There are some people who really seem to hate big weapons

Im fine with two handed weapons like a claymore or one of those big long shafted battleaxes.

But when you get into guts dragon slayer territory then im calling bullshit.

After a certain point it's nota sword anymore, just a slab of metal that counts as a maul.

That codpiece is more disturbing than the sword.

that's nice, go play Anima or another japanese TTRPG if you don't like it.

It seems to be less about big weapons in general, and rather mostly just big swords.

Hammers and axes are typically RIDICULOUSLY big in western fantasy art.
Look at this, and compare it to an actual warhammer, like-

-this.

Even better is this armor from the same period. Just imagine how long it must have taken to create such detail, and then have it wrecked with a warhammer or guy half-swording.

>10 lbs

Even the flamberge pictured, the bardiche, dane axe, etc. mentioned here never weighed near ten pounds.

A 10 pound sword is gonna be great for giant overhead swings, and giant overhead swings are good for getting stabbed in the gut and dying on the floor like a dumbass.

>Obscene hand gestures
For when you want to flip off a guy but also use a zweihänder.

> Decorated with obscene hand gestures.

The spirit of man remains as it is regardless of the age.

Notice the devil horns in the top right. Much like today, the young men of ages past loved calling eachother cucks. It's the equivalent of that BLACKED hand that's popular on /pol/ nowadays.

I'm not up on the finer points of 5e yet and I don't have a copy of the PHB handy, are there not rules for weapons for people of different size categories?

You might run into issues with handles that are too big for your character's hands, but any DM open to the idea of people wielding big weapons would let you pay a blacksmith to fix that for you.

Also, I'm pretty sure it's because each edition (except maybe 4e) has at least a couple areas where it tries to be realistic. It would be better to just stick to one level of realism, but for some reason they don't want to do that.

The rules are implied, in the sense that there are larger monsters with bigger weapons, but nothing explicitly stated. Also, weapons for smaller characters don't deal less damage anymore.

Honestly curious, as I don't know much about sword-physics; by that logic, why use a 6lb sword instead of a 5lb one? If you could magically control the weight of a sword but have all other aspects remain identical (size, balance, edge, reach, etc), what is the optimum weight? Is there a single correct answer, or does it depend on the characteristics of the wielder? My instinct is that a featherweight sword (still with cutting edge) simply wouldn't get the momentum going needed to do serious damage. The point of the swing, I think, is to accelerate a bunch of pointy metal towards an opponent, which means you want to get as much total momentum as possible during the swing, which seems like it should prefer some middle-ground where it's the largest mass you can heave without sacrificing too much acceleration, which seems like it should vary based on strength.

Fucking hell that armor is good looking. The shape of those pauldrons makes my dick hard.

Depends what you need it to do. Rapiers are light and sharp to get some fast cuts in vital spots, while greatswords are heavy and dull since they're used for concussive impacts if not outright skull crushing.

>or does it depend on the characteristics of the wielder?
I think this is the correct answer, but I am no sword expert, just extrapolating from baseball bats. I'd assume a true swordsman would want his sword to be just as custom tailored to his preference.

For the sake of argument, let's say we're specifically talking about a slashing weapon, and we're trying to maximize the damage dealt on a downward slash, likely against an opponent wearing some type of armor.

This is what I'm thinking as well, and the baseball bat is a good simplification. Plastic baseball bat will accelerate quickly, but not pack enough umph at the end. Super-dense bat will pack umph, but will be too difficult to accelerate sufficiently. However, a superhuman might treat a regular bat as a plastic one and the super-dense as preferable depending on their strength.

So I'm in defense of super-heavy weapons for silly-strong wielders. Now size is an entirely different matter. On one hand, reach is nice. On the other, it's more difficult to maneuver as it gets larger. Probably becomes a fighting style thing?

>then have it wrecked with a warhammer or guy half-swording
Good fucking luck with that. Maximilian armor is pretty much the most sophisticated and well crafted platemail in history. The knight is by no means indestructible, but anything short of a polehammer is going to have a hell of a time trying to hurt him.

>Rapiers are light
No.

>People just have this knee-jerk reaction to "anime shit"
In western fantasy ridiculously large weapons existed long before it became a thing in anime and manga.

E=0.5mv^2

Personally, it just kinda feels like it clashes with the rest of stuff, aesthetically. If everyone is using fuckhuge Monster Hunter style weapons I have no problems. But everyone else using rapiers and then one dude with a surfboard just kinda feels a bit lame and out of place to my mind.

