Character with many weapons


Advice


I have a character coming into game who is amassing a number of various weapons of all different types, and has the quick draw feat. I am yet to ask him about it, as I've only just gotten his character sheet and going over it now.

Is there any rules, or alternatively any advice, when handling this type of "weapon set" and the potential for trying to cycle through them until the weapons are the most effective against the enemy he is going against?


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hmmmm.... couple of things.

the foehammer (dwarven figher) gets hammer mastery at 17th level meaning that any feats that apply to hammers apply to all hammers. Real late tho.
Humans have martial versatility and martial mastery that does the same thing.
Cost can get phrohibitave real quick. Enchanting 1 weapon is expensive, 2 is brutal, with 5 you can only have basic weapons or at most low enchantments on each.
A good idea would to have a MWK cold iron weapon, a MWK silver weapon, a +1 enchantment weapon and your 'main' weapon with more love in it.

I had the idea of going with a 2-weapon fighter that had improved critical, impaling critical, quick draw and the TWF line of feats. This would come together at level 11 and at level 13 he would add critical bleeding and critical mastery to the list. He would have as many +1 vicious katanas as possible and would then proceed to full attack someone, impaling them when he crit and droping the weapon as a free action while grabing the next blade as a free action as well, then continuing with the assault. With luck he would leave 2-4 blades in his foe and just walk away as he burst into a fountian of blood from all the blades sticking out of him.

Shadow Lodge

It is perfectly legal to have a bunch of weapons, although maybe not the best way to go about it. It's best to have maybe 3 weapons made of different materials with enhancements on them: 1 piercing, 1 slashing, 1 bludgeoning.

Just remember that Quick Draw makes drawing a weapon a free action but it is still a move action to sheath a weapon so if he is cycling through weapons each round he is not full attacking unless he drops each weapon after use. Also, don't forget about encumberance, having a slew of weapons would start to get heavy.


Mawgrim wrote:

I have a character coming into game who is amassing a number of various weapons of all different types, and has the quick draw feat. I am yet to ask him about it, as I've only just gotten his character sheet and going over it now.

Is there any rules, or alternatively any advice, when handling this type of "weapon set" and the potential for trying to cycle through them until the weapons are the most effective against the enemy he is going against?

Honestly, this should not be a problem as long as you are playing with at least some attention to weight limits and basic "what fits where" logic. I'm not saying you have to account for every pound on the player, but pointing out that he has enough varied maces and battle axes to move the character near the border of medium or heavy encumbrance may prompt a rethink of just what parts of his kit are important. "So, you are crawling into the kobold tunnels with a lance, a glaive and your usual kit of 8 medium weapons? Are you sure that's wise?"

Encumbrance aside, assembling a reasonable, varied weapon set is time honored common sense approach. If you are a melee combatant you should always try to have a weapon of each type (bludgeoning/slashing/piercing) available. Similarly, as soon as you can afford it, add silver and cold iron to the mix. The key point to being functional while doing this is to overlap - a cold iron morning star covers bludgeoning/piercing/cold iron all in one 6 pound/16gp package.

Silver Crusade

I'm not seeing a problem!

If he's paid for his weapons with his WBL, used one of his feat slots to choose Quick Draw, accounts for the encumbrance of all those weapons, doesn't try to sheathe any as a free action....what's he done wrong?

Liberty's Edge

Mawgrim wrote:
Is there any rules, or alternatively any advice, when handling this type of "weapon set" and the potential for trying to cycle through them until the weapons are the most effective against the enemy he is going against?

The game mechanic for getting information about what to use are the Knowledge skills to get information about monsters.

If you're concerned about helping him manage meta-gaming and out-of-character knowledge, it isn't so much a rules thing as a procedural thing. A suggestion would be to have him provide you with a predefined list that he cycles through when he's dealing with unknown DR.

This is largely a group style-of-play thing rather than something covered by the rules other than the monster knowledge aspect of the Knowledge skills.


There really isn't a great deal of benefit to having several different weapons aside from bypassing certain types of DR. While this can be useful, I find it more useful to simply buff one weapon with enough enhancement on it so that it bypasses different DR based on that (+3 bypasses cold iron/silver, +4 bypasses adamantine(?), +5 bypasses good/evil). If you're fighting the same type of creature with similar DR often then it may be worth investing into having a weapon of the appropriate material or quality to bypass the DR, otherwise I always just deal with what I have. A little damage lost to DR doesn't mean much in the long run.


Thanks for the replies on this one guys - tis much appreciated. Some good suggestions that I'll need to keep in mind regarding the rules and the potential meta-gaming aspect of it.

It's not a question so much of him having done anything wrong as it is having a character clad in full armour carrying his greataxe, with a glaive, bow and shield strapped to his back, a longsword at one hip and a hammer and quiver at the other. I know that it's technically legal and there's nothing wrong with it - its just a bit of a stretch with the belief is all.

Anyways, thanks again!


There should be some limit as to the number of weapons that can be drawn with the draw weapon action versus the stored item action. I don't think there is one, but there probably should be.

