| Doug Attaway |
Would not a solution to the question of Weapon Finesse for the rapier be by adding the dueling sabre to the list of weapons as a one handed slashing weapon with a D6 slashing damage? It seems someone is fixated on the rapier. There is a whole family of dueling weapons for a duelist or swashbuckler that are light weapons. there is the foil(piercing only), epee, rapier (piercing and some slashing), and the dueling sabre. The uses of all these weapons were handled in different countries with different schools of swordsmanship (Italian, Hungarian, French, Spanish, and others). The rapier in Pathfinder seems to be a mishmash of the rapier and dueling sabre. The rapier COULD be used by itself, but was usually combined with a dagger or main gauche in the off hand (fighting Florentine Style) or with a small shield (sword and buckler man). The dueling sabre was a slightly more substantial blade used primarily for slashing with some thrusting, and was primarily used in one hand with the other hand free. The Swashbuckler archetype Daring Infiltrator which appears based on the Zorro character of film and literature almost invariably carried a dueling sabre, not a rapier.(NOTE: for a decent duel with dueling sabers, see the old comedy from the 1960s, THE Great Race. Tony Curtis and Ross Martin have a duel starting with foils and progressing to dueling sabers. Curtis was one of the better swordsmen in Hollywood in the 1950s-1960s.) By adding the dueling saber as a weapon, this would allow people to customize the classes with either piercing or slashing weapons.