There is a background called Sword Scion which allows you to treat Dueling swords as martial weapons. But that background is rare. In the table I've played, anything goes as long as you can explain the reason how comes a kobold is using a dwarven clan pistol.
And I think that's the best way to handle uncommon/rare stuff! Turns the "cringe" you would feel in seeing a character with a katana in the middle of Avistan to a roleplay opportunity. For example the character could had been taught swordfight by a Tianese master and I can make said master a recurring NPC, maybe even a villain for drammatic effects!
I'm all for using backstories to tell fun and interesting stories. Part of the reason I'm so into Critical Role is all the players have such great backstories for all their characters!
The Barricade Buster actually does have official art in Treasure Vault. That art just hasn't made it to AoN yet. It's clearly based on historical Volley Guns like the Nock Gun that was experimented with in the Napoleonic wars. Edit: Also, I should point out that getting the chain sword via unconventional weaponry is a grey area. Pathfinder Society at least only allows you to gain proficiency and access to a weapon via unconventional weaponry if it has an Ancestry tag or has explicit language saying that characters from a region gain access to it (e.g. Characters from the River Kingdoms explicitly gain access to Aldori dueling swords, characters from Jinin gain access to Katanas and a number of other Japanese weapons). Your GM can rule otherwise (I probably would outside of organized play), but there would be precedent for the GM to veto using Unconventional Weaponry to gain access to the chainsword.
I suppose you are right. The chain sword description said it is used in Nirmayhss and Multhune, and so I thought that counted, especially since they have ruled a lot of other similar items also count like the blade scarf from Varisia.
I think the oddest part about the whip vs scorpion whip is actually that the scorpion whip is L bulk, while a whip is 1. Also, one of the most ridiculous things with advanced weapons is the fact that there are advanced monk weapons. Monks don't have an advanced weapon proficiency feat natively as monastic weaponry doesn't apply to advanced weapons, and none of these weapons are specific to a culture so you can't turn them martial (save for the butterfly blade but that's specific to an AP archetype). It's exceptionally taxing to get access to them as a result, the monk tag almost feels like an insult. Maybe in the upcoming remaster they'll have Advanced Monastic Weapon Training as an option.
It's ridiculous, but part of me really wants to make an Orc Starlit Span Magus with the Barricade Buster. An Artillery Magus. Upside is that you'd mitigate having to take three actions to reload due to doing fewer, bigger shots with Spellstrike so less likely to get through 8 shots in a battle. Downside is since it's range 40ft Volley 20ft you may have to take some move actions to keep in that 20-40ft range.
I still think the Gnome Flickmace is a solid contender for the #1 melee spot, as they sneakily added the sweep trait to it, which makes swipe builds even more powerful because of the reach. As a side note, kinda sad the Sawtooth Saber didn't make it in, as I'm a sucker for twin weapons.
I would include Necksplitter and Falcata in top 5, though Necksplitter is only truly broken with flurry rangers. I personally like the Tricky Pick as well, but I wouldn't put it in the top 5. For ranged weapons, the only one I might include would be the Dwarven Scattergun.
I thought about the falcata (even did a video where I built around one) but in the end, the 1-in-20 chance to extra damage wasn't enough in my eyes (sure, crits can happen more commonly in some builds, but in most fights, even if you roll a 19 with flanking you aren't critting unless the enemy is lower level than you. Also, can't pick it up any other way than with a tengu or advanced weapon training that I've found.)
@@PsiPrimeProductions1 Really? I feel like maybe 1/3 of the attacks I make with my War Priest have been crits, but I've also been just unreasonably lucky with him. In today's game, everyone else in the party got super fucked up by a ton of area attacks, after I'd rushed in. Fighter even got downed. I apologized, said I shouldn't have gotten so far away. The wizard was like "it's cool; at least you managed to avoid the onslaught" or something to that effect. I had been still within the AoEs, I'd just succeeded on five saves in a row, and Resolve turned them all into crits. We had to end the session one round into the fight so folks could leave, but we'll pick it up next week. Looking forward to it.
Spears were common as a recruited soldier could be taught to use one in an hour, and then a group of spear-men could basically defend against any other melee attacking enemy, except for people with polearms ... Re-enacters have shown that a group of near untrained spearmen can easily defend against, and usually take down a knight in full armour with a sword ...
