Fantasy Action Hero Backup Weapons

[Hannes665]

Originally Posted by Kazander

MA68 in the Targeted Attack box, second paragraph:
It makes no mention at all of missile weapon skills. I guess we have a lack of editing consistency here. Obviously Kyujutsu contradicts this in the same book, so you must be able to use missile skills. Personally, I don't much like TA anyway. Give the players a choice, and they'll go for Vitals, Neck and Skull almost everytime.

Page 252 High Tech 4e.

For each Targeted Attack (TA), the gunman must specify a Guns specialty and a target. The target can be a hit location other than the torso (Eye, Face, Arm, etc.), chinks in armor at a specific hit location (Torso Chinks is valid, although the GM may rule that some hard armor isn’t vulnerable), or Weapon.

It like TA in MA is ofcourse an optional rule.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Kazander

However, to nitpick:

That price is for weapons that are only missiles.

So when you buy the Enchantment at that price it only works when you use the weapon at range. It doesn't work when you use the knife in melee. That's certainly how I'd GM it.

As to the "throwing away" part Loyal Weapon at 750 per lb is most affordable for light weapons like the 1 lb Large Knife. Winged Knife and Hide Object are also priced by the lb.

Again, you'll say this is expensive but you're going to have to spend $ and/or cp or lower your expectations. Going ninja will tend to be expensive too as you're literally throwing away things.

I agree with Kromm about hatchets but the OP said he'd already tried those.

[Anthony]

When aiding a buddy, don't discount impairing weapons. Sure, bola damage sucks, but it can be a distraction for long enough that your buddy can cope on his own. Same for a whip. A net ready for use isn't particularly concealable, but it can be folded up just fine and might be ignored anyway. A cloak might not have the range you want, but it's a worthwhile skill in its own right.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

So when you buy the Enchantment at that price it only works when you use the weapon at range. It doesn't work when you use the knife in melee. That's certainly how I'd GM it.

I assume that's the price for ammunition, and that it's one use.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Anthony

I assume that's the price for ammunition, and that it's one use.

As far as I can tell it isn't one use. I've certainly never treated it as such. As long as the missile survives the enchantment is intact.

[griffin]

Originally Posted by Blood Legend

Most of us have been down this road. A good action hero is only as good as his emergency weapon in any genre. The first one always gets knocked out of his hand and kicked across the floor somehow.

I've dabbled in Crossbows, Knives, Hatchets, and sometimes a whole 'nother sword. But I can't seem to find one I like.

Hatchets or Throwing Axes are good. I prefer knives though. More elegant weapon

Sometimes you need to help out a friend while you're engaged in your own fight. One such event happened to me in a recent game where I played a ranger.

Assassins broke into our room after poisoning us with room service. The cleric goes down, but the ward and I are up and rearing to defend. I'm trying to rack up the kill count as fast as I can now. I'm going toe-to-toe with the femme and she's getting stomped. My friend is having less luck so I pull out a knife on my turn to even the odds. I give it a good toss and to cut things short: it does crap, against an old man, an old man who isn't wearing much better than cloth armor. The words uttered "What kind of a ranger are you?" In jest out-of-game at the proceeding moment got me thinking...

I'm not entirely clear on what happened here, but I assume the old man was the enemy target and NOT your friend. First read I thought you were tossing the knife to your buddy and managed to skewer him!

Knives suck. Whats a good off-hand ranged weapon suitable for aiding friends having bad luck with the dice? It needs to be small, capable of practical holdout rolls, legal in most typical fantasy settings (dont ask me 'well it depends on your setting.' Have some imagination will ya? Guy walks into the inn in full plate armor for god's sake) and easily useable indoors.

You need Weapon Master (Knife) and/or Targeted Attack. TA should specify some vulnerable area like neck or vitals. BTW, if you are throwing with your off hand you will take a penalty so you need to offset that some way (Off hand training, Ambidextrous, etc.).

[Kale]

I was in a campaign with a guy who used twin shortswords and only had ST 10. He only did 1d with each sword, so he took hit location (neck) and dual weapon attack. If he hit you with that combo you went down unless you had significant armor on the neck (uncommon in fantasy armor since its hard to make comfortable neck armor that allows your head free movement). Long knives give you almost the same bang for the buck as shortswords. I'd say a long knife and some points in targeted attack (chinks in armor) and targeted attack (vitals) or (neck) would be worth it. Also, slashing at veins and arteries (additional -2, I believe) ups the damage factor significantly. With a weak weapon that does impaling or cutting it's important to go for targets that increase the damage multiplier.

[Icelander]

Well, I'm biased in that I tend to think that it's unrealistic for a warrior to be very skilled with one weapon and worthless with others. So I tend to encourage players to take many weapon skills, especially if they're playing warrior types (which an action hero certainly is).

As a result, the characters in my campaigns have more than backup weapons, they have tertiary, quartary and quinary weapons as well. A few examples:

A ranger who is an exiled knight carries an arming sword as his primary weapon, but wears a small axe, large knife and a hatchet as well. He owns a shield, but rarely uses it and can fight with spear and lance if he has to. He also carries a bow for long distance engagements. His skill with all of the above weapons ranges from DX+2 to DX+5.

A self-proclaimed merchant with an unsavoury past wears armour of enchanted spidersilk under his fine velvet doublets and fancy cloaks. He carries a saber as his primary weapon and has three large daggers, a small stiletto and as many as six throwing knives hidden on his person somewhere. He also owns a hunting bow, crossbow and a buckler. In a pinch, he can use cutlasses, cavalry sabers and clubs of all sizes. His skills range from DX+1 to DX+3, but he has a high DX.

The rough and tumble clansman from the wild hill folk has recently been anointed knight for his heroism. He uses a claymore as his primary weapon, most often in both hands, but wears a long-bladed rondel and small hammer as backup weapons. He also carries a ballock knife with a 10" blade and a small sgian dubh knife. He collects weapons, so these are just a sampling of what he has. Other weapons he's fought with include a spear, harpoons, shields (both bucklers and strapped ones) and improvised weapons of various sorts. He's deadly with anything he might pick up in a tavern fight. His weapon skills are DX+2 to DX+6.

The warrior scholar from an Eastern culture is a horse archer by training and is also learning to use magic. That means he has a recurved bow of dragonbone, an 8' long ash spear with a long blade, two savegely curved shamshirs, a dagger and a magic wand stiff enough to parry and thrust with. His weapon skills range from DX to DX+5, with Knife being his weakest skill, as he hardly ever uses it for battle.

If I had to name two compact and useful backup weapons, I'd name the Long Knife and the Hatchet.

[Gurps Fan]

I'd recommend Long Knife. It's a very useful melee weapon. It can even be thrown if the GM permits Thrown Weapon (Sword) skill (Martial Arts, p. 220). Range 5 at ST 10, -3 to Holdout, Fast-Drawable.

[SuedodeuS]

What you're looking for is a good, muscle-powered, one-handed, concealable ranged weapon. The hatchet and throwing axe are both good (the hatchet can be thrown farther, and is easier to conceal, but the throwing axe does more damage). You may want to invest in TA: Neck to optimize damage. A pistol crossbow could work with a sufficiently lax/cinematic setting. In a more realistic one, there would be legality concerns, as well as the fact that carrying around a loaded crossbow could be rather problematic. A sling is a bit less problematic (provided you have a believable way of keeping it loaded), and the damage is decent, but all told you'd probably be best off with a hatchet or throwing axe (although the sling has far better range, making it more useful outside of a backup weapon role). If you've enough skill to throw more than one at a time, shuriken can also be a good investment. TA: Neck with star shuriken is good if you expect to be against enemies in armor, TA: Vitals with spike shuriken is good against unarmored foes.

If you are willing to sacrifice damage for more useful options, the bolas and the net are excellent investments. Nothing gives an ally the upper hand like making the enemy unable to use his own! For concealability, the bolas is definately your best option. If you expect to be fairly close to the enemy, a long whip can also be useful - although concealability may not be an option.

If you want to keep the points you've invested in Thrown Weapon (Knife) useful, the hungamunga from MA probably has the best damage profile of any thrown knife (sw-1 cut). You'll probably want to target vulnerable areas (the neck and hands) to optimize usefulness. This also goes for many of the weapons I listed above.