I would like to wield an Anchor and not be a liability (Pathfinder)


Advice


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Hello,

/small intro
I've been lurking about for a little now, since I started playing DnD with friends from college. After college, I realized that we can still play together despite being far apart physically (over skype), so we are starting a new campaign. I'm still relatively new, so I'm not too familiar with what can and can't be done, hence this post.
/end intro

*tl;dr version: Can I wield a Large Anchor on a medium character and not be a liability? If so, how? Thanks! X_X

We are running a Skull and Shackles campaign, 20 point buy. I can probably pull from anything not 3rd party, but anything 3rd party or too ridiculous would probably be subject to DM approval. While I was trying to think of a fun character to play out, I remembered a certain fighting game I had played, and decided it would be interesting to wield a Large Anchor as a weapon. The perfectionist side of me, however, is protesting. Between the improvised weapon penalties, oversized weapon penalties, and likely poor improvised weapon damage dice, I'm afraid I'd be useless to my fellow players. Anyone have suggestions on how I could pull this off? I don't need to be optimal (or I wouldn't be trying to hit people with an Anchor), but I don't want to drag my fellow PCs down by not pulling my own weight.

My thoughts so far: would fighter's BAB and extra feats be enough to offset this (allow me to get catch off-guard and imp weapon mastery without feat starving myself)? I've never built a multi-classed character before, could that somehow help?

Thanks, and sorry for the long post!

EDIT: Grammar fixes, and a thought: I can take one campaign trait, and I just saw Dockside Brawler in the player guide, that could probably help...


Pattern it after a meteor hammer or dire flail. Crunch is satisfied, flavor is satisfied.


I would just fluff an Earthbreaker that looks like an anchor. If it is May from Guilty Gear she seems to swing it around as more of a blunt object than anything else. No reason to hinder yourself if your GM will go long with the reskinning.


Weapon damage dice is determined by the GM, likely a d8 or a d10. Crit is only on a 20.

Since it's an improvised weapon you pretty much ignore the size category - It's one-handed, two-handed or too big to use. In this case it is an anchor that you are using 2 handed.

So really you are looking at only using 1 feat - Catch Off Guard, and a sub-optimal weapon. That's basically fine. To get the most out of Catch Off Guard possibly consider disarming as part of what your guy does.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

i played a guy who fought with an anchor (Culder "The Cap'n" Hargraves- the heir to shipping business who'd been the sole survivor of the company's small fleet being lost in a storm; he fought with the anchor that was the only thing recovered from ships); my GM and I just reskinned a spiked chain, although they worked differently back then... i don't know anything about anyone in any game, but my suggestion would be to talk to your GM about using a Dorn Dergar and just having it look like an anchor.

edit: if you want to fight with a real anchor (possibly so you can just pick one up on any ship) you could do so with just about any class... take the catch off-guard feat and the surprise weapon trait and you'll be in good shape. as an improvised weapon the stats won't be the greatest, but you'll be great at hitting and able to use any number of improvised weapons around a ship. (a rogue might be a decent option cause unarmed foes are flat footed against your attacks, or a monk of the empty hand- they can take improvised mastery at 6th and get some other bonuses with/for using improvised weapons; fighter really wouldn't be a bad option either).


depends on how you want to use it.
Do you want to just be able to pick up any old object roughly the size of an Anchor and kill people?
Breaker barbarian with the surprise weapon trait can rock some pretty hefty modifiers for improvised weapons. A pirate ship is mostly made of things one could improvise into a weapon.
Barbarian would also open the Hurling tree, so as to throw your anchor at people who are cheating and as such are too far away to crush with your anchor.

If you want to specifically use an anchor as a weapon and nothing else.
Two handed fighter with the weapon either being a reskinned earth breaker or an Ogre hook (which being an over sized Meat hook just needs to have two of them stuck together to look like something close to an anchor.
Then you just go down the line of traditional THW fighter and turn people into pasted with one action.