Longspear's combination of Reach and Sweep is really nice for things like Swipe and Whirlwind Attack. Focus fire is often the tactically superior option, sure, but man does it feel good to have multiple +1 attacks at 0 MAP. Particularly (mounted/quickened) Magus, which gambles resources on its attack roll spells, really enjoys that on Spell Swipe.
Spears are the best, I wish we had more cultural variants. My personal fav is the hobgoblin breaching pike, a one-handed reach spear perfect for a ruffian rogue
Surprised you didn't mention the Bladed Scarf. It has reach, trip, finnesse, and a d6. It requires two hands, but can be used by Ruffian rogue trip builds. Can be great on a Gymnast swash thanks to trip and disarm being traits, as well as getting reach. And with most swashbucklers using rapiers, the d6 isn't too big a downgrade
I know it didn't meet your criteria because it has a base of 1d4 but I LOVE the Karambit. I had always wanted to play a "knife fighter character" and finally got my hobgoblin fighter going with the Karambit. Fatal d8 and 1d6 persistent bleed crit spec is awesome. Admittedly against enemies that have resistance if you don't crit it lags behind, but being agile picks back up at 10th level with Agile Grace (-3 MAP, yes please). Keep up the good work.
I love that art you found for the Flickmace. Going to have to have a look for that. Personally I would still put the Flickmace in number one spot. As you mentioned Bludgeoning damage is just better and you can access the Flickmace with Unconventional Weaponry whereas you cannot get the Chain Sword that way. Even though the text mentioned it is prized by certain nations Pathfinder Society has not given it to them as a common weapon.
another weapon i feel is a bit underrated is the Earthbreaker, its a D6 hammer than can be two handed for d10 dmg instead, is veristile P, and has the shove and raze traits. currently using it as the main weapon for my automaton titan barbarian ( yes i was making a character based off gundam barbatos), and this thing slaps, can deal 1d10 + 10 dmg with a level 1 character rather consistantly
Great video! Some good info there. I would compare the Phalanx Piercer to the Halfling Sling Staff. It's similar to the Sun Sling, but it has the same range and d10 propulsive damage as the Phalanx Piercer. It's also just a regular martial weapon in the CRB. You lose the Razing and Concussive traits (though there really aren't enough enemies weak to piercing to be affected too much by losing the piercing damage), and it's 2-handed instead of 1+ (also not a huge difference), but it also doesn't have Volley, so it's straight-up better in most circumstances. Also, the Tamchal Chakram is really amazing. It is an AP weapon, it's not really overpowerd; it's basically a starknife that does a d6 of damage (or a hatchet with finesse and a longer range). Part of this whole thing is that Advanced weapons *should* be stronger than martial weapons (even though many of them aren't!), so having stronger weird weapons in adventure paths isn't really too much of an issue. You can get access to them in PFS by completing the corresponding AP and having your GM log it online.
There are a few uses for piercing, such as jellyfish or underwater combat. The bigger issue is that some things resist only bludgeoning, so even if concussive doesn't trigger a weakness, it can overcome a resistance.
One thing you forgot to mention about the Phalanx Piercer is the razing trait which allows it to do more damage vs. structures, vehicles and objects so not only does it hit hard it's also extra powerful on vehicle combat and vs. constructs
I mean yeah. Sadly, if I stopped to talk about every little detail of every little weapon, the video would be an hour long. But yes, being able to punch through hardness is a nice bonus.
Could you do one on thaumaturge weapons? I always feel lost when choosing one as they don't have clear pointing restrictions as the investigator or rogue, but still being limited to one handed weapons seems to close the path to a lot of interesting choices.
Can you clarify on how the whip is problematic against undead at 10:35? I've been using a whip through AV and haven't run into any issues so far so I'm wondering if my GM is forgetting something because we've definitely fought plenty of undead.
Some undead, such as the Soulbound Ruin, are immune to nonlethal damage. Additional, since many undead are immune to 'unconciousness' that makes many GMs wonder how nonlethal damage interacts with that. Some believe that nonlethal damage can't 'finish off' an undead because it would make the undead unconcious, which they are immune to. It's certainly a grey area and up to individual GM interpretation.
Note the Concussive doesn't have the GM apply whichever is worst for the enemy. It only does so *specifically for resistances and immunities*. It does not care about weakness, so even if an enemy has weakness to Bludgeoning, as long as it has no resistance to Piercing, Concussive will force it to do Piercing damage.
