Equipment: More Exotic D&D Weapons

Equipment: More Exotic D&D Weapons

Let's take a look at some other D&D supplements, such as Arms and Equipment Guide and see if their new weapons are represented in GURPS or not. If not, let's try to create stats for them.

Alchemist's Arrow

Each of these projectiles carries a deadly load of alchemist’s fire in its hollow shaft. When it strikes a target, the arrow’s shaft shatters, releasing the alchemist’s fire directly onto the target. Unlike flaming arrows, alchemist's arrows do not require ignition - their payload ignites when after the impact when it contacts with air. Since there is no distracting flame, there is no -2 to hit, but the arrow is still awkward: -1 to Acc and subtract 5 from both range multipliers. If it hits, treat it as an arrow that does 1d-3 linked burning damage. The chance of the flame spreading depends on what the arrow strikes. Costs $10 extra, double weight.

Bladed Gauntlet

The bladed gauntlet has two blades that extend from the back of the wrist following the line of the forearm. The bladed gauntlet provides DR 4 to the hand and takes 10 seconds to don.

Blunt Arrow

Already exists in LT.

Butterfly Sword

Already exists in LT as the falchion.

Chain-and-Dagger

A dagger with a two-yard kusari attached to the handle’s butt. Requires a hand on the handle and a hand on the chain, and counts as a weapon in either hand. The wielder snares the enemy with the kusari (see p. B406 or the Entangle technique in GURPS Martial Arts) and then finishes him with the dagger. Treat these as normal kusari and dagger attacks, but use the first line of chain-and-dagger statistics for the two-yard kusari.

Chakram

Already exists in LT.

Claw Bracer

This is just a bladed hand from LT.

Double Mace

This is the double-ended mace from GURPS Fantasy-Tech 2: Weapons of Fantasy.

Double Scimitar

This is the heavy double-ended falchion from GURPS Fantasy-Tech 2: Weapons of Fantasy.

Duom

The duom is a long spear with a standard spearhead, as well as two blades curved so that they point backward along the shaft. The spearhead can be used to attack targets at the listed Reach. It is also possible to attack with the reversed heads using a practiced “reverse thrust.” Such an attack has Reach one yard shorter. a -4 penalty to hit (can be bought off with the Reverse Thrust technique), and is treated as an attack from the side for the purpose of defenses (unless the enemy has never seen the move, then it is treated as an attack from behind).

    Reverse Thrust

    Hard

    Default: Spear-4.

    Prerequisite: Spear; cannot exceed prerequisite skill.

    This technique capitalizes on a duom's additional blades to strike the enemy from the side while facing them. To attempt it, you must have sufficient reach to attack a yard beyond your opponent.

    Roll against Reverse Thrust to hit. If the target has never seen this move (GM decides), treat it as an attack from behind. This usually allows no active defense! Otherwise, it's considered an attack from the side, which gives -2 to most defenses. See pp. B390-391 for detailed rules. Only the DR on your victim's back applies.

Elven Double Bow

This double-stringed longbow can be used as a normal longbow. Alternatively, a character who has two arrows ready may fire two arrows at the same target at once with a -1 penalty to hit (can be bought off with the Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Elven Double Bow) perk). This increases the RoF statistic to 2 and gives the attack an effective Rcl value of 4.

Flight Arrow

Already exists in LT.

Fukimi-Bari (Mouth Darts)

These are described in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 12: Ninja, p. 12.

Fullblade

This is just a thrusting greatsword upsized for SM+1 wielders.

Gnome Battlepick

This is just a normal pick downsized for SM-2 wielders.

Gnome Calculus

This is just a normal heavy sling downsized for SM-2 wielders.

Great Crossbow

This is just a normal crossbow with a windlass.

Gyrspike

A gyrspike is a double weapon. A stout shaft holds a morningstar on one end and a longsword on the other. The wielder may use his gyrspike normally or swing the morningstar using the Flail skill. This makes the weapon two-handed; one hand controls the chain at all times

Halfling Skiprock

These polished, perfectly weighted stones are prized by halflings, for if thrown well enough, they ricochet off a hard surface to strike a target that cannot be reached otherwise. The exact DR and HP of the things you’re bouncing the throw off aren’t important. What matters is that these objects are convincingly hard: walls and rocks, not curtains and ferns. To perform a ricochet, plot your course and count the bounces. If there’s nothing but floor or ground around, then only one bounce is possible: from you, to the floor, and back up to your target. Apply -2 to hit per each bounce; an extra -2 for each ricochet off something fragile, like rice paper or window glass. Use the full range along the zigzag path to the target. An alerted target always gets a defense, but this is at -1 per bounce. Halfling skiprocks can be loaded in slings. This does not change damage, but allows ricochet shots.

Harpoon

Already exists in LT.

Lucerne hammer

It seems that this is the pollaxe from GURPS Low-Tech. The illustration shows no spearhead, but the pictures of real Lucerne hammers I've found online all have spearheads. By the way, did you know that GURPS Martial Arts has a dueling pollaxe, but GURPS Low-Tech does not? That's the only TL0-3 weapon from that book that is not in LT.

Manti

A manti is a short spear with four additional spear heads that project vertically from the shaft, creating a star pattern of five blade heads instead of just a single forward-pointing blade. This allows the weapon to be used with the Hook technique, and also allows the weapon to be swung.

Maul

Already exists in LT.

Mercurial Greatsword

This is a normal greatsword with the quicksilver option from GURPS Fantasy-Tech 2: Weapons of Fantasy.

Mercurial Longsword

This is a normal longsword with the quicksilver option from GURPS Fantasy-Tech 2: Weapons of Fantasy.

Mighty Whip

Whips already have their damage scaling with ST in GURPS, so there's no point in converting this one.

Orc Shotput

The stats for shot put can be found on p. 32 of GURPS Action 5: Dictionary of Danger. But there's no price! So, let's make a proper statblock.

Panther Claw

The panther claw looks much like a katar with two extra blades. The weapon retains the katar’s deadly force, and the extra blades give the wielder +2 in Quick Contests to disarm. There’s no effect on the penalty to hit with a disarm attempt.

Sai

Already exists in LT.

Sapara

This ancient sword is a smaller version of the khopesh. It can be wielded either with the Axe/Mace or Shortsword skill.

Signal Arrow

This arrow is specially designed to emulate a bird’s call when fired. Elven fletchers craft the arrows to make calls that will be recognized as signals by the elves of the community. For example, a hawk’s cry might signal an attack, and an owl’s screech might signal a stealthy advance. A successful Naturalist roll determines whether the sound comes from a bird or another source. The intricate carving on the arrow shafts makes them clumsy in flight, imposing a -1 to Acc. No effect on cost or weight.

Spinning Javelin

This is just a normal javelin with a thong.

Spring-Loaded Gauntlet

This gauntlet possesses a broad ridge of metal that extends along the bottom of the forearm to the edge of the wrist articulation, where a circular orifice is visible. This ridge of metal hides a spring-loaded mechanism that can expel a bolt with great force, akin to a miniscule crossbow. You load the gauntlet by inserting a bolt in the hole and pulling back a hidden lever. You fire the spring-loaded gauntlet by sighting down your arm, then flip your hand back so that your palm faces your opponent - this motion fires the gauntlet. This weapon is used with the Guns (Wrist Gun) skill that was introduced in GURPS High-Tech.

Stump Knife

A stump knife is akin to a katar, except that it can be securely attached to the stump of a missing forelimb.

Three-Section Staff

Already exists in LT as the three-part staff.

Throwing Iron

Already exists in LT as the hungamunga.

Thunder Arrow

Thunder arrows are tipped with thunderstones. A hit from a thunder arrow deals crushing damage and triggers the thunderstone’s sonic attack. The target and everybody in its hex must roll against HT or become deaf for margin of failure minutes. Protected Hearing gives +5, Hard of Hearing gives +4, and those with Deafness are immune. The arrow is awkward: -1 to Acc and subtract 5 from both range multipliers. Costs $10 extra, double weight.

Tiger Claws

This is just a bladed hand from LT.

Tonfa

Already exists in LT.

Triple Dagger

Already exists in LT as the sai.

Tumbling Bolt

A tumbling bolt resembles a standard crossbow bolt except for a few minuscule holes and vents along the shaft. A channel allows air to pass through the bolt, which causes the bolt to tumble when fired. The bolt deals +1 basic damage, gets a (0.5) armor divisor, and has its 1/2D and Max ranges divided by two due to the way the projectile moves through the air. No effect on cost or weight.

War Fan

Already exists in LT as the combat fan.

Ward Cestus

Aleady exists in LT as the cestus.

Whip-Dagger

This works like a normal whip, except that when you crack it (p. B406 and p. MA70), damage becomes impaling.