TWF tree of combat is the least feat intensive in the game, Power attack and furious focus, for quite some time that's all you really need.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

i like the hurler option- throw it at someone and then use the chain that is conveniently already attached to it to pull it back to you for further use, lol.


Thanks for the replies!

@Experiment 626 I guess "Pattern" means ask the DM to have it mechanically be one thing, and just be an anchor for RP? I can run that by him later, but if I remember correctly he shot down something similar previously, so that may be a no-go.

@Hawktitan I didn't consider it that way, but now that you mention it, the weapon size section says that size refers to "the size of the creature for which the weapon was designed." Since it was not designed as a weapon at all, I move on to the next paragraph where it says that as a general rule "a two-handed weapon is an object of the same size category as the wielder" which matches my mental picture of someone wielding an anchor similar to their own size. Thanks for that!

@MeatyPulp Got it in one go...I'm not very good at being original. :( I'll see how my DM takes to the fluff/pattern idea later.

@nate lange Glad to see I'm not the only one to try this. When I tried to google or specifically site search, I couldn't really find anything between the many, many posts about dimensional anchors.

Thanks again!


Djinnistorm wrote:
...I remembered a certain fighting game I had played...

was it Dynasty Warriors and Huang Gai?

for everybody eles the anchor in question is about 7-8ft long and multi pronged...


"Dragging your players down with your anchor."

See if you can't convince your GM to let you use equipment trick (anchor). It's sort of confusing how or even if that would work, but I see it getting some of the advantages of an anvil or rope, given it's a big ol heavy thing on a chain.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/cavalier/orders/paizo---cavali er-orders/order-of-the-land

Two levels in this will give you the ability to treat anyone around you as flat-footed when you fight with your anchor.

Honestly, after that I'd go for damage, given their AC will be dropped by being flat-footed and your weapon won't/can't be enhanced. I'd do this with sneak attack. Rogue is probably a dangerous choice, so I'd go with ninja. Yes, you'd be a very odd ninja, running around with a large anchor, smacking things in the face. The ninja description doesn't say anything against using the heavy armor proficiency you gained from cavalier other than evasion, so that's possible too. And there are lots of ninja tricks that effect sneak attacks, which all your attacks are.


I like the monk of the empty hand for this.

Liberty's Edge

Assuming you want something like this with a length of chain or rope attached, you could save yourself and your GM a lot of trouble by just taking Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Grappling Hook (it's listed in the ranged exotic weapons list on the PFSRD,) and bump the size up to Large. With some rejiggering, you could wind up with something like this: Damage 1d8/ x2/ range 10ft./ 28lbs/ B/ trip.

I changed the damage type and swapped Grapple for Trip because, at that size, an anchor is going to be too heavy and large to stick to most creatures.


http://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment---final/weapons/weapon-descriptions/flyin g-blade

See if this is similar to what you want. I say just change it to a "anchor" on the end.


You'll need to get a back up weapon for enclosed spaces. You'd hate to drag the party down with weight of not choosing a good back up and thus be a burden to the group...see what I did there lol


Alright, spoke with my GM, he wasn't a fan of the fluffed real weapon thing, so improvised weapon it is. He also pointed out something I didn't notice about fighter: improvised weapon is not in a weapons training group. Is Fighter worth it just for the bonus feats, or would something else like a barbarian be better? Or something I haven't thought of as far as a class. Or a multiclass set-up?

EDIT: Doesn't empty hand monk take the usual penalties to improvised weapons until lv 6? Unless he takes catch off guard...hmm, might still be better than fighter? Not sure.
EDIT2: Found the clarification about empty hand monk not taking the -4, so that could be a way to go.


Djinnistorm wrote:

Alright, spoke with my GM, he wasn't a fan of the fluffed real weapon thing, so improvised weapon it is. He also pointed out something I didn't notice about fighter: improvised weapon is not in a weapons training group. Is Fighter worth it just for the bonus feats, or would something else like a barbarian be better? Or something I haven't thought of as far as a class. Or a multiclass set-up?

