Bastard Sword

[Snoring Rock]

I do not have access to my PHB right now. Is the bastard sword always two-handed or wa it optional on damage, etc??

Thanks,

[Arduin]

1D10 one handed & "The bastard sword does 1d12 damage when used with two hands."

[Snoring Rock]

Thanks

[Omote]

Awesome sword in C&C. No two ways about that.

~O

[Buttmonkey]

Awesome sword in C&C. No two ways about that.

~O

Tell me about it. My players are laying waste to all they survey at first level with the damn things. Throw in a strength bonus and most 1 HD monsters are toast. Now I know why almost all of the magical swords in published material are long swords.

[Dracyian]

Bastard swords were brutal in real life too, if you wanted to make it wee bit more balanced you could increase the time it takes to get an extra attack because the reason they never completely won out for dominance as swords went in the times gone past, other than the fact they were expensive swords to make is speed.

[Omote]

Awesome sword in C&C. No two ways about that.

~O

Tell me about it. My players are laying waste to all they survey at first level with the damn things. Throw in a strength bonus and most 1 HD monsters are toast. Now I know why almost all of the magical swords in published material are long swords.

Interesting. Perhaps this exact reason is why it might be a neat idea to not have such weapons available in any village. If the PCs want a bastard sword, they need to go to the big city and obtain one. Maybe there is no way to own one unless you are a soldier in the local soldiery. What about having large weapons outlawed in the Duchy? Perhaps ye olde bastard sword is just not available as their is no one who knows how to make such a weapon? (I do something like this with the godentag).

~O

[Relaxo]

who's got stats on a motherfucker sword?

[Arduin]

Bastard swords were brutal in real life too, if you wanted to make it wee bit more balanced you could increase the time it takes to get an extra attack because the reason they never completely won out for dominance as swords went in the times gone past, other than the fact they were expensive swords to make is speed.

Throw them in a tight underground space and it is fairly useless. Takes a lot of room to swing...

[Snoring Rock]

Awesome sword in C&C. No two ways about that.

~O

Tell me about it. My players are laying waste to all they survey at first level with the damn things. Throw in a strength bonus and most 1 HD monsters are toast. Now I know why almost all of the magical swords in published material are long swords.

Interesting. Perhaps this exact reason is why it might be a neat idea to not have such weapons available in any village. If the PCs want a bastard sword, they need to go to the big city and obtain one. Maybe there is no way to own one unless you are a soldier in the local soldiery. What about having large weapons outlawed in the Duchy? Perhaps ye olde bastard sword is just not available as their is no one who knows how to make such a weapon? (I do something like this with the godentag).

~O

Yes, this it true. History suggests this sword came later in history, was made of better steel, and was expensive. This thing is not readily available in my campaign, at least no in some little town. It happens to be a noble's weapon as well.

[Buttmonkey]

Awesome sword in C&C. No two ways about that.

~O

Tell me about it. My players are laying waste to all they survey at first level with the damn things. Throw in a strength bonus and most 1 HD monsters are toast. Now I know why almost all of the magical swords in published material are long swords.

Interesting. Perhaps this exact reason is why it might be a neat idea to not have such weapons available in any village. If the PCs want a bastard sword, they need to go to the big city and obtain one. Maybe there is no way to own one unless you are a soldier in the local soldiery. What about having large weapons outlawed in the Duchy? Perhaps ye olde bastard sword is just not available as their is no one who knows how to make such a weapon? (I do something like this with the godentag).

~O

Ah, hindsight, my old friend. It's too late to impose restrictions like that in my current campaign. I'm compensating by upping the number of opponents and presenting the party with tougher monsters.

[Lurker]

Awesome sword in C&C. No two ways about that.

~O

Tell me about it. My players are laying waste to all they survey at first level with the damn things. Throw in a strength bonus and most 1 HD monsters are toast. Now I know why almost all of the magical swords in published material are long swords.

