Archpaladin Zousha's WHAT'S MY WEAPON?

[Archpaladin Zousha]

In the years I've spent as a member of these boards and player of this fabulous game we call Pathfinder, I've found myself asking a LOT of questions regarding weapons in the Pathfinder universe, most often after discovering a real-world weapon I think'd be pretty cool to use, and wondering what weapon in the game would be the best thing to simulate it with.

I've asked these questions in James Jacobs' question thread, and while he does an admirable job answering them (and being patient with me), I feel it'd be better for me to make my own thread for these kinds of questions so I can get a wider variety of answers and opinions and not take up as much of James' valuable time. Plus, others might have similar questions, and could use this thread to get answers of their own! So welcome to WHAT'S MY WEAPON? and enjoy! :)

[Archpaladin Zousha]

My first question is in regards to the ox tongue spear and the partisan.

Would the ranseur be the best way to simulate these weapons?

[The Shaman]

The ranseur is an option, especially for the partisan, although I am not sure how good the side protrusions will be in trapping an enemy weapon, unlike those of the ranseur.

The ox tongue strikes me as a possible longspear design, to be honest. Some designs supposedly had side-blades as well, but from what I understand the typical one was essentially a spear with a broad, long head.

[The Sideromancer]

In support of partisan-as-ranseur,

Edinburg Renaissance Fencing Academy wrote:

A unique characteristic of partisans was the metal lugs that projected from the base of the blade. Their primary purpose was to aid in parrying and controlling the opponent's weapon, although the size of lugs varied greatly and was only vestigial on some models.

Source

[The Sideromancer]

More googling gives this for the Ox Tongue:

ArmourOnline, Encyclopedia of historical weapons wrote:

The ox-tongue design developed into the partisan polearm by the mid 16th century.

Source

I would then say that mechanically, Ranseur=Partisan=Ox Tongue

While we're at this, can I interest you in the Glaive-glaive-glaive-guisarme-glaive?

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Thank you!

Now, here's one that just came to mind. What'd be the best substitute for the yatagan? My gut says falcata, but I've heard suggestions of scimitar instead. Did the yatagan evolve from the falcata (it makes a certain amount of sense, given how it would have spread to those areas through various conquest and trade with the Greeks)?

[Dave Justus]

Falcata seems pretty obvious for that. Yatagan's more likely evolved from Greek kopis or the mongol saber, rather than the Falcata which was a Carthaginian weapon (which probably came from the Celts, although they all could be related.)

Basically though, the idea of a sickle shaped forward curving sword isn't something that is impossible to come on one's own.

[Jokey the Unfunny Comedian]

Not sure why anyone would want to tear the tongue out of an ox and fight orcs with it.

Adventurers sure are strange people.

[Lemmy]

Hopefully, this might be useful for future fantasy weapon-related endeavors. ^^

[UnArcaneElection]

My weapon of question is the Spetum. It looks like it should have the Trip property, and has pretty scary looking blaces, but although it was in the AD&D 1.0 weapons table (which had just about everything, although it seemed unexceptional in that table), Pathfinder doesn't seem to have it. I would almost be inclined to give its properties to the Fauchard, whereas the historical Fauchard actually doesn't look any more scary than various other polearms described on Wikipedia.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

In my rather uneducated opinion (hence the purpose of this thread), the ranseur feels like the closest equivalent to the spetum, at least in terms of generic shape, or possibly the tiger fork.

Despite the title, got a bit of an armor question this time:

Behold, Total War: Shogun 2's Kisho Ninja.

If I were to play a ninja like these fellows, how would I go about matching their armor? My best guess is the do-maru, but I'm not sure if that has metal components to make out of mithral (considering ninja need to wear light armor for some of their class abilities, if I remember correctly).

[Java Man]

The simplest answer for that armor would be lamellar, leather wiuld be the cheap route to keep it light, For higher cost you could go darkleaf or stell lamellar or do maru made of mithral.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Presenting another weapons question:

At the moment, there appears to be only one type of weapon modeled after the Chinese dao, the nine-ringed broadsword. How would one simulate similar weapons that didn't have rings, but were still part of Chinese martial arts like the Yanmaodao or Liuyedao? The only thing that looks close would probably be the scimitar but that's obviously not a monk weapon the way the NRB is.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Another sword comparison!

Would the estoc be the best way to emulate the boar sword depicted here? It's basically the same construction, but it lacks the ability to brace the way a boat sword is supposed to in real life. I suppose I could reflavor the game's boat spear, since it's similar in both nomenclature and function, but as a simple weapon it feels kind of "too easy to learn" compared to the exotic estoc.

[Java Man]

I'm not seeing why this sword is more 'braceable' than any other. Call it an estoc, or longsword, and move on.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Boar swords are specifically made to stab an oncoming boar to check its momentum and prevent the boar from travelling down the blade to gore you. That slot near the tip is for lugs similar to those of a boar spear. That's what makes it "braceable."

[Java Man]

The cross bar on a boar spear is not the source of the brace quality. Looking at existing weapons with the brace quality, they are all spears and polearms. This tends to make me think that having a long sticklike part on the weapon might mean something. But I'm not your GM, and reskinning for style is completely valid.

[Mark Carlson 255]

This discussion reminds me of one of my favorite articles from D&D 1.0 in the Dragon Mag that had lots of new pole arms. If you can find the article then it should have some info that you could use with the main problem being that the older system does not have weapon special abilities but it does have flavor text that may help you out with the abilities.

My main concern is that often an article provides a weapon in flattering light but if it was such a great weapon why was it not more prevalent in society/history? Was it manufacturing issues, weight, exclusivity (but again IMHO someone would have just copied it), armor or unwieldeyness?
ie the scythe is a weapon I have a lot of problems with as a combat weapon as it is so unwieldy vs other weapons. And since PF does not modify the auto miss of 1 for various weapons it provides the scythe and advantage vs other weapons.

But anyways back to the OP, I love that fact you are doing some Role-Playing and not just roll-playing.

MDC