WEAPON TABLES

 

TL	Weapon	Damage	Reach	Parry	Cost	Weight	ST	Notes
AXE/MACE (DX-5, Flail-4, or Two-Handed Axe/Mace-3)
1	Manti	sw imp	1	0	$65	2	8	[2, 3, 4]
1	Sapara	sw cut	1	0U	$350	2	8	[2]
BRAWLING, KARATE, or DX
3	Bladed Gauntlet or	sw-2 cut thr imp	C C	0 0	$190 -	3.4 -	8 8	[5, 6] [5, 6]
FLAIL (DX-6, Axe/Mace-4, or Two-Handed Flail-3)
3	Gyrspike	sw+3 cr	1	0U	$780	8	12	[7]
KNIFE (DX-4, Force Sword-3, Main-Gauche-3, or Shortsword-3)
2	Panther Claw or	sw-3 cut thr+1 imp	C, 1 C	-1 -1	$100 -	1.5 -	6 6	[4, 6, 8]
2	Stump Knife or	sw-3 cut thr+1 imp	C, 1 C	-1 -1	$50 -	1 -	6 6	[4, 6, 8]
KUSARI (DX-6, Monowire Whip-3, Two-Handed Flail-4, or Whip-3)
3	Chain-and-Dagger or	sw+2 cr thr+2 cr	1, 2* 1, 2*	-2U -2U	$90 -	4	9† 9†	[7] [7]
SHORTSWORD (DX-5, Broadsword-2, Force Sword-4, Jitte/Sai-3, Knife-4, Saber-4, Smallsword-4, or Tonfa-3)
1	Sapara	sw cut	1	0U	$350	2	8	[2]
SPEAR (DX-5, Polearm-4, or Staff-2)
1	Manti or	thr+1 imp thr cut	1 1	0 0	$65 -	2 -	6 6	[2] Tip Slash.
2	Duom two hands or two hands	thr+2 imp thr+3 imp thr imp thr+1 imp	2, 3* 2, 3* 1, 2* 1, 2*	0U 0 0U 0	$150 - - -	8 - - -	12 11† 12 11†	Reverse Thrust. [2] Reverse Thrust. [2]
TWO-HANDED SWORD (DX-5, Broadsword-4, or Force Sword-4)
3	Gyrspike or	sw+1 cut thr+2 imp	1 1, 2	0 0	$780 -	8 -	11† 11†
WHIP (DX-5, Kusari-3, or Monowire Whip-3)
1	Whip-Dagger	sw-2(0.5) cr	1-7*	-2U	$30+$20/yd.	0.25+0.5/yd.	var.	[10]

[2] Hook enables the rules under Hook (GURPS Low-Tech, p. 54), and may also damage the victim.

[3] May get stuck; see Picks (p. B405).

[4] Reduce penalty for targeting chinks in armor (p. B400) by -2.

[5] Attack receives damage bonuses for whichever of

[5] Boxing (p. B182), Brawling (p. B182), or Karate (p. B203) is used to deliver it – exactly as if it were an unarmed strike. Claws don’t improve damage with such weapon-assisted blows.

[6] Gives the hand (only) DR. A bladed gauntlet provides DR 4 and takes 10 seconds to don. For other weapons, this indicates a metal hilt that provides DR 4, cumulative with glove DR – although the hilt is too cramped to accommodate metal gauntlets. Panther claws don’t enclose the hand completely; DR applies only on a roll of 1-3 on 1d.

[7] Attempts to parry flails and kusaris are at -4; fencing weapons (“F” parry) can’t parry at all! Attempts to block such weapons are at -2. Halve these penalties for the bola perdida, bolas, nunchaku, thonged club, and weighted scarf.

[8] Use Brawling or Karate parry if better than usual weapon parry.

[10] Specify maximum reach (1-7 yards) when bought. Cost and weight are per yard. The whip-dagger requires ST 5, +1 per yard. Many special rules apply; be sure to see Whips (p. B406).

 

TL	Weapon	Damage	Acc	Range	Weight	RoF	Shots	Cost	ST	Bulk	Notes
BOW (DX-5)
2	Elven Double Bow	thr+2 imp	3	x15/x20	3/0.1	1	1(2)	$400	11†	-8	-1 to hit. [1]
GUNS (WRIST GUN) (Guns (Pistol)-2, other Guns-4)
3	Spring-Loaded Gauntlet	1d imp	0	150/200	2/0.06	1	1(4)	$250	5	0	[1]
THROWING (DX-3 or Dropping-4)
1	Halfling Skiprock	thr cr	0	x3/x6	0.25	1	T(1)	$2	5	-1
1	Orc Shotput	thr+2 cr	0	x0.6/x1.2	16	1	T(1)	$20	10	-8

[1] An arrow or bolt for a bow, crossbow, or spring-loaded gauntlet is $2. A dart for a pistol crossbow or sling is $1. A dart for a slurbow is $0.50. A dart for a blowpipe, a lead pellet for a prodd or sling, a shaped rock for a heavy sling, or a shaped stone for a stone-launching stick, is $0.10. A shaped sling stone is $0.06. Unshaped rocks and stones suitable for slings, heavy slings, and stone-launching sticks can be found for free, but they’re less accurate: -1 to hit.