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I'm interested in having one of my characters use a pollaxe as their weapon of choice, but I have no clue how that would work.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollaxe
The problem is that pollaxes are often mistaken for halberds, and initially that was what I planned to go with, but an actual pollaxe was more modular, as halberds are primarily meant for chopping attacks, whereas a pollaxe could make chopping attacks with one end of the head, blunt attacks with the opposite, and thrusting attacks with the spike at the top.
How would I go about making such a weapon? They probably aren't reach weapons, as they were most commonly 4 to 6 feet long, which I think is what Ultimate Equipment says a halberd or spear is (not longspear, which is 8 feet, I think). What kind of damage would it do? Probably a great deal, since the weapon was designed as a response to plate armor.
Any weapon experts out there who can help me with the numbers?
Of recent years D&D / d20 has tried to distill the vast number of RL polearms down to a more manageable handful of weapons. If it looks that close to a halberd, might as well just make it a halberd
Over specificity on polearms was a 'thing' back in 1E. Wotc even referenced that a while back... [url]http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4dnd/polearmquiz[/url]
I would set it up as a martial two handed weapon. It would be S or B and P. Give it disarm and trip qualities when used as slashing. 5' reach. 1d8 Damage. 20/x2 crit. You could add the blocking trait if you make it an exotic weapon.
If you don't like 1d8 damage, then try 2d4. The damage shouldn't be too high (like d10+) due to all the other qualities it gets. If you drop two of the qualities, then either the damage or crit can increase.
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Here is the thing...halberds had the back end used as a bludgeoning weapon as well. And you did this with spears and glaives and pretty much ALL polearms. There was a 3.5 feat that let you use the butt end...but not sure if there is one for PF. I thought I saw one but can't find it now. So basically, that ability is something to look at a feat or class ability for. The slashing and piercing is done by the halberd just fine. Now the funny bit...quite a few pollaxe had hammer heads and did not slash at all but bludgeoned. For that, you ill have to alter the halberd a bit to do B/P instead of S/P.
Reflavored Halberb or Bardiche?
No need to complicate things.
That's exactly what I would do. Do even trades for what type of damage you want to do. You don't want to flat out increase one thing without a change in another as then you'll overpower it.
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Here is the thing...halberds had the back end used as a bludgeoning weapon as well. And you did this with spears and glaives and pretty much ALL polearms. There was a 3.5 feat that let you use the butt end...but not sure if there is one for PF. I thought I saw one but can't find it now. So basically, that ability is something to look at a feat or class ability for. The slashing and piercing is done by the halberd just fine. Now the funny bit...quite a few pollaxe had hammer heads and did not slash at all but bludgeoned. For that, you ill have to alter the halberd a bit to do B/P instead of S/P.
No, not the butt of the weapon, more like this. And I thought halberds and bardiches only did slashing damage in PF?