I definitely agree that it's an aesthetic thing, and that what's important is that all the weapons make sense existing alongside each other. That said, I do think it's possible to have a setting where rapiers and 10-foot-long cleavers co-exist peacefully. Big fan of Dark Souls, and "Ultra Greatswords" is a category the same way "Rapiers" is, and both fit the world's aesthetic.

yeah, but try to tell that to fantasyfags and watch the REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

In Dark Souls Ultra Greatswords are described as needing "inhuman" strength. Kinda depends on how a game handles something as "inhuman", but even there an Ultra Greatsword would probably not be part of the same arsenal as a rapier.

Where?

Oh, of course not the same arsenal; I meant only that they can make sense existing in the same world, both as viable forms of weaponry. As for the inhuman strength, this very much depends on setting. A pretty common view though is that 18 in d20 is the bounds "human" stats, and anything beyond is getting into superhuman stuff. Given high level characters can have strength scores of 30+, I think it's reasonable for them to use classes of weapons completely unthinkable to regular soldiers.

It's quite simple; they look stupid as fuck. A longsword is 10x cooler than any HUEG LOL SORD. Look at your picture. What the hell is that weapon?

there's nothing preventing longswords from looking stupid as fuck.

The problem is overdesigned weapons.

>regardless of what it actually is or how it works

I agree. Overdesigning is the difference between some of Monster Hunter's Great Swords and Guts's Dragonslayer from Berserk.

>the spine of a 30 foot ice dragon wrapped in the claws, scales, hides, fangs, glands, eyeballs, and kidney stones of said dragon
Vs.
>something semi-realistic on a larger scale.

Lo! Gentlemen, I declare this to be an Arms Threade!

>Zinogre Great Sword from MonHun

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I prefer the rathian gs myself.

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...

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youtube.com/watch?v=pfOAgKA7h7g
Gotta love his videos.

So long as magic is involved, a sword can be as big as you like, I think.
Some +2 greatsword that towers nine feet long and one foot across? Has a secondary enchantment for lightness and acceleration.

Shax is cute. CUTE!

>the hero threw the mighty sword Gigantese
>the 120ft gigantium blade unstoppably smashed through the alien spacecraft's forcefield and brought the ship to ruin
>the hero stood at the ship's exit wound and wrapped his arms around Gigantese's hilt, halting the blade in it's tracks with his will and Gigantese's favor
>the hero turned to the next spacecraft

youtu.be/oD8ykf8LCr0?t=49

As much as I appreciate the ridiculous massive weapons of MH, I actually main sword and board and heavy bowgun

>sword and board
Oh, don't worry, there's nothing wrong with maining that, we aunderstand-

>bowgun
get out.

My man, we main the same weapons.

How to discern a plebian with subhuman tastes.

i mean, fine, at least you guys aren't dualswording.

You're still unwashed neanderthalians, but at least you haven't reached true faggotry.

Almost forgot about hammers.

The muscles of a human arm have a maximum contraction speed, so no matter the weight you can only ever swing something that fast. Contraction speed can't be trained, so there's no improving it once you've hit that point.

So, if you've got the muscle mass of accelerate a 10 lb sword to that limit over the course of a swing, then you will without exception hit harder with it than if you used a lighter sword, because you're still swinging them both just as fast.

...

I actually really hate floating gems circling staffs, aesthetics-wise.

Bow master race

It's a giant sword with handles further up the blade to make half-swording easier. Not really that crazy.

I don't know what the spikes near the tip are for. Maybe for backswings? For hitting heavily armored opponents? For use in pulling down mounted opponents/climbing?

I like how half of Monhun's hammers are just "stick a really hard part of a monster on a stick, hit people with it". It has a certain rawness to it that makes it cool.

Earliest example I can think of is in the Nibelungenlied, when a spear that takes five men to carry it onto the field is held one-handed by a warrior princess

Jotun aren't giants, but they're definitely demigods.

Huge weapons are fucking hilarious

that's it really

for very serious settings like world of darkness they are out of place, but bring me Dungeons the Dragoning and there is no excuse to not include these grossly oversized beasts

personally I love them

that's a good point

Brunhild isn't a jotun, just a badass.

The bottom of his hammer is bigger than most warhammers.

Monster hunter kind of justifies its ridiculous weapons by having 'roided out hunters high on potions and elixirs, and never fighