Knights & Knaves Alehouse

This is pretty cool.

https://wewastetime.com/2014/01/17/snake-rapier/

Anyone know much about these things?

Neat!

A westernized whip-blade sword. Although it's very pointed and could probably stick through someone's cheek or neck, it would get caught in a couple layers of woven cloth if used as a thrusting rapier.

Like all whip swords, it's designed to be whipped around, targeting attackers' hands, arms, neck and face. For an aristocrat accosted by several attackers. Not meant to kill a target, but to fend off several. Not sure where the person would keep it...probably inside a coat, around a shoulder - in a chest holster position.

Now make a magical one that actually turns into a snake.

Doesn't seem like that would be good on the blade.
Give me a good, stout Zweihaender and a ruffian to use it on.

Landifarne wrote:A westernized whip-blade sword. Although it's very pointed and could probably stick through someone's cheek or neck, it would get caught in a couple layers of woven cloth if used as a thrusting rapier.

Like all whip swords, it's designed to be whipped around, targeting attackers' hands, arms, neck and face. For an aristocrat accosted by several attackers. Not meant to kill a target, but to fend off several. Not sure where the person would keep it...probably inside a coat, around a shoulder - in a chest holster position.

Very interesting. These things look pretty vicious - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIBrbSZbQr4

How would you model that in AD&D? Maybe it would have a really low damage (1d3?) but a bonus to hit or grant an extra attack to a proficient user. It would actually be pretty useful for interupting spellcasters.

Maybe whips and whip like weapons could be treated as ranged weapons but with a really short range (the length of the whip in effect).

I look at it less as anti-personnel and more a demoralisation tactic, causing attackers to flee rather than engage. This is where D&D needs a stronger morale mechanic.

Werral wrote:

Landifarne wrote:A westernized whip-blade sword. Although it's very pointed and could probably stick through someone's cheek or neck, it would get caught in a couple layers of woven cloth if used as a thrusting rapier.

Like all whip swords, it's designed to be whipped around, targeting attackers' hands, arms, neck and face. For an aristocrat accosted by several attackers. Not meant to kill a target, but to fend off several. Not sure where the person would keep it...probably inside a coat, around a shoulder - in a chest holster position.

Very interesting. These things look pretty vicious - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIBrbSZbQr4

How would you model that in AD&D? Maybe it would have a really low damage (1d3?) but a bonus to hit or grant an extra attack to a proficient user. It would actually be pretty useful for interupting spellcasters.

Maybe whips and whip like weapons could be treated as ranged weapons but with a really short range (the length of the whip in effect).

One feature could be to ignore shield bonus for AC since it "whips around" it, but yeah low damage.

Okay, so it's nice to have something that scares off 0-level types. Good-aligned towns could arm their guards with these for tavern brawl control.

Dmg: 1d2/1pt
Doubles # of attacks per round
2' 1' 1 -10 -10 -9 -9 -5 -4 -2 +2 +2
Opponent using a shield modifies AC Adjustment by an additional -5

I was researching just this topic over the summer, as I came across the picture of the Indian guy with two 6-bladed whip swords standing upon a rock and was mightily intrigued. Looking at the urumi demonstrations on You Tube, I saw that there were two main types of whip swords, multibladed and single, and read about hwo they were "traditional" weapons to a region in India.

They aren't very traditional, as the springy, high-quality steel that is needed to make them only dates to the 18th century. But yeah, they were used to fend off groups of 0-level types by Raj bodyguards, etc. Wrapped around the waist, like a belt, they could be pulled out fairly quickly. The multi-bladed ones generally only went up to 2 or 3 blades, not the 6-bladed ones that are seen in the iconic photo (cool as fuck photo, by the way.) The Spanish came up with rapier versions during the 18th century, which is why I knew what it was...also why it has the snake motif.

photo in wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urumi

Here's my write-up for the whip swords used in my Erelhei-Ciinlu expansion (Nestesedi-Dycion). They are indeed used to distract mages!

Whip Sword (Mage’s Bane)
Found in any sizable band of dokkalfar will be several male fighters of levels 4+ whose job it is to penetrate an enemy’s ranks and directly engage spellcasters. These fighters are equipped with whip swords specifically designed to strike opponents at twice their normal rate if used in a paired, two-handed fighting style. With a certain number of flexible, 6-foot blades, whip swords mete damage to unarmored opponents equal to the die that corresponds to the number of blades/tines employed (d4, d6, etc.). To ar-mored opponents the swords deal half as much damage, rounded up. Fabricated from relatively cheap materials, whip swords nev-er have magical bonuses exceeding +1.

The number of blades a fighter may employ on each of his whip swords depends upon his character level, with 4th and 5th level fighters able to employ 4-bladed whip swords, 6th and 7th level fighters capable of using 6-bladed weapons, and so forth. Thus, while all fighters employing these weapons attack at twice their normal rate, 5th level fighters would only be able to strike un-armored targets for d4 damage per hit while 8th level fighters could hit for d8.

Although dokkalfr deride whip swords as ineffective weapons fit only for certain subordinate males, the weapons do have an addi-tional feature: dual whip sword users may deflect a percentage of small projectile missiles (darts, bolts, arrows, javelins) fired at them from their forward-facing directions (i.e., that they are aware of). The percentage of missiles capable of being deflected is equal to 5% times the number of blades one of the user’s whip swords: 20% for 4-bladed, 30% for 6-bladed, etc.