Interesting. Perhaps this exact reason is why it might be a neat idea to not have such weapons available in any village. If the PCs want a bastard sword, they need to go to the big city and obtain one. Maybe there is no way to own one unless you are a soldier in the local soldiery. What about having large weapons outlawed in the Duchy? Perhaps ye olde bastard sword is just not available as their is no one who knows how to make such a weapon? (I do something like this with the godentag).

~O

Yes, this it true. History suggests this sword came later in history, was made of better steel, and was expensive. This thing is not readily available in my campaign, at least no in some little town. It happens to be a noble's weapon as well.

Rgr on that. In my homebrew (if I ever get to play or run it) anything better than a short sword will either be cultural - broad sword & Vikings - or social economic class - 'long sword' a knight's man, a bastard sword or better a knight or higher. (knight as in social class, not game class, but I digress).

Also, O, I play where some weapons are outlawed or restricted in various areas and in cities peace knots are part of the law.

[Dracyian]

Bastard swords were brutal in real life too, if you wanted to make it wee bit more balanced you could increase the time it takes to get an extra attack because the reason they never completely won out for dominance as swords went in the times gone past, other than the fact they were expensive swords to make is speed.

Throw them in a tight underground space and it is fairly useless. Takes a lot of room to swing...

That hadn't crossed my mind

[kreider204]

Great thoughts here. It hasn't come up for me yet, so it's nice to get a chance to think about it ahead of time. I'm wondering about simply house ruling that one-handed, the bastard sword does 1d8 (long sword) damage, two-handed, it does 2d6 (2-handed sword) damage. It still provides more versatility than either separately, which I suppose is still a bit "unbalanced," but it seems closer at least.

I suppose that might be compensated by a -1 AC penalty, to reflect that it's not really perfectly balanced for either, compared to a long sword or bastard sword. IIRC, Savage Worlds does something like that.

[Dracyian]

Great thoughts here. It hasn't come up for me yet, so it's nice to get a chance to think about it ahead of time. I'm wondering about simply house ruling that one-handed, the bastard sword does 1d8 (long sword) damage, two-handed, it does 2d6 (2-handed sword) damage. It still provides more versatility than either separately, which I suppose is still a bit "unbalanced," but it seems closer at least.

I suppose that might be compensated by a -1 AC penalty, to reflect that it's not really perfectly balanced for either, compared to a long sword or bastard sword. IIRC, Savage Worlds does something like that.

However it may not be bad to have the weapon be slightly better than the other two, as long as it isn't given to the players till later. As it is recieved later it would only make sense that magical bastard swords are less common than magical two handed or long swords

[kreider204]

Great thoughts here. It hasn't come up for me yet, so it's nice to get a chance to think about it ahead of time. I'm wondering about simply house ruling that one-handed, the bastard sword does 1d8 (long sword) damage, two-handed, it does 2d6 (2-handed sword) damage. It still provides more versatility than either separately, which I suppose is still a bit "unbalanced," but it seems closer at least.

I suppose that might be compensated by a -1 AC penalty, to reflect that it's not really perfectly balanced for either, compared to a long sword or bastard sword. IIRC, Savage Worlds does something like that.

However it may not be bad to have the weapon be slightly better than the other two, as long as it isn't given to the players till later. As it is recieved later it would only make sense that magical bastard swords are less common than magical two handed or long swords

That's a good point - non-magical bastard swords will be come moot as soon as the PCs find their first magical weapons, and I could simply not have any magic bastard swords appear.

[Lurker]

However it may not be bad to have the weapon be slightly better than the other two, as long as it isn't given to the players till later. As it is recieved later it would only make sense that magical bastard swords are less common than magical two handed or long swords

That's a good point - non-magical bastard swords will be come moot as soon as the PCs find their first magical weapons, and I could simply not have any magic bastard swords appear.

