) Two-Weapon Defense

and, well, threatened people with his big metal beard but didn't actually attack with it, would he get the +1 AC from Two-Weapon Defense? It says you have to wield two weapons, does that mean you have to attack with both to get the bonus? I'm actually thinking of a barbazu-esque pit fighter who wields a beard and a glaive (and spiked gauntlets, natch). Obviously the beard doesn't have reach, so it doesn't even really do much good to even take EWP if you're also going to use a polearm. Eh...it seemed like a good (I mean silly) idea at the time.

That's about it!

Well honestly as a DM I'd have issues with this as how the hell are you wielding the beard defensively to grant yourself the bonus, but I can't see anything in the rules preventing it. I would force you to accept the TWF penalties if you want to get the TWF shield bonus. Basically even though you're only using the glaive for attacks, the way you're bobbing and weaving your chin for defense means you can't focus on your attacks the way you normally would.

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