Large creature with medium weapon (with reach)

[mekka2000]

I have a few questions, creating a new monster.
It's a humanoïd, subtype giant.
I want it to have a longspear and could use it's arms to slam, so there's a choice between using a reach weapon and attacking an adjacent foe (with only 1 slam, the other hand holding the spear) or let fall the longspear and attack an adjacent foe with 2 slams.

But as it's only CR2 (it's needed), and the reach and damage for a large longspear are really too much, I was thinking about giving him a medium longspear.

And I decided that the reach for the slam is only 5ft, event if it's a large creature.

So my questions are :

- Is there a penalty for using a medium weapon for a large creature ? It could be -2 but I'm not sure if -2 is not for a medium creature using a large weapon, it seems illogical that a smaller longspear would be harder to use for a large creature...

- If so, if I don't want a penalty, is there a way to create a rules legal weapon similar to a longspear for a large creature but with a reach of 5ft. more and not 10ft. more ?

- Is it rules legal to have a creature with a size 10ft. and a reach 5ft. without a feat or a disadvantage or whatever ?

Thanks ! (and sorry, english is not my naive langage, hope it's readable...)

[Fuzzy-Wuzzy]

Give it the Undersized Weapons property:

Universal Monster Rules wrote:

Undersized Weapons (Ex) The creature uses manufactured weapons as if it were one size category smaller than the creature's actual size.

And yes, you can just stipulate it has a 5' reach.

The two of those together should do everything you want. See centaurs in the bestiary for an existing monster that does both.

Your English is quite good.

[mekka2000]

Thanks for replying quickly and you answer seems very good.

But... If I want this creature to also use a bow, but a large bow, normal for its size, how can I ?

[Fuzzy-Wuzzy]

Mmm, that's... much trickier. Can you explain why you want him using a Large bow? Maybe there's another way to get what you want. Remember he'll be firing Large arrows if he does so he'll get that extra damage that you might not want.

[mekka2000]

In fact the base creature has the medium longspear and a variant (monster codex style) is a ranger lvl 5 with a bow.
2 slams are +11 (1d8+5) and the bow is a masterwork bone longbow +9 (2d6/x3) and with Rapid Shot it's +7/+7 (2d6/x3)

So it's much more interesting to attack from a distance, in order to differenciate well the playstyle of the base creature and the ranger.
Also the base is CR2 and the ranger is CR5, and with a bow doing "only" 1d8 damage, both creatures would be in the same range damage-wise.

EDIT : also, weapon choice is limited as these creatures are primitive, so, no composite bow or crossbow... and no magic weapons too :D

[mekka2000]

Maybe creating a "primitive wooden spear" with reduced damage so damage for a large weapon is 1d8...
But what about the reach ?
If the creature is large but with a reach of 5ft. only, does a weapon with the reach property add 5ft. or 10ft. RAW ?
If it's 5ft. it's perfect, but else, how to do it ?

EDIT : Looking at http://www.d20pfsrd.com/_/rsrc/1452829556123/images/large-tall.png (the large(long) graphics) it seems it's the solution.

[Just a Guess]

mekka2000 wrote:

In fact the base creature has the medium longspear and a variant (monster codex style) is a ranger lvl 5 with a bow.

2 slams are +11 (1d8+5) and the bow is a masterwork bone longbow +9 (2d6/x3) and with Rapid Shot it's +7/+7 (2d6/x3)

So it's much more interesting to attack from a distance, in order to differenciate well the playstyle of the base creature and the ranger.
Also the base is CR2 and the ranger is CR5, and with a bow doing "only" 1d8 damage, both creatures would be in the same range damage-wise.

EDIT : also, weapon choice is limited as these creatures are primitive, so, no composite bow or crossbow... and no magic weapons too :D

You could make a feat for the creature type that allows the use of large weapons despite the undersized weapons entry.

That way most base creatures would not have it but the level 5 ranger could have the feat.

[Fuzzy-Wuzzy]

A reach weapon always doubles your natural reach, so once you set its reach to 5' any reach weapon, regardless of its size, will let it attack at 10' (but not 5', at least not with that weapon).

If you drop the Undersized Weapons bit, stipulate a 5' reach, and give it a Medium longspear, it will take a -2 on its attack roll for inappropriate size, but it will also be able to wield the longspear one-handed, freeing its other hand to make a slam at 5'. Note that if it attacks with both longspear and slam the slam is treated as a secondary natural weapon (normally it is primary) which means it is at -5 attack and only gets half Str bonus to damage. If it's being attacked by multiple opponents this should still easily outweigh the -2 longspear penalty, though.

Then the ranger just uses a Large bow because he's Large. He could also have Large melee weapons.