EDIT: Doesn't empty hand monk take the usual penalties to improvised weapons until lv 6? Unless he takes catch off guard...hmm, might still be better than fighter? Not sure.

I remember that a designer had stated that the monk of the empty hand is supposed to be proficient with improvised weapons from lvl 1. This is not RAW though, be sure to consult your GM.

A better alternative though is the Cad fighter. He specialises in using dirty trick with improvised weapons, so he makes a good fit. Youc an further optimise him by dipping on lvl in maneuver master monk for faster access to dirty trick, and by having crane style until the 11th lvl of the Cad, so that you can lower the penalties of defensive fighting to your attack rolls.

Makse sure that you take teh Catch-Off Guard feat with your first lvl bonus feat and retrain it at your 4th fighetr lvl.


Ok so check this out this is the Build i used for a Anchor Wielder
Feats as follows
Catch Off-Guard (Combat) - Negates Penalty for improvised Weapons

Monkey Grip(3.5 feat)(If Dm allowes)- if you dont know what this is see Below

You can use melee weapons one size category larger than you are with a -2 penalty on the attack roll, but the amount of effort it takes you to use the weapon does not change. For instance, a Large longsword (a one-handed weapon for a Large creature) is considered a two-handed weapon for a Medium creature that does not have this feat. For a Medium creature that has this feat, it is still considered a one-handed weapon. You can wield a larger light weapon as a light weapon, or a larger two-handed weapon in two hands. You cannot wield a larger weapon in your off hand, and you cannot use this feat with a double weapon.

And as for the Anchor itself
Large/Huge Two-handed improvised Melee Depending on Weight/Size
2d8 for Large Anchor
3d8 for Huge Anchor
Crit on 20
X2 Crit damage

If you Eventuality Meet the Requirements Take the Wield Oversized Weapon Feat from 3.5 as well (See Below)

Prerequisite
Monkey Grip (CW) , STR 25, Base attack bonus +21,

Benefit
You can treat any weapon as if it were one size category smaller than normal and one category "lighter" for the purpose of determining the amount of effort it takes to wield. For instance, a halfling with this feat could wield a Medium short sword as a Small light weapon, or a human could wield an ogre's Large greatclub as a Medium twohanded weapon. The weapon still deals its normal amount of damage.

This feat subsumes the effects of the Monkey Grip feat. The feats' effects do not stack.


If I had a nickel for every time someone wanted to wield an anchor, I’d have 10 cents. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.


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I think Shikigami style and vital strike is probably the way to go.

RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

Melkiador wrote:
If I had a nickel for every time someone wanted to wield an anchor, I’d have 10 cents. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.

In all such oddities, blame Anime.


If you just want the look of swinging a giant anchor without actually doing it... aether kineticist with telekinetic haul and kinetic blade. Sadly, you can't use the tk haul till level 4, but before then you could just swing a fairly small anchor.


Another option is the Weapon Master Handbook (I think it's that one). There is a Chapter on Creating New Weapons that might help


I second the suggestion of Shikihami Style. You get a bigger damage die for each feat in the chain. Although I don't think you need to take more than the first two. I think there's a feat to use Weapon Training with an improvised weapon. I could be wrong though.

Dark Archive

Brawler with the Hinyasi archetype and shikigami style.
Take the trait surprise weapon


I did a gloomblade build that was throwing comically oversized hammers with vital strike and shinigami style. It slapped quite hard in spite of being a cohort.

Whenever he actually used multiple attacks he was compelled to shout "This massacre is brought to you by GLOOMSTORM! PAINTRAINS Newest and bestest logistical solution to all of your ammo-related warcrimin needs! Contact our next sales representative in the Abyss, Abbadon or the plane of shadows!" due to an unwise bargain entered with kind of Zun Kuthons military industrial complex.


On mobile right now, so no fancy formatting but check out this thread:

Angry Quaggan.

I asked for advice for an anchor using barbarian and ended up with a medium anchor using Hook Fighter.

Check it out, it might just be what your looking for.

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