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Since whips are traditionally made out of leather, are these any special materials you can use to make them? It seems like whipwood is the only one which seems like it could work, but even then that's almost a houserule since whipwood is in fact a type of wood, and whips aren't generally made from wood.
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Given that magic can be involved, I don't see much of an issue with an enchanted silver whip, a whip made out of fire, or even more esoteric materials (although I imagine those would cause trouble in an anti-magic area).
Mundane construction materials would be limited to things like leather, or perhaps rope, maybe even hair. It speaks volumes that whips have never been considered as a primary war-weapon, but rather as tools for torment, humiliation and animal husbandry (tying in with the first two).
We don't really see combat whip users in fiction short of like Indiana Jones, or the occasional torturer type (who uses it because its at hand). Probably because nobody wants to go to war wielding one of the damn things unless they really have to (even Indy goes for the gun or fisticuffs first).
Given that magic can be involved, I don't see much of an issue with an enchanted silver whip, a whip made out of fire, or even more esoteric materials (although I imagine those would cause trouble in an anti-magic area).
Mundane construction materials would be limited to things like leather, or perhaps rope, maybe even hair. It speaks volumes that whips have never been considered as a primary war-weapon, but rather as tools for torment, humiliation and animal husbandry (tying in with the first two).
We don't really see combat whip users in fiction short of like Indiana Jones, or the occasional torturer type (who uses it because its at hand). Probably because nobody wants to go to war wielding one of the damn things unless they really have to (even Indy goes for the gun or fisticuffs first).
Primary weapon, not so much, but a weapon of war? Certainly. Whips have been used as late as the 19th century Old West to unseat horse riders (wrap 'em around the rider's body or neck).
Rhinoceros hide has traditionally been used to make a kind of whip called a "sjambok" in Africa. It's a long, whippy rod that has actually been used for crowd control in the streets of Johannesburg. Cold Steel makes 'em from modern plastics and they're quite intimidating.
BUT...this is Golarion, and I say make your whip from anything you want, and enchant away. Enjoy giving your GM headaches as you insist on what your whip can do.
A normal whip is limited in what materials it can be made of. However, with the appropriate magic weapon abilities (brilliant energy, deadly, and one of flaming, frost, or shock), you can definitely get some mileage out of it.
There is another option:
SCORPION WHIP
Price 5 gp
Type exotic
This whip has a series of razor-sharp blades and fangs inset along its tip. It deals lethal damage, even to creatures with armor bonuses. If you are proficient with whips, you can use a scorpion whip as a whip.
A scorpion whip can be made with the "razor sharp blades and fangs" out of special materials.
Hmm... so I could get a Scorpion Whip with Cold Iron blades, but just use it as a normal Whip(which then happens to be Cold Iron)?
Interesting...
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Special Materials
Weapons and armor can be crafted using materials that possess innate special properties. If you make a suit of armor or weapon out of more than one special material, you get the benefit of only the most prevalent material. However, you can build a double weapon with each head made of a different special material.
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Whips are primarily made of leather, so you would not be able to use any special metals.
Whips are primarily made of leather, so you would not be able to use any special metals.
Well, you COULD use special metals, but you would not gain the property of silver unless the whip was made mostly of silver. It would be very hard to justify a silver or cold iron whip that is flexible enough to function properly (unless, as above, it's a Scorpion Whip).
I also think whipwood would qualify per RAW. There's nothing there that limits or prevents it's use. Animal sinew with special properties would also qualify as a material component.
I think your best bet there would be to use the alchemical stuff that you coat your weapon with to give it the temporary properties.
In a recent homegame, our GM allowed the druid to make a whip from the tendril of a violet fungus.
Special Materials
Weapons and armor can be crafted using materials that possess innate special properties. If you make a suit of armor or weapon out of more than one special material, you get the benefit of only the most prevalent material. However, you can build a double weapon with each head made of a different special material.
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Whips are primarily made of leather, so you would not be able to use any special metals.
There's nothing in the rule you quoted that says a weapon most be made "primarily" of a particular material before special materials can be used. It says that if you make a weapon with two special materials, it only benefits from one.
An arrow can get the benefits of silver for just having a silver head, and the same is true of a longspear, but both of those weapons are 90% wood. I don't see why a scorpion whip can't benefit as well.
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Given that magic can be involved, I don't see much of an issue with an enchanted silver whip, a whip made out of fire, or even more esoteric materials (although I imagine those would cause trouble in an anti-magic area).
Mundane construction materials would be limited to things like leather, or perhaps rope, maybe even hair. It speaks volumes that whips have never been considered as a primary war-weapon, but rather as tools for torment, humiliation and animal husbandry (tying in with the first two).
We don't really see combat whip users in fiction short of like Indiana Jones, or the occasional torturer type (who uses it because its at hand). Probably because nobody wants to go to war wielding one of the damn things unless they really have to (even Indy goes for the gun or fisticuffs first).
Primary weapon, not so much, but a weapon of war? Certainly. Whips have been used as late as the 19th century Old West to unseat horse riders (wrap 'em around the rider's body or neck).
Rhinoceros hide has traditionally been used to make a kind of whip called a "sjambok" in Africa. It's a long, whippy rod that has actually been used for crowd control in the streets of Johannesburg. Cold Steel makes 'em from modern plastics and they're quite intimidating.
BUT...this is Golarion, and I say make your whip from anything you want, and enchant away. Enjoy giving your GM headaches as you insist on what your whip can do.
Color me educated!
I do support the ethic of just making them out of anything if they're enchanted. Although I do find myself wondering what happens when a enchanted magma whip turns into in an anti-magic area.
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Special Materials
Weapons and armor can be crafted using materials that possess innate special properties. If you make a suit of armor or weapon out of more than one special material, you get the benefit of only the most prevalent material. However, you can build a double weapon with each head made of a different special material.
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Whips are primarily made of leather, so you would not be able to use any special metals.There's nothing in the rule you quoted that says a weapon most be made "primarily" of a particular material before special materials can be used. It says that if you make a weapon with two special materials, it only benefits from one.
An arrow can get the benefits of silver for just having a silver head, and the same is true of a longspear, but both of those weapons are 90% wood. I don't see why a scorpion whip can't benefit as well.
My mistake. Your are correct. I was thinking of the passage under mithral (which apparently only applies to mithral):
Items not primarily of metal are not meaningfully affected by being partially made of mithral.| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
away.
"Wheres there's a whip, there is a way"
Special Materials
Weapons and armor can be crafted using materials that possess innate special properties. If you make a suit of armor or weapon out of more than one special material, you get the benefit of only the most prevalent material. However, you can build a double weapon with each head made of a different special material.
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Whips are primarily made of leather, so you would not be able to use any special metals.There's nothing in the rule you quoted that says a weapon most be made "primarily" of a particular material before special materials can be used. It says that if you make a weapon with two special materials, it only benefits from one.
An arrow can get the benefits of silver for just having a silver head, and the same is true of a longspear, but both of those weapons are 90% wood. I don't see why a scorpion whip can't benefit as well.
My mistake. Your are correct. I was thinking of the passage under mithral (which apparently only applies to mithral):
Items not primarily of metal are not meaningfully affected by being partially made of mithral.
I think mithral's extra requirement is because it effects the weight of the item. It makes sense that a mithral-tipped arrow wounds your enemy with the mithral part, but not that a mithral-tipped arrow would weigh half as much as a steel-tipped arrow.
I seem to recall Zorro as using a whip in several different movies...
Also, I would like to point out that the only part of the whip that strikes for damage is the tip, and it works because it is traveling at supersonic speeds. Yes, the crack of a whip is the tip breaking the sound barrier.