How to get an improvised Reach weapon?


Rules Questions


Hi all,

making a peasant-turned-adventurer type character, and want to use the Rough and Ready trait to be able to use some kind of farm implement as a reach weapon. Is there any way to give Improvised weapons qualities? I know there is a mythic feat but that isn't really an option for all characters.

This is all I could find on improvised weapons:

Improvised Weapons wrote:

Sometimes objects not crafted to be weapons nonetheless see use in combat. Because such objects are not designed for this use, any creature that uses an improvised weapon in combat is considered to be nonproficient with it and takes a –4 penalty on attack rolls made with that object. To determine the size category and appropriate damage for an improvised weapon, compare its relative size and damage potential to the weapon list to find a reasonable match. An improvised weapon scores a threat on a natural roll of 20 and deals double damage on a critical hit. An improvised thrown weapon has a range increment of 10 feet.


Find a farm implement that it as long as a polearm (say 8-9 feet) and call it a reach weapon. It is up to the GM, but the idea is you take the not-weapon and give it the basic stats of the closest equivalent real weapon. I'm not sure what would qualify, not being a farmer, but maybe some kind of long pitchfork?


If I were the GM you mechanically end up with a longspear. It's the only simple reach weapon I can think of. I don't know what you would find on a farm to fit it, but that is what you'd get.


Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber

i strength checked a lamp post out of the ground once...


Claxon wrote:
If I were the GM you mechanically end up with a longspear. It's the only simple reach weapon I can think of. I don't know what you would find on a farm to fit it, but that is what you'd get.

Pitchfork?


I'm 90% sure that the only farming tool you might reasonably get that could have reach is a Crosscut Saw (those comical two-man saws from Mickey mouse). No clue if you could use one without penalty, but there it is.


I briefly played a character many years ago who carried a crosscut saw as a backup weapon. His name was Lincoln Logg and he had skill focus lumberjack.

Liberty's Edge

Historically, some of the medieval pole arms were weaponized farm tools, such as the bill, originally a tool for pruning trees. It shouldn't be a problem. If you are of a more concrete mind, research historical pole arms. If you're ok with the abstraction, just go with "farm implement, long."


Pathfinder Maps Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

A farmer probably has plenty of experience re-hafting his tools. When something like a rake, a hoe, an adze or a pitchfork breaks, 9 times out of ten it's the haft that breaks. If going off to war, he might well grab an extra long pole, hammer on whatever spikey, dangerous, rusty tool he's got lying about, and voila: improvised polearm - with reach.

Remember that in many sets of medieval miniature rules, "improvised polearms" is a frequently-referenced category of weapon. So this sort of thing is probably at least as common as normal polearms.

Like glaive-glaive-guisarme-glaives. <g>


nobody brought up ladders as a reach improv weapon? really?

carpenters use ladders all the time.

Grand Lodge

10 foot poles?


pitch fork, ladder (there are even collapsable ones you can get later), long fence post, those long hoes, and in theory the farming version of a scythe-I've seen some redunk long ones; but most arent that long.

If you've got a lot of str wield the Y shaped metal bracket from the horse drawn cart.

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