Bows, Weapon Cords and Disarms


Rules Questions


OK, so, by the Rules as Written, you can have a weapon cord attaching your bow/pistol/double musket to your arm.

Someone who does a disarm with an empty hand has the item in their hand.

So, what are the rules for holding someone's bow by the weapon cord and dragging them all over the battlefield until they cut it?

If I can fly, can I drag them by their dangling weapon cord now? Drop them into the ocean/convenient pit of lava?

Grand Lodge

It's either a move action or a melee attack for the wearer to break a weapon cord, or a full-round action to untie it. In this case, I see no reason the wearer would take the latter option, but it exists.

It's designed to bear the weight of a weapon, not a Medium creature (it's not a rope or even a belt and doesn't duplicate the durability or toughness of those items) so would probably break if pulled and even more likely if pulled vertically off the ground.


So, if I'm adjacent to someone...

Standard: Disarm and grab their bow.
Move: Run away and break their weapon cord. Or run away and drag them behind...

Given the Weapon Cord Juggling Pistolero Rapid Reloading His Guns...

Grand Lodge

Dragging someone is a combat maneuver, so you couldn't do it as a move action. The rules support a move action to break the weapon cord on the bow that you're now holding, but you wouldn't have actions remaining to move as well. You could take a 5 foot step.


Yea you would have to use the Drag combat maneuver and succeed and then you could only drag them for one turn and not really that far at 5ft straight back in a line (+5ft for every 5 you beat their CMD) so you couldn't drag them into a trap without you hitting it first lol

I mean MAYBE your GM would give you a small bonus to the maneuver for thinking of doing that since the had the weapon cord but that's strictly GM fiat now and nowhere in the actual rules :)


PRD wrote:


Weapon cords are 2-foot-long leather straps that attach your weapon to your wrist. If you drop your weapon or are disarmed, you can recover it as a swift action, and it never moves any further away from you than an adjacent square. However, you cannot switch to a different weapon without first untying the cord (a full-round action) or cutting it (a move action or an attack, hardness 0, 0 hp). Unlike a locked gauntlet, you can still use a hand with a weapon cord, though a dangling weapon may interfere with finer actions.

Note that the word "you" in context means "the person the cord is tied to."

It does not specify what to do if someone else is holding that weapon that's tied to your wrist.

In particular - if I have iterative attacks and disarm someone, then bullrush them and 5' step to deliberately stand on their now disarmed weapon...are they now standing there with their sword-arm pinned to the ground by the 2' long leather cord?

In the case given, with a bow, it's reasonable to assume they don't have another weapon in their hand (though I suppose you could use an arrow as an improvised cutting weapon...)

Grand Lodge

AdAstraGames wrote:
In particular - if I have iterative attacks and disarm someone, then bullrush them and 5' step to deliberately stand on their now disarmed weapon...are they now standing there with their sword-arm pinned to the ground by the 2' long leather cord?

A 5' step moves you into a 5' square. It doesn't leave you standing on an attended object or impose a status effect on an opponent.

AdAstraGames wrote:
In the case given, with a bow, it's reasonable to assume they don't have another weapon in their hand (though I suppose you could use an arrow as an improvised cutting weapon...)

Although the description says "cut", it nowhere requires you to be wielding a slashing weapon. You just have to have a weapon that is effective to overcome 0 hardness, 0 hp. I would count an unarmed attack as effective to damage a thin cord. You're an adventurer - cut it with your teeth.


If you get disarmed, then bull rushed, what makes you think the weapon moves with you when the RAW says the weapon will never be further than an adjacent square?

Why can't I put my foot down on the haft of someone's weapon-corded earthbreaker after disarming it with my rapier and bull rushing them? After all, a weapon cord is perfectly capable of being a Yo-Yo holding a 14 lb weapon and helping someone recover it as a swift action...

I mean, hey, I should be able to use a weapon cord to hold my handy haversack full of potions! Drop it like a yo-yo (free action) cast a spell (not prohibited) recover it as a swift action, pull potion as move action, right?

As used in PFS, most weapon cords are mindbogglingly effective. I find it frustrating that a 0.1 gp item effectively renders two feat or three feat chain obsolete, plus apparently allows gunslinger to rapid-reload two pistols at once.

Dark Archive

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I hate them too. It should have always been a move action to recover, and the weapon cords allow for it to not provoke. That would provide an advantage, but not a ridiculous one.


Doing those kinds of things with your weapon cords would also be up to your GM...not every GM sees it the same way and at any point they can look at you and say "ok...you're being ridiculous..."

