Half-Orc weapon familiarity


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion


So Half-Orcs treat any weapon with the word “orc” in its name as a martial weapon. But as far as I can see, there's only the Orc double axe...

Is there something I'm missing? Do you think Half-Orcs should get more love in this department?


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Nope, that's it. Unless you can convince your GM that there is totally something called the Orc Bastard Sword and Orcatana (get it? Orc Katana? I'm a comedy genius!)


I don't allow double weapons in my game. They don't exist. (They're non-historic for the most part.)
I introduced an exotic weapon called the "orc battle sword" in one of my campaigns. It's a Klingon bat'leth from Star Trek

Orc battle sword
Two-handed exotic weapon
Cost: 50 gp
Damage (S) 1d10
Damage (M) 2d6
Critical: x3
Range: -
Weight 12 lbs.
Type: P and S
Special: disarm, trip, see text

An orc battle sword is an unusual hiltless sword. It has an outward-facing crescent-shaped blade with three hand grips on the back of the blade, with one or more back-curving blades at the tips. If you have the feat Exotic Weapon Proficiency (orc battle sword), you may, as a swift action, wield it as a one-handed reach weapon until the end of your turn. You do not threaten as a reach weapon when it it not your turn. When using it as a reach weapon, you have a -4 penalty on your CMD vs disarm attempts.


Jinete wrote:

So Half-Orcs treat any weapon with the word “orc” in its name as a martial weapon. But as far as I can see, there's only the Orc double axe...

Is there something I'm missing? Do you think Half-Orcs should get more love in this department?

Sadly. There is a feat, too that only works with weapons with the word orc in it. So it is a big issue. But it's like that for a long time now and they get no love.


Be careful with that terminology. If you specify that one must have the EWP feat specifically, then it doesn't count if you gain proficiency by other means. It'd less cumbersome to just say, "If you are proficient..." because that is not only less wordy but also covers all the bases. You also don't really link using it one-handed and gaining reach (I'm presuming that's what you mean). Other than that, it seems nice, though I question the concept that double weapons are non-historic. After all, you have things like the Bo Staff and Monk Spade as well as Kusarigama and Double-chained Kama. Granted, a double sword or double axe is somewhat odd next to real double weapons, but, as they say, sweeping generalizations are wrong.


The orc battle sword was from a 3.0 campaign I ran circa 2001, and I copy-and-pasted the stats from some notes of that era. I put it out there more as an example of what a GM could do in a home game than as an example of my game design skills. (Or lack of skill.) I based the weapon's abilities on watching Klingons (and Dax) fight with them in episodes of Star Trek. The language about having a feat for proficeincy was copied from the 3.0 Player's Handbook, IIRC. (Can't verify-- I got rid of my 3.0 books years ago.)

I never bothered porting that weapon to Pathfinder-- half-orcs aren't that popular a PC choice in my circles, and orcs have been mostly down-played in the Pathfinder setting. I never had a PC who wanted the weapon, either.

Aside about double weapons:
Kazaan wrote:
Granted, a double sword or double axe is somewhat odd next to real double weapons, but, as they say, sweeping generalizations are wrong.

Re: dopuble weapons: that's why I said that double weapons are non-historic for the most part. Especially from a European perspective. I have no expertise in Asian history or culture, outside of what I read in AD&D Oriental Adventures

I just do away with double weapons in my campaign. If you want to use what's normally a double weapon, great. I'll treat it as a normal weapon, meaning you dojn't get extra attacks with it-- but you do get to choose which end of the thing you're attacking with. And if you have iterative attacks, you can mix up which end you're using. (Enchancing such a weapon doesn't cost double, as per the normal rules.) As for historical weapons like the quarterstaff being a double weapon, well, that's what "Flurry of Blows" is for.

The only reason the two-bladed sword and double-weapon rules were even included in D&D 3.x at all was a last-minute change to the D&D 3.0 rules to take into account Darth Maul from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. The 3.0 designers then realized that they needed more than one double-weapon, so they created a bunch of non-historcial options like the "orc double axe," the "gnome hooked hammer," the "dwarven urgosh," etc.

Back to the OP: There are other "orc" weapons from WOTC 3.5 sources that you could port into Pathfinder, if you wanted to.


Haladir wrote:

I don't allow double weapons in my game. They don't exist. (They're non-historic for the most part.)

I introduced an exotic weapon called the "orc battle sword" in one of my campaigns. It's a Klingon bat'leth from Star Trek

Orc battle sword
Two-handed exotic weapon
Cost: 50 gp
Damage (S) 1d10
Damage (M) 2d6
Critical: x3
Range: -
Weight 12 lbs.
Type: P and S
Special: disarm, trip, see text

An orc battle sword is an unusual hiltless sword. It has an outward-facing crescent-shaped blade with three hand grips on the back of the blade, with one or more back-curving blades at the tips. If you have the feat Exotic Weapon Proficiency (orc battle sword), you may, as a swift action, wield it as a one-handed reach weapon until the end of your turn. You do not threaten as a reach weapon when it it not your turn. When using it as a reach weapon, you have a -4 penalty on your CMD vs disarm attempts.

So wait... You have no double weapons, despite the fact that other than double swords and axes there were plenty of them in history, because they are 'non-historic' but you're ok with the bat'leth? That's a non-historic and in fact incredibly silly and dangerous weapon which is perhaps the most unlikely weapon to be used in anything. Am I missing something here?


rukyo wrote:
So wait... You have no double weapons, despite the fact that other than double swords and axes there were plenty of them in history, because they are 'non-historic' but you're ok with the bat'leth? That's a non-historic and in fact incredibly silly and dangerous weapon which is perhaps the most unlikely weapon to be used in anything. Am I missing something here?

I designed it for a game I ran almost 15 years ago because I had a player who told me "I want to use a bat'leth."

I'm just that cool a GM.


Well, the Orc weapon familiarity has the advantage of giving your fighter types with martial weapon familiarity, one exotic weapon familiarity without having to use up a feat for it.

On the other hand, if you have a character that's not "martially inclined" (like a Bard, Sorcerer, or Rogue), you have proficiency in two decent martial weapons you'd not be able to use otherwise.

I kind of like the idea of a half-orc bard or rogue with the chain fighter alternate weapon trait. Proficiency with flails and heavy flails isn't too bad, since they have that handy trip feature.

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