Reach with a Large weapon used by a Medium character

[magikmaan]

I was wondering if a character were to wield a large weapon if it could use it at reach due to its massive size. Say a medium character were using a large greatsword, would he have 10ft reach with that or would he only be able to attack adjacent squares as if he had a normally sized weapon.

[fretgod99]

magikmaan wrote:

I was wondering if a character were to wield a large weapon if it could use it at reach due to its massive size. Say a medium character were using a large greatsword, would he have 10ft reach with that or would he only be able to attack adjacent squares as if he had a normally sized weapon.

Assuming the medium character has a way to wield a large two-handed weapon (which ordinarily cannot be done), no there would not be reach. Reach is determined by the wielder unless the weapon itself specifically mentions it grants reach.

[blackbloodtroll]

No.

First, there is no way a medium PC can wield a Large Greatsword.

Second, weapons only provide Reach, if the weapon has the Reach quality, like the Longspear.

[magikmaan]

Using the Titan Mauler Barbarian archetype in Ultimate Combat a character can wield large weapons with a reduced penalty. Thank you though. I wasn't sure and it was something that was brought up by a friend of mine and I was trying to settle a discrepancy. Thanks again.

[Brf]

That feature is only reducing the penalty, not allowing you to wield something you couldn't.

For instance, you can wield a Large Longsword with two hands, at a -2 penalty. The "Massive Weapons" feature reduces this penalty.

[blackbloodtroll]

Titan Mauler Barbarian only reduces penalties, and does not change the number of hands required to wield them.

See this FAQ.

[Kazaan]

Lets put it this way. If you are a Medium character and wielded a Huge Sunblade (it's a Bastard Sword that handles like a Shortsword so you can do it in this case), you wouldn't have reach despite the weapon being about 16' long. But, if you wield a Tiny Longspear as a light weapon (about 2'), you'd have reach because Longspears have reach. Moreover, if a Large creature (10' natural reach) wielded a Small Longspear as a light weapon, he'd have reach at 15-20'... with a four foot long pointed stick.

Anything beyond that is a stretch... useewutididthar?

[shiiktan]

I may be VERY wrong - but doesn't Amiri the iconic barbarian have a Large two-handed weapon?

[blackbloodtroll]

shiiktan wrote:

I may be VERY wrong - but doesn't Amiri the iconic barbarian have a Large two-handed weapon?

She uses a Bastard Sword, which is one-handed, but two-handed when large.

[Are]

She has a Large bastard sword (which she can wield two-handed because it's normally a one-handed weapon due to her EWP feat).

She doesn't have reach, though, and neither do many creatures who are themselves actually Large and use weapons (since not all Large creatures have reach).

[LazarX]

magikmaan wrote:

I was wondering if a character were to wield a large weapon if it could use it at reach due to its massive size. Say a medium character were using a large greatsword, would he have 10ft reach with that or would he only be able to attack adjacent squares as if he had a normally sized weapon.

A medium character can not wield a weapon that a large character would need two hands to use.

[Kazaan]

Are wrote:

She has a Large bastard sword (which she can wield two-handed because it's normally a one-handed weapon due to her EWP feat).

She doesn't have reach, though, and neither do many creatures who are themselves actually Large and use weapons (since not all Large creatures have reach).

To be more specific, there's a difference between natural reach and the reach weapon property. Small and Medium creatures have 5' natural reach which means, by default, they can attack out to 5' with any weapon. Large creatures have 10' reach so they can attack out to 10' (including anything less than 10'). Huge creatures have 15' reach, so on and so forth. So a Large creature with a Greatsword can attack at 5-10 feet because of natural reach. The reach property of weapons, on the other hand, lets you attack at double your normal reach but you exclude anything in your standard reach. A Medium creature has 5' of natural reach so, with a Longspear, he can attack out to 10' (double 5') but excludes his natural reach (he can't attack at 5'). The Large creature can attack out to 20' (double 10' max natural reach) but excludes the 10' natural reach.

As a houserule, on the other hand, I would suggest that a person with a sufficiently over-sized weapon gets free access to the Lunge feat (without actually needing to spend a feat slot) to "simulate" having increased reach.

[EvilPaladin]

Yeah, reach in pathfinder is weird. I actually had to pull out the Ultimate Equipment and TWO different CRBs to convince my GM that Halberds don't have reach. Which is really weird since they are one of the closest examples of a real-world reach weapon I can think of [unless I go looking], and a lot of the art depicts them as being pretty freaking long.

[FrodoOf9Fingers]

It's because you don't use it as a reach weapon, it's more of a quarterstaff that has a axe head on it.

[Eridan]

The devs should add a sentence to the reach weapon property like 'This property only works with weapons of your size.'

The whole 'Inappropriately Sized Weapons' rules have to be reworked in my opinion because they cause trouble day by day. Can i do this .. how do this works .. May favorite discussions are about inapproproately sized shields / armors.

[blackbloodtroll]

How exactly do you determine the size of a bigger weapon?

Suppose you had a Longsword, which is normally 3-1/2 feet in length, that is Large-sized.

How long in length would it be?

This is mostly for visualizing the weapon in question.

[Kazaan]

Double it. A Medium Longsword would be 3.5' while a Large Longsword would be about 7' and a Huge Longsword about 14'. But it's still not properly weighted/balanced and the handle is too big which is why, even with a 8' Large Bastard Sword (by comparison, a Longspear is also 8'), you can't really "reach" with it because it's not balanced to do so; any attempt at a "reach" with it is really more of a Lunge as it leaves you a bit vulnerable and over-extended. Especially if using a Huge Sunblade (about 16'), it's still not balanced properly for you, even if it does spoof a Shortsword, it's still spoofing a Huge Shortsword.

[Majuba]

Kazaan wrote:

Large creatures have 10' reach so they can attack out to 10' (including anything less than 10'). Huge creatures have 15' reach, so on and so forth.

Just to be clear (and someone up-thread mentioned it), this is not strictly true. Not every Large creature has 10' natural reach, and not every Huge has 15' reach. Most of the upright/bipedal ones do (though not all). Most of the quadrupedal ones have 5' less reach (5' and 10' for large and huge). No hard and fast rule.

[blackbloodtroll]

Kazaan wrote:

Double it. A Medium Longsword would be 3.5' while a Large Longsword would be about 7' and a Huge Longsword about 14'. But it's still not properly weighted/balanced and the handle is too big which is why, even with a 8' Large Bastard Sword (by comparison, a Longspear is also 8'), you can't really "reach" with it because it's not balanced to do so; any attempt at a "reach" with it is really more of a Lunge as it leaves you a bit vulnerable and over-extended. Especially if using a Huge Sunblade (about 16'), it's still not balanced properly for you, even if it does spoof a Shortsword, it's still spoofing a Huge Shortsword.

For some reason, this answer seems like it should have been obvious to me.

I am a bit embarrassed that it didn't come earlier.