OK, I know this has been a D&D troupe for years, but why are Dwarves associated with axes? If they're "miner folk" than have them adapt their common tools for their primary weapons -- The Hammer and the Pick.
You've already got the Hammer part -- The warhammer is listed among those in the Weapon Familiarity.
Now let's just drop the axes and add picks! Yep, picks may be low on damage, but their crit modifiers make them a lot of fun -- then add in your suggested changes to the Fighter, where specific weapons get expanded crit ranges, and the Pick looks even more fun.
So how about it? -- Out with the Axe and in with Picks!
Leave the axe for the half-orcs and the humans! They're the ones that like chopping things down!
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I think the axes goes back to "The Hobbit", where Thorin Oakenshield wields a huge axe during the battle beneath the mountain. Gimli in the lord of the rings also carries an axe. The tradition therefore comes out of Tolkien, who gave them a double origin from old scandanavian and a stereotyped rabbinical style.
Since the origins of dwarves have scandanavian roots, it appears that the axe was chosen since it is the weapon often associated with vikings: the other group with long beards, magic runes, mead halls, and huge axes (this is the fantasy view, btw).
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OK, I know this has been a D&D troupe for years, but why are Dwarves associated with axes? If they're "miner folk" than have them adapt their common tools for their primary weapons -- The Hammer and the Pick.
You've already got the Hammer part -- The warhammer is listed among those in the Weapon Familiarity.
Now let's just drop the axes and add picks! Yep, picks may be low on damage, but their crit modifiers make them a lot of fun -- then add in your suggested changes to the Fighter, where specific weapons get expanded crit ranges, and the Pick looks even more fun.
So how about it? -- Out with the Axe and in with Picks!Leave the axe for the half-orcs and the humans! They're the ones that like chopping things down!
Actually mining and metal working involves a whole lot of wood cutting - timbers. charcoal production, etc.
Besides - axes look cool :-)
I like giving dwarves hammers and picks, but dropping axes is crazy talk. :)
I like giving dwarves hammers and picks, but dropping axes is crazy talk. :)
Ok, OK. I see what you're all saying, but would you all at least agree to ADDING picks to the list?
I'm really not comfortable discussing this while you're waving that pick around.
Another part of the reason that dwarves prefer axes and hammers (and, one would assume, picks would fall into this as well) comes from 2nd edition's "Arms and Equipment Guide." It mentions in there that part of the reason that dwarves favor hafted weapons is because stunties have a low center of gravity, and so aren't likely to fall victim to the imbalance difficulties inherent in such weapons. It was a fluff description, but it was a well-thought out one, IMO.
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I like giving dwarves hammers and picks, but dropping axes is crazy talk. :)Ok, OK. I see what you're all saying, but would you all at least agree to ADDING picks to the list?
Add picks, add Light Pick Axes and Heavy Pick Axes. Pick Axe would be an exotic weapon with an axe-head and a pick head. So a slashing/piercing weapon. Use Hand Axe and light pick for the light, and Battle Axe/Heavy Pick for Heavy Pick Axe.
Okay, in all seriousness, a pick ax is a lousy weapon. However, I totally support the OP's idea of giving proficiency with war-hammers and war-picks. Those are the killin' versions of the tools. A regular pick ax isn't designed for killing, it's designed for digging.
I think the axes goes back to "The Hobbit", where Thorin Oakenshield wields a huge axe during the battle beneath the mountain. Gimli in the lord of the rings also carries an axe. The tradition therefore comes out of Tolkien, who gave them a double origin from old scandanavian and a stereotyped rabbinical style.
Since the origins of dwarves have scandanavian roots, it appears that the axe was chosen since it is the weapon often associated with vikings: the other group with long beards, magic runes, mead halls, and huge axes (this is the fantasy view, btw).
Tolkien's dwarves also used mattocks, a pickaxe-like tool with a flat digging blade on one side and either a pick (pick mattock) or axe blade (cutting mattock) on the other. Both were used as weapons during the middle ages and some modern entrenching tools can be set up to mimic the pick mattock.
The cutting mattock would be a good hand weapon. Due to the size of the digging blade, it could easily be a 1d6 20/x2 Piercing and Slashing weapon.
I agree that picks should be added to the list.
Mr. Simcoe Dun#105 Racing the Snake is one of my favorite adventures. Thank you.
Pick Axe would be an exotic weapon with an axe-head and a pick head.
What a great concept for a dwarven weapon. Makes buckets more sense than that dumb axe-spear thing.
This pick axe is yoinked.
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The cutting mattock would be a good hand weapon. Due to the size of the digging blade, it could easily be a 1d6 20/x2 Piercing and Slashing weapon.
Speaking as someone that used a mattock for many years of turning soil and digging up garden beds and planting bushes - a mattock is much more of a bludgeoning tool than it is about cutting or piercing. It is a wedge, just not a sharp one.
As a former landscraper, I'd have to agree, but you gotta admit, with a keen edge it'd do some damage. Tricky to use, but I guess that's why you have to be a Dwarf! :)
Add picks, add Light Pick Axes and Heavy Pick Axes. Pick Axe would be an exotic weapon with an axe-head and a pick head. So a slashing/piercing weapon. Use Hand Axe and light pick for the light, and Battle Axe/Heavy Pick for Heavy Pick Axe.I like giving dwarves hammers and picks, but dropping axes is crazy talk. :)Ok, OK. I see what you're all saying, but would you all at least agree to ADDING picks to the list?
I made a similiar style weapon for 3.5 called a hammer-axe. Think bludgeoning or slashing (free action to switch between attacks) bastard sword (complete with the one-handed EWP) that looks like the Ultimate Thor's Mjolnir.
I like giving dwarves hammers and picks, but dropping axes is crazy talk. :)
Moo?
The cutting mattock would be a good hand weapon. Due to the size of the digging blade, it could easily be a 1d6 20/x2 Piercing and Slashing weapon.Speaking as someone that used a mattock for many years of turning soil and digging up garden beds and planting bushes - a mattock is much more of a bludgeoning tool than it is about cutting or piercing. It is a wedge, just not a sharp one.
Interesting, the military ones I have seen typically had either beveled heads or spade styled heads for the digging blades and actual axe or pick heads opposite them.
I figure I should post a link to images for the type of mattock I was talking about.
On a related note, has anyone thought about what a real warhammer looked like? They typically did not have wide heads (so as to concentrate the force of the impact). Most also had back spikes to dismount knights.
A pick would make great sense to add to a Dwarf's repitoir of racial weapons since they were eventually used in great numbers to defeat heavy armor, being able to pierce the sheets of metal where slashing weapons wouldn't.
FWIW, I see no reason not to include pick-heads and hammer-heads on the backs of battle-axe blades; it was fairly common in period, and I frequently describe them as including one or the other.
Add picks
Removing Axes is blasphemy
Ya cana' have me ax when ye prey it from me cold dead hands.