I would hesitate on that. I had a knight (again rank not C&C class) paladin back in the day went multiple levels without taking a random magic weapon because it did not fit his social/knightly rank. It was a 'how can you expect me to use a commoner's sword (short or broad or even a LS to a point) when I am a "knight of the realm". If I lower myself to that I could lose good standing with my brother knights'. Yes it is more of a role playing issue that a hard and fast rule, but still it could be an issue.

Eventually, as I kept the good role playing going with it the DM custom made a magic Bastard Swords for me and gave it to me after a side quest.

However, if that isn't an issue with your group, yeah magic LSs will overshadow and replace the Bastard Swords unless you throw some of them in the mix too.

[Arduin]

Bastard swords were brutal in real life too, if you wanted to make it wee bit more balanced you could increase the time it takes to get an extra attack because the reason they never completely won out for dominance as swords went in the times gone past, other than the fact they were expensive swords to make is speed.

Throw them in a tight underground space and it is fairly useless. Takes a lot of room to swing...

That hadn't crossed my mind

Any underground area that wasn't designed/built with human or larger creatures in mind plays havoc with larger weapons. Long Bows are not really usable if the ceiling is only 6' tall...

[Dracyian]

Bastard swords were brutal in real life too, if you wanted to make it wee bit more balanced you could increase the time it takes to get an extra attack because the reason they never completely won out for dominance as swords went in the times gone past, other than the fact they were expensive swords to make is speed.

Throw them in a tight underground space and it is fairly useless. Takes a lot of room to swing...

That hadn't crossed my mind

Any underground area that wasn't designed/built with human or larger creatures in mind plays havoc with larger weapons. Long Bows are not really usable if the ceiling is only 6' tall...

You seem to have a sick and twisted fascination with dragging players underground into tight spaces

[Arduin]

You seem to have a sick and twisted fascination with dragging players underground into tight spaces

Naw, the players keep wanting to go find treasure. I just let them.

[Dracyian]

You seem to have a sick and twisted fascination with dragging players underground into tight spaces

Naw, the players keep wanting to go find treasure. I just let them.

I like to pick the quests above ground whenever possible lol

[Arduin]

You seem to have a sick and twisted fascination with dragging players underground into tight spaces

Naw, the players keep wanting to go find treasure. I just let them.

I like to pick the quests above ground whenever possible lol

Best bet for humans, elves & halflings.

[TensersFloatingDisk]

Bastard swords were brutal in real life too, if you wanted to make it wee bit more balanced you could increase the time it takes to get an extra attack because the reason they never completely won out for dominance as swords went in the times gone past, other than the fact they were expensive swords to make is speed.

At the end of the Middle Ages when armour became good enough to make shields unnecessary, two handers did dominate. They are actually faster than one handed swords, because you can control them better with both hands. In game terms, the obvious disadvantage with a two handed weapon is that you can't use a shield, which means you can't have a magic shield.

[Dracyian]

Bastard swords were brutal in real life too, if you wanted to make it wee bit more balanced you could increase the time it takes to get an extra attack because the reason they never completely won out for dominance as swords went in the times gone past, other than the fact they were expensive swords to make is speed.

At the end of the Middle Ages when armour became good enough to make shields unnecessary, two handers did dominate. They are actually faster than one handed swords, because you can control them better with both hands. In game terms, the obvious disadvantage with a two handed weapon is that you can't use a shield, which means you can't have a magic shield.

For me i was clashing eastern civ history with western civ. Most of medieval fuedel middle age history knowledge is in the realm of Asia. Where the two handed swords were fast but the katana's and typical long swords that were weilded one handed were wielded two handed on occasion and normally faster and sheilds weren't very popular. So that thought never actually entered my head to be honest.

[Relaxo]

In game terms, the obvious disadvantage with a two handed weapon is that you can't use a shield, which means you can't have a magic shield.

Thus our love of the Dancing Shield, or Animated Shield or whatever it's called. (ok so i love it, but can't recall it's name... I was young and had a lot of growing up to do)



(it's just like funny. only not)