Top five historical weapons I'd like to see in PF2

[VampByDay]

Don't get me wrong, I love the Treasure Vault and I love all the cool new ideas it gave us, like the Whipstaff and Bow Staff. But there are a few weapons that actually existed in the real world that we haven't gotten PF replicas of yet. I say stick these in the Player Core 2 if you have room, a lot of them are fantastic and would solve some niches.

1: Throwing-Stick. I know the name is stupid, but this weapon was actually all over Europe and Egypt, as well as North and South America (in addition to Australia). It is a stick with an airfoil and can actually out-distance a javalin IRL. We do have the boomerang, but The throwing-stick is not designed to be returning. A simple weapon that does a d4 damage (throwing only) with a range of maybe 40 feet? That way it's not stepping on the toes of the Javalin or Light hammer, but it's still good to use.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfUcGiM_Yk8

2: Sabre, C'mon, man. Just make a rapier that has parry instead of disarm, does slashing instead of piercing, and if you think that's too powerful, reduce its deadly to d6 or maybe even d4. We have the Spiral Rapier, but that thing is garbage compared to the normal rapier, who thought that was a good idea?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR976PhMbDM

3) Chinese Jian. This Straight-sword of Chinese design is actually pretty cool and I'm sorry to see it doesn't get a lot of love in RPGs. The thing is . . . I would probably give it the sames stats as the Aldori Dueling Sword, which we already have? Maybe just say remove the uncommon tag in Tien and treat the two as the same?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCTsU7Ihqyg

4) Pitchfork: So we've all seen those shots where peasants grab their pitchforks and go to town on the monster . . . why do we not have that? Sure we have the trident, but that's a martial weapon. Treasure Vault gave us the Frying pan as both cookware and a weapon, why not have a pitchfork as both farming tool and weapon? Make it a simple weapon, two handed, d8, and give it the forceful trait instead of reach like the longspear. Boom, done.

5) Gastraphetes: This 'super crossbow' is nicknamed the 'belly bow' because you had to lean on it with your stomach to cock it because the draw was so powerful. Since the Arbelest is now a martial weapon in the player core, why not make the Gastrophetes? Just make it a martial, maybe even advanced crossbow that takes 2 actions to reload, but is d12 deadly d12 . . . just make it super strong but also just a pain in the but to reload. I think there is room in the game for that. Also, it's the world's first crossbow . . . fun!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44Jn8oBDNCE

[Karmagator]

I'm here for the sabres ^^

[Sy Kerraduess]

based on the Farmer NPC, a pitchfork would be a 1d6 weapon with Reach, so basically just a worse longspear.

[Easl]

I think your proposal on #3 hits the nail on the head for all of them. If a player in a game of mine wanted any of these, I'd tell them to find something in the list that is like what they want and we can change the name and physical description to better reflect their background. Or just homebrew some minor changes. Throwing stick = club that is more expensive but with better thrown range, Sabre = scimitar, Jian = Aldori, longsword, or shortsword, pitchfork = spear. Gastraphetes looks like a heavy crossbow to me; it's recocking mechanism is just more primitive because it's the bronze age greek version instead of the iron age roman version. But same basic weapon; a big two-handed crossbow.

[WatersLethe]

Re: Gastraphetes

Since it doesn't have mechanical advantage (goats foot lever or a winch) its actually got lower poundage than a crossbow. It'd really be a step between bow and crossbow in terms of loading difficulty and draw weight/damage.

[graystone]

Sy Kerraduess wrote:

based on the Farmer NPC, a pitchfork would be a 1d6 weapon with Reach, so basically just a worse longspear.

it might be 1 handed so it might not be a downgrade.

[Ectar]

graystone wrote:

Sy Kerraduess wrote:

based on the Farmer NPC, a pitchfork would be a 1d6 weapon with Reach, so basically just a worse longspear.

it might be 1 handed so it might not be a downgrade.

I think "pitchfork" probably falls into the category of "long tool". Since the NPC stat block has the pitchfork doing 1d6, it's not the worst assumption. And if correct, would make the pitchfork 2-handed.

(I know NPCs are built differently from PCs, so the numbers don't HAVE to correlate)

My historical weapon desire is the monk's spade.
It was one of my favorite weapons and I'm sad it hasn't been printed yet.
It always reminds me of the World War Z novel, but has a place in a fantasy setting from its Buddhist historical backing.

[Calliope5431]

I'd like to see the macuahuitl and the terbutje. Two very interesting and very eccentric weapons.

Not sure about the traits. You could definitely reflavor something else, but then again, "you could reflavor something else" applies to 99% of weapons in PF2 anyway.

[Gisher]

For convenience, here are working video links.

VampByDay wrote:

1: Throwing-Stick.

...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfUcGiM_Yk8

2: Sabre
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR976PhMbDM

3) Chinese Jian.
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCTsU7Ihqyg

5) Gastraphetes
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44Jn8oBDNCE

[Easl]

Calliope5431 wrote:

I'd like to see the macuahuitl and the terbutje. Two very interesting and very eccentric weapons.

Yeah those are different enough to get their own. For 1-H with longish bits of obsidian I'd say slashing, d8? For the giant 2-H versions with more pointy bits of obsidian I'd say greatclub with (P) or maybe (B, P). Both should get some sort of piercing/fragile combo where they increase their effect against unarmored foes but are weaker or get chipped when used against metal armor. Just IMO.

Going back to pitchfork, they are probably as varied as the farms they are used on. So I wouldn't try and create one statblock for it, I'd just tell the player pick a piercing spearish weapon that exists, depending on whether they want a big one or small one or hard but better to use (i.e. martial) one, and call it their pitchfork.

[VampByDay]

There already is a Clockwork macuahuitl

[Calliope5431]

VampByDay wrote:

There already is a Clockwork macuahuitl

True! But that's clearly just a fantasy chainsaw expy and besides is a Rare level 8 item

[Perpdepog]

It also costs about a hundred times more than other weapons because it's level 8 for no real benefit, as far as I can see.

[Dragonchess Player]

Calliope5431 wrote:

I'd like to see the macuahuitl and the terbutje. Two very interesting and very eccentric weapons.

Isn't the leiomano essentially a terbutje (or a macuahuitl with shark teeth instead of obsidian)?

[Qaianna]

Dragonchess Player wrote:

Calliope5431 wrote:

I'd like to see the macuahuitl and the terbutje. Two very interesting and very eccentric weapons.

Isn't the leiomano essentially a terbutje (or a macuahuitl with shark teeth instead of obsidian)?

Probably close enough that you could file off the serial numbers and pass it off as a macuahuitl variant. Maybe the larger version would be d10 damage with deadly d10?

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Dragonchess Player wrote:

Calliope5431 wrote:

I'd like to see the macuahuitl and the terbutje. Two very interesting and very eccentric weapons.

Isn't the leiomano essentially a terbutje (or a macuahuitl with shark teeth instead of obsidian)?

Yeah, that's the way I was treating it.

[JorakFalconstar]

If were adding new weapons I think these 2 would make great additions for the gunslinger

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G97eYE92y8s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgghWnZgJd0

sure it might mean your daily preparations as spent just to load them first.