The concussive trait doesn’t actually apply the damage type that is “worse for the enemy” in all cases. It uses the better damage type for the purposes of immunities and resistances, but NOT for the purposes of weaknesses. If you’re fighting something with a bludgeoning weakness, your phalanx piercer can’t take advantage of that.
It's a martial weapon, but it is Uncommon. It is the only weapon with the Climb trait- the Boarding Axe of the Azarketi. 1H, Agile, versatile S/P, Climb (counts as a free hand for climb, which means you just need that Climber feat for FUN THINGS). Why bother with that "drawing and dropping" weapons nonsense when you can dig your weapon into the wall?! And if you ask me, it should give a bonus when you use the Catch an Edge/Ledge reaction while falling.
I showed this video to some of my martial mates and none of them and they said these weapons are nice but their biggest problem is the lack of the Deadly/Fatal traits 😅
people sleep way too much on the flingflenser and explosive dogslicer, the only weapons with scatter and fatal(and is fatal d10 btw), it has even backstabber as a bonus, and if that wasn't enough, it's not even a d4, it's a fucking d6
To each their own. Some people may like them for the flavor. Also, Aldori have a huge cultural impact it their area, so I’d count it, but I guess it’s up to GM interpretation.
There is a background called Sword Scion which allows you to treat Dueling swords as martial weapons. But that background is rare. In the table I've played, anything goes as long as you can explain the reason how comes a kobold is using a dwarven clan pistol.
And I think that's the best way to handle uncommon/rare stuff! Turns the "cringe" you would feel in seeing a character with a katana in the middle of Avistan to a roleplay opportunity. For example the character could had been taught swordfight by a Tianese master and I can make said master a recurring NPC, maybe even a villain for drammatic effects!
I'm all for using backstories to tell fun and interesting stories. Part of the reason I'm so into Critical Role is all the players have such great backstories for all their characters!
The Barricade Buster actually does have official art in Treasure Vault. That art just hasn't made it to AoN yet. It's clearly based on historical Volley Guns like the Nock Gun that was experimented with in the Napoleonic wars.
Edit: Also, I should point out that getting the chain sword via unconventional weaponry is a grey area. Pathfinder Society at least only allows you to gain proficiency and access to a weapon via unconventional weaponry if it has an Ancestry tag or has explicit language saying that characters from a region gain access to it (e.g. Characters from the River Kingdoms explicitly gain access to Aldori dueling swords, characters from Jinin gain access to Katanas and a number of other Japanese weapons). Your GM can rule otherwise (I probably would outside of organized play), but there would be precedent for the GM to veto using Unconventional Weaponry to gain access to the chainsword.
I suppose you are right. The chain sword description said it is used in Nirmayhss and Multhune, and so I thought that counted, especially since they have ruled a lot of other similar items also count like the blade scarf from Varisia.
I think the oddest part about the whip vs scorpion whip is actually that the scorpion whip is L bulk, while a whip is 1.
Also, one of the most ridiculous things with advanced weapons is the fact that there are advanced monk weapons. Monks don't have an advanced weapon proficiency feat natively as monastic weaponry doesn't apply to advanced weapons, and none of these weapons are specific to a culture so you can't turn them martial (save for the butterfly blade but that's specific to an AP archetype). It's exceptionally taxing to get access to them as a result, the monk tag almost feels like an insult.
Maybe in the upcoming remaster they'll have Advanced Monastic Weapon Training as an option.
Most constructs are immune to nonlethal attacks, but most undead aren’t.
As a caster main it's such a treat how excited Pathfinder gets me to play a fighter simply by having fun interesting choices for weaponry!
It's ridiculous, but part of me really wants to make an Orc Starlit Span Magus with the Barricade Buster. An Artillery Magus.
Upside is that you'd mitigate having to take three actions to reload due to doing fewer, bigger shots with Spellstrike so less likely to get through 8 shots in a battle. Downside is since it's range 40ft Volley 20ft you may have to take some move actions to keep in that 20-40ft range.
I still think the Gnome Flickmace is a solid contender for the #1 melee spot, as they sneakily added the sweep trait to it, which makes swipe builds even more powerful because of the reach.
As a side note, kinda sad the Sawtooth Saber didn't make it in, as I'm a sucker for twin weapons.