As for stepping on the weapon when you bull rush them...again that is up to your GM...there are no rules about stepping on your opponents weapon once it is on the ground

It comes down to weather your GM is the type that loves when players think of something fun and crazy outside of the rules themselves or if he's the type to tell you "NO" when you come up with something he might have to think about lol


I tend to allow things but only in certain cases...

But I still find it funny that the whole Reload thing is only usable if the person knows how to order their Actions.

The Exchange

Try a real world experiment. Take a hammer and two feet of rope. Tie one end around your wrist and the other around the hammer. Have someone shove you.

Where is the hammer?

I am guessing if you did this you have a bruise somewhere on your shin. A two foot cord will not allow the weapon to hit the ground on any adult over 5 feet tall. So the hammer is swinging somewhere between the knee and the ankle. How then are you going to step on the weapon? The weapon will travel with the bull rushed person.

If you disarmed someone while unarmed, you could still Sunder the weapon cord with 1pt damage. Initiate a reposition, drag or grapple maneuver while holding the weapon or just hold on to it and make them try to take it back

EDIT: Improved two weapon fighting and muzzle loading pistols cannot work because you have to be weilding simultaneously. If you are dropping one to reload, you are not dual weilding. You needa third limb to reload while dual weilding pistols. Repeating hand crossbows may be a different story for a different thread.


I have had a similar situation with a (Training) Hammer with a Lanyard (Think Marvel Thor's Mjolnir). It actually falls away from you around 8.5/10 times. We tried it 100 times. 13 it hit my Leg or Arm. 1 Time it actually hit me in the stomach. The final 1 time it hit the other person in the face.

Grand Lodge

You heard it here first. Disarming someone with a weapon cord has a 1% chance of causing an AoO with an effective +0 strength.


Nuku wrote:
You heard it here first. Disarming someone with a weapon cord has a 1% chance of causing an AoO with an effective +0 strength.

Actually it is more of 15% or 3/20.

Grand Lodge

Sunder Weapon Cord, then Disarm.

All issues solved.

Grand Lodge

Oh? I thought it only went flying at the person's face once? My bad.


It did. I didn't specify who got the AoO.

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

GMs should apply common sense in areas not clearly covered in the rules, while simultaneously respecting and working within precedents set by they rules.

For instance, regarding disarm-grabbing a corded weapon:

Good GM:
"Hm, the rules don't cover what happens if I'm holding your corded weapon. It should definitely have some impact on the situation, so I guess neither of us can move away from each other without performing a drag maneuver or disconnecting from each other. We'll both be considered to have only one hand free in the meantime, and since I'm holding the weapon that's tied to your wrist, I'll take a +2 circumstance bonus if I do decide to drag you, and I can end the situation at any time by simply letting go if I choose."

Bad GM:
"Hm, the rules don't cover what happens if I'm holding your corded weapon. It should definitely have some impact on the situation, so I guess I'll give you the grappled condition with no check needed and no action spent and no AoO against me, and allow myself to perform a drag maneuver as a move action with no check and no AoO."

-----------------------------

Alternatively, a GM with an idea of how to rule in a situation can check his instincts against "the reversal test": If our roles were switched and the player was trying to do this, would I let it fly? The best GMs can answer this question honestly. Other GMs might try to claim that of course the player could do the same thing, but the rest of us sure as hell know the answer.

The Exchange RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, Contributor

I can't see giving someone a free drag ability because of the weapon cord, but it's not really important. Disarm them, you now have their favorite weapon, hang onto it.

If a creature wanted to perform a combat maneuver against a weapon corded enemy, I'd probably give them a circumstance bonus to their attempt.

Dark Archive

I'm a fan of Standard action disarm, move action sever the cord. :) I'll have to remember that if I encounter anyone abusing their 1 gp lifeline.

Grand Lodge

I am not a fan of free Combat Maneuvers, just because a PC took some effort to prevent one.

That seems vindictive.

A player wears a locked gauntlet, the enemy shouldn't get a free sunder attempt when attempting disarm the PC.

That's just a jerk move.

The Exchange RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, Contributor

I'm not sure why you'd want to cut the cord myself. So long as the weapon is attached by the cord they cannot use another weapon. By cutting the cord you are just saving them an action. Leave them connected, they have to either disarm you (likely provoking) spend a move action to cut the cord, or spend a full round untying it.

Edit : to be honest, I'm not a big fan of prededitating enemy actions to nerf a specific player. If it makes sense for the enemy to disarm and there is a reasonable chance they would do it in their normal tactics, then go for it. Having every enemy run up and disarm the gunfighter or archer in the group in the first round is not cool though.

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