Without that limit, casters can draw any of their wands as part of a move action that causes no AOO. They simply declare that the wands are stored on their body similar to the warrior that is carrying the mix of weapons the OP mentions.

Wands weigh a lot less than great swords, so lots more can be carried if encumbrance is the limit.


Or you can keep your wands in an efficient quiver and absolutely not worry about it. I mean, are you really going to have 60+ wands hanging around?

Shadow Lodge

Rory wrote:

There should be some limit as to the number of weapons that can be drawn with the draw weapon action versus the stored item action. I don't think there is one, but there probably should be.

Without that limit, casters can draw any of their wands as part of a move action that causes no AOO. They simply declare that the wands are stored on their body similar to the warrior that is carrying the mix of weapons the OP mentions.

Wands weigh a lot less than great swords, so lots more can be carried if encumbrance is the limit.

Firstly, with the Quick Draw feat drawing weapons is a free action so you can draw multiple weapons per round up to whatever your GM permits.

Free Action wrote:
Free Action: Free actions consume a very small amount of time and effort. You can perform one or more free actions while taking another action normally. However, there are reasonable limits on what you can really do for free, as decided by the GM.

Secondly, nowhere did the OP ever mention wands, however, the Quick Draw feat is specifically for weapons.

Also, yes you can conceivably have your wands placed conveniently on your body so as to draw them as a move action. There is nothing wrong with that. You can equip a wrist sheathe just as easily to do the same thing. You do provoke when drawing those wands though as per the Actions in Combat table: Retrieving a stored item.

Liberty's Edge

anthonydido wrote:
Also, yes you can conceivably have your wands placed conveniently on your body so as to draw them as a move action. There is nothing wrong with that. You can equip a wrist sheathe just as easily to do the same thing. You do provoke when drawing those wands though as per the Actions in Combat table: Retrieving a stored item.

Quickdraw excludes wands, but wands can be drawn as weapons (move action that doesn't provoke).

"Drawing a weapon so that you can use it in combat, or putting it away so that you have a free hand, requires a move action. This action also applies to weapon-like objects carried in easy reach, such as wands. If your weapon or weapon-like object is stored in a pack or otherwise out of easy reach, treat this action as retrieving a stored item."

Shadow Lodge

I thought so, but I couldn't find it. I must haved missed that line.

What's somewhat confusing though is the wrist sheathe wording that says:

wrist sheathe wrote:
...As a move action, you can bend your wrist to cause some or all of these items to drop into your hand (provoking attacks of opportunity as normal)...

What are those parenthesis referring to? In what situation do you provoke?


Having multiple weapons can be a good thing though, especially multiple of the same type for a fighter.
If he goes Weapon Master and Weapon Focus Feat Tree, or something that doesn't get weapon benefits like Unbreakable Warrior, having multiple weapons for different occasions can definitely be a plus.
My personal suggestion?
Have a specific weapon for a specific type of creature.
Against giants, take a reach weapon that's +1 Vicious Giant Bane.
Against dragons, take the same, only +1 Vicious Dragon Bane.
For humans, a falchion or greatsword that's +1 Vicious Human Bane.
The list goes on for different types of enemies.
With that list, you get benefits from not having to rely on simply one weapon. If it gets destroyed or lost, etc, you can be out of luck and a lot of gold.
At least with multiple weapons, you have something for the occasion.


Back in 3.5 there was a term for this "golf bag". It was probably the "norm" for fighter types to carry a weapon for all occasions. Since PF though, you can enchant one weapon and by-pass most DR's so it's not a problem.

I would like to know just how many weapons this player has and how many he thinks he can have positioned for "easy access". Even with quickdraw you've got to have them somewhere sensible I would have thought.


I remember having to do this because of a DM that was very sunder/disarm happy. Had a Greatsword, Longsword, Shortsword, and Dagger and I STILL got them all disarmed or sundered in one combat. That very combat, I had to grab a butter knife and ended up rolling three 20s in a row to confirm(we had that houserule), killing his precious BBEG with a butter knife into his brain.

And then my GM threw rust monsters at me. Cause why not.

Don't be that GM.


Odraude wrote:

I remember having to do this because of a DM that was very sunder/disarm happy. Had a Greatsword, Longsword, Shortsword, and Dagger and I STILL got them all disarmed or sundered in one combat. That very combat, I had to grab a butter knife and ended up rolling three 20s in a row to confirm(we had that houserule), killing his precious BBEG with a butter knife into his brain.

And then my GM threw rust monsters at me. Cause why not.

Don't be that GM.

Hence always have a club! Its free!!

Liberty's Edge

I can still see good reason to carry a variety of weapons...a good bludgeoner for the skeletal things...a big two-hander for when you need it dead quick...a one-hander for use with a shield when it's dangerous...a good bow (with a selection of arrows)...a few good daggers because you never know when you'll look tasty, and they throw well...

When you have a Strength in the mid 20s, what's encumbrance? :p

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