If I had done honorable mentions, the sawtooth saber would have been in there. But this video already took around 9 hours to edit!
The Flickmace was nerfed to hard. It's a Martial Weapon stats and Advanced Weapon costs.
I would include Necksplitter and Falcata in top 5, though Necksplitter is only truly broken with flurry rangers. I personally like the Tricky Pick as well, but I wouldn't put it in the top 5.
For ranged weapons, the only one I might include would be the Dwarven Scattergun.
I thought about the falcata (even did a video where I built around one) but in the end, the 1-in-20 chance to extra damage wasn't enough in my eyes (sure, crits can happen more commonly in some builds, but in most fights, even if you roll a 19 with flanking you aren't critting unless the enemy is lower level than you. Also, can't pick it up any other way than with a tengu or advanced weapon training that I've found.)
@@PsiPrimeProductions1 Really? I feel like maybe 1/3 of the attacks I make with my War Priest have been crits, but I've also been just unreasonably lucky with him. In today's game, everyone else in the party got super fucked up by a ton of area attacks, after I'd rushed in. Fighter even got downed. I apologized, said I shouldn't have gotten so far away. The wizard was like "it's cool; at least you managed to avoid the onslaught" or something to that effect. I had been still within the AoEs, I'd just succeeded on five saves in a row, and Resolve turned them all into crits. We had to end the session one round into the fight so folks could leave, but we'll pick it up next week. Looking forward to it.
Spears were common as a recruited soldier could be taught to use one in an hour, and then a group of spear-men could basically defend against any other melee attacking enemy, except for people with polearms ...
Re-enacters have shown that a group of near untrained spearmen can easily defend against, and usually take down a knight in full armour with a sword ...
Longspear's combination of Reach and Sweep is really nice for things like Swipe and Whirlwind Attack. Focus fire is often the tactically superior option, sure, but man does it feel good to have multiple +1 attacks at 0 MAP. Particularly (mounted/quickened) Magus, which gambles resources on its attack roll spells, really enjoys that on Spell Swipe.
Spears are the best, I wish we had more cultural variants. My personal fav is the hobgoblin breaching pike, a one-handed reach spear perfect for a ruffian rogue
Huh, I thought the breaching pike was advanced, but you’re right, it’s martial. Good catch.
Surprised you didn't mention the Bladed Scarf. It has reach, trip, finnesse, and a d6. It requires two hands, but can be used by Ruffian rogue trip builds. Can be great on a Gymnast swash thanks to trip and disarm being traits, as well as getting reach. And with most swashbucklers using rapiers, the d6 isn't too big a downgrade
I know it didn't meet your criteria because it has a base of 1d4 but I LOVE the Karambit. I had always wanted to play a "knife fighter character" and finally got my hobgoblin fighter going with the Karambit. Fatal d8 and 1d6 persistent bleed crit spec is awesome. Admittedly against enemies that have resistance if you don't crit it lags behind, but being agile picks back up at 10th level with Agile Grace (-3 MAP, yes please). Keep up the good work.
I love that art you found for the Flickmace. Going to have to have a look for that.
Personally I would still put the Flickmace in number one spot. As you mentioned Bludgeoning damage is just better and you can access the Flickmace with Unconventional Weaponry whereas you cannot get the Chain Sword that way. Even though the text mentioned it is prized by certain nations Pathfinder Society has not given it to them as a common weapon.
I've had a lot of fun with Barakade Buster. A rapid-fire d10 weapon is sexy. I gave it to my fighter orc named Dakka and took all the archery feats.
Gill hook barbarian. Grapple and reach d10. So much fun!
The new opening is good, shows more confidence in your work 👍.
another weapon i feel is a bit underrated is the Earthbreaker, its a D6 hammer than can be two handed for d10 dmg instead, is veristile P, and has the shove and raze traits. currently using it as the main weapon for my automaton titan barbarian ( yes i was making a character based off gundam barbatos), and this thing slaps, can deal 1d10 + 10 dmg with a level 1 character rather consistantly
They really did Gnome Flickmace dirty. The Flail Critical Specialization change would've been enough.
Great video! Some good info there.
