Caster Melee Weapons

Enchanted razor-edged playing cards.

Small glass spheres full of alchemical concoctions that burst into flames, explode in a brilliant flash of light or create a multicolored smokescreen.

I've always been a fan of kris knives as melee fallback weapons for casters.

this guy knows what's up

>monster tries to charge me
>gets within 10ft and falls on its stupid ass
and have a fireball for your trouble, you cheeky cunt

An immediate increase to lethality would be to exchange staff for a spear. Even if the former are a formidable weapon, under most circumstances superior to a sword simply by dint of being a polearm (at least as self-defence is concerned), a spear is more obviously dangerous and easier to use. To make it feel less "martial", just make the spearhead more elaborate and ceremonial-looking.

A cane, depending on it's configuration, could be used in a thrusting, smallsword -like fashion, or as a club - my favorite is one with a head like a raven's beak, so it could be used like a warhammer.

In D&D, you'll want simple weapons that don't require buying a proficiency. Spear, staff, cane, dagger all work. Most can be used in your magical work as well.

In GURPS, "proficiency" is more of a historical than fiction thing. And the spells tend to be more flexible. If you use the default magic system, a staff or spear is ideal because it gives you reach for your spells, too.

But of course the classic weapon of the non-warrior is the sword. It's a *sidearm*, a secondary weapon for soldiers and a decorative/dueling weapon for aristocrats. In D&D, this could be a rapier or short sword. Or even a longsword. In GURPS, a jian or edged rapier is perfect.

Something more exotic and concealable, try a weighted scarf. It works as a garrote in a grapple, and a flail that does bludgeoning damage in melee. And can be worn as a sash the rest of the time. As I read the GURPS staff enchantment rules, silk is organic so it can take a staff enchant as well (making touch spells hard to block and giving you a whirling, dancing style of ranged casting).

Pistol
Shotgun

/thread

...

>Rune Engraved/Enchanted Sword
That is actually my fiancè's druid weapon, I'm making her a whole kinda Hobbit's Sting deal but with more power and it lights up when dragons are around instead of goblins.

...

See? Now that is a real mage. Why spend all your time wasting on "lightning bolts" and "fire blasts" when you can make a gun with magic

CHAKRAMS!

Censer?

Enchanted Lightning Claw + automatic spells of protection, haste, and strength.

Have it act as a focus for your thunder wizard.

> Enemies faces when your scrawny wizard with an oversized glove suddenly hulks out into Blanka from Street Fighter.

Half a brick in a sock. Sand or gravel can be used in a pinch.

I don't know why you think staves are lame, a shod staff can be as deadly as any other weapon, and there's more to wielding one than just "bonk the other guy on the head".

using a staff well requires training, which would take away from studying magic.

I CAST FIST

Would it, though? What about some faux-daoist magician practicing physical discipline as a part of manipulating his chi to work magic? What about some magical savant who doesn't actually need to spend every single hour with his nose in a book to be able to cast spells? What about some wizard doing martial practice with his staff of power in order to better attune to his artifact of might?

To posit that a caster cannot spend time on anything other than study in order to be magically effective is needlessly constrictive about what being a caster even means. There are a wealth of concepts outside of "old scholar in a robe."

A fucking shotgun

What the fuck is this? I want to know what exactly I just stared at. Why was it not in my life before?

That's Ralph Bakshi's seminal film, Wizards. It's pretty off the wall, but it's great.

NO SHIT
NOONE HAS EVER GOTTEN THAT BEFORE
ESPECIALLY NOT OP
YOU JUST HAD A ONE HUNNERD PERCENT ORIGINAL IDEA
AND EXPRESSED IN SUCH A WAY THAT NOONE WILL EVER THINK OF YOU AS A 14UR OLD EDGE LORD WHO WANTS EVERYONE TO THINK HE IS SUPER DUPER SMRAT.

Have you never heard of a battle mage? They cast and wield weapons.

Lol

you.. seem upset, particularly since the post you are replying too was in turn a reply to a post implying that the notion you are implying is obvious is improbable at best.

For D&D/PF, use the wand rules on 0th-3rd level spells, and fluff them as a stack of talismans you can put onto, or throw at, people. It doesn't change their rules or their effectiveness in any meaningful way, just their fluff.

Keep some in one of your many pockets.

... And now I'm thinking of the fact that you actually need a feat to deploy pocket sand in 3.5, and it requires 4 ranks in Tumble to take, you have to use Tumble to move at least 10 feet in that round to use it, it can only be used as part of another attack, that has to hit, still needs a Fortitude save, and only blinds them for one round.

Oh, but don't worry, there's a better version. As another feat. That requires the prior one and 8 ranks in Tumble. You still have to use Tumble to move 10 feet, but you can target everyone in a 5-foot radius spread around where you stop moving. Still needs a Fortitude save.

Oh, and both of their saves are keyed off of Wisdom. Not Dexterity, because having it keyed off of the same thing as the requisite skill is dumb, apparently.

If it were easy everyone would do it.

Taser glove. Always carry one in case you need to stun someone in a pinch.

I can kind of see this line of reasoning with things like, say, the Whirlwind Attack feat, because that's not actually possible. Your sword would hit your first target and get caught.

Sand Dancer and Sand Spinner(from Sandstorm) are just bullshit, though. They're basically saying, "no, you can't carry around a bag/pocket full of sand/dry silt/loose dirt/whatever to throw in peoples' faces, that's dumb," and feat-taxing you for the right to do something that small children on playgrounds do to each other. Same thing for Spring Attack, which is basically just running past someone with your hand/weapon out and swinging it as you pass them; I've seen two-year-olds that do that, it's not something that requires a lot of skill, practice, or training.

tl;dr: 3.5 makes martials take feats to do things that small children can do. This is stupid.

Soes it come with a safety not to accidentally tase yourself?

>Ian Miller backgrounds
Holy shit, how did I never notice this before.

Normally, that safety is called, "I have a glorified cattle-prod strapped to one of my two hands, common-fucking-sense dictates that I should probably not touch any part of myself with that hand."

But, I'm betting that that's what the secondary thing worn underneath it is for, to keep the device from shocking the hand it's worn on. Aside from that...

I'm seeing /k/ come out with another "guys, I fucked up" thread.

Probably fap-related

Yeah, I made one of those out of a disposable camera and a bit of wire once. Real fun! The safety is the fact that you have to charge the capacitor before it's primed for one shot. If you taze yourself, well, that's your own stupid ass fault.

Waving books at people and shit inexplicably flying out of them.

Maybe a sphere of iron you have enchanted to be used as a floating weapon that returns to you? I mean, it was something that was done before Blizzard did it with Zenyatta, but Zenyatta does it well.

I know that there's a character named Urtear, in an anime called Fairy Tail, who uses a crystal ball, in conjunction with time magic, as a ranged weapon in a similar way to how you describe. She's good enough with it that she can hit with multiple temporal copies of it at once.

Cards of paper strips imbued with simple evocations. Basically thrown mini-scrolls. Maybe small gems, crystals or marbles etched with runes instead of paper implements.

Vials of violent mixtures. Alchemist fire, acid, smokescreens, frozen lightning, bottled wail of banshee etc.

Ritual knife. Especially for necromancers and demonologists. Maybe instead of fighting like with any other knife you can draw your own blood and form some kind of whip-like weapon.

A ring of runes/crystal eyes/burning signs/whatever floating around your head and shooting fire.

A cage with young basilisk or mandragora. Point at your enemy and lift the lid.

Pepper spray for modern settings. You can make your own from garlig, holy water and alchemical stuff.

Runic flashlight. Stron enough to blind instantly and burn most creatures of the darkness. Dispells even magical shadows.

/thread

>im glad you changed your last name you son of a bitch

I CAST BULLET

Martial Arts.

If you're going to wave your hands around like a duffus to do spells at least do it in a way that's elegent and teaches you how to puch people in the face. Your ki/magic is just icing on the cake.

what is wrong with a sword exactly? Gandalf had a sword

of course a wizard wouldn't be as proficient with a sword as someone with years of training, but as long as they have some basic training they would be better of with a sword than without it.

Holy shit I can just imagine a tiny little basilisk tied to what is basically a pistol stock with the trigger operating his blinders. Point and shoot petrification rays.

Imagine writing a story so compelling, instead of you jumping into the book the book jumps onto you.

Probably the implication of wizards having weak noodle arms normally in tabletop games, DnD in particular. Makes me want to make a Bard that says they went for a balanced education of physical and mental skills at some wizard tower, possibly stating their favored sport was track any time they have to run for their life.

Using mild necromantic arts, most wizards can turn the severed hands of slain martial enemies into a useful close range trinket.

>Warrior Hands
Once an enemy gets close enough, the wizard can take one of these hands, and touching the hand to a foe causes them to be struck as though being punched or battered by a fighter with the same bonuses to attack and damage as though it was a fighter of equal level to the wizard, and with INT bonus in place of STR bonuses.

It is not unheard of for otherwise weedy necromancers to keep a few Warrior Hands up their sleeves in case of close range emergencies.

Talis's are pretty cool
What's wrong with using them?

A sword's a side arm. A secondary weapon for most troops, also carried by officers and aristocrats. It can also be used for dueling and as a fashion accessory.

So it fits the wizard's character concept perfectly. Look for a light, cut and thrust weapon with a complex hilt, on the continuum leading to a rapier. A spado de lado (side sword) is perfect.

D&D's no swords for wizards policy stems from a flawed historical understanding of a sword's role in battle. It's also niche protection due to the limitations of the D&D system.

wouldnt a nonglorified cattle prod be better anyway?