I would compare the Phalanx Piercer to the Halfling Sling Staff. It's similar to the Sun Sling, but it has the same range and d10 propulsive damage as the Phalanx Piercer. It's also just a regular martial weapon in the CRB. You lose the Razing and Concussive traits (though there really aren't enough enemies weak to piercing to be affected too much by losing the piercing damage), and it's 2-handed instead of 1+ (also not a huge difference), but it also doesn't have Volley, so it's straight-up better in most circumstances.
Also, the Tamchal Chakram is really amazing. It is an AP weapon, it's not really overpowerd; it's basically a starknife that does a d6 of damage (or a hatchet with finesse and a longer range).
Part of this whole thing is that Advanced weapons *should* be stronger than martial weapons (even though many of them aren't!), so having stronger weird weapons in adventure paths isn't really too much of an issue. You can get access to them in PFS by completing the corresponding AP and having your GM log it online.
There are a few uses for piercing, such as jellyfish or underwater combat. The bigger issue is that some things resist only bludgeoning, so even if concussive doesn't trigger a weakness, it can overcome a resistance.
One thing you forgot to mention about the Phalanx Piercer is the razing trait which allows it to do more damage vs. structures, vehicles and objects so not only does it hit hard it's also extra powerful on vehicle combat and vs. constructs
I mean yeah. Sadly, if I stopped to talk about every little detail of every little weapon, the video would be an hour long. But yes, being able to punch through hardness is a nice bonus.
Could you do one on thaumaturge weapons? I always feel lost when choosing one as they don't have clear pointing restrictions as the investigator or rogue, but still being limited to one handed weapons seems to close the path to a lot of interesting choices.
The Wrecker looks like a LOT of fun!
My Dwarven bard grabbed one. It is silly but fun.
Can you clarify on how the whip is problematic against undead at 10:35? I've been using a whip through AV and haven't run into any issues so far so I'm wondering if my GM is forgetting something because we've definitely fought plenty of undead.
Some undead, such as the Soulbound Ruin, are immune to nonlethal damage. Additional, since many undead are immune to 'unconciousness' that makes many GMs wonder how nonlethal damage interacts with that. Some believe that nonlethal damage can't 'finish off' an undead because it would make the undead unconcious, which they are immune to. It's certainly a grey area and up to individual GM interpretation.
Shobad Longrifle= Silenced Arquebus + Backstabber + Volley 15
Note the Concussive doesn't have the GM apply whichever is worst for the enemy. It only does so *specifically for resistances and immunities*. It does not care about weakness, so even if an enemy has weakness to Bludgeoning, as long as it has no resistance to Piercing, Concussive will force it to do Piercing damage.
The concussive trait doesn’t actually apply the damage type that is “worse for the enemy” in all cases. It uses the better damage type for the purposes of immunities and resistances, but NOT for the purposes of weaknesses. If you’re fighting something with a bludgeoning weakness, your phalanx piercer can’t take advantage of that.
It's a martial weapon, but it is Uncommon. It is the only weapon with the Climb trait- the Boarding Axe of the Azarketi. 1H, Agile, versatile S/P, Climb (counts as a free hand for climb, which means you just need that Climber feat for FUN THINGS). Why bother with that "drawing and dropping" weapons nonsense when you can dig your weapon into the wall?!
And if you ask me, it should give a bonus when you use the Catch an Edge/Ledge reaction while falling.
I showed this video to some of my martial mates and none of them and they said these weapons are nice but their biggest problem is the lack of the Deadly/Fatal traits 😅
Death is the best condition
people sleep way too much on the flingflenser and explosive dogslicer, the only weapons with scatter and fatal(and is fatal d10 btw), it has even backstabber as a bonus, and if that wasn't enough, it's not even a d4, it's a fucking d6
Also Sling are the bastard children of the weapons. It doesn't benefit of ANY feats that effect crossbows!
Falcata: am I a joke to you?
Certainly not. But I already did a whole build centered around the Falcata, so I thought I’d give some other weapons the spotlight.
Honestly I find myself ignoring or homebrewing changes to a lot of AP stuff. The balance quality isn't really there compared to core content.
Taw for Rangers
Taw is pretty good in general. Any Conrosu or human with martial weapon proficiency can get their hands on one.
a ton of these weapons are not worth the feat, also i dont think aldori is a culture it's a military organization
To each their own. Some people may like them for the flavor. Also, Aldori have a huge cultural impact it their area, so I’d count it, but I guess it’s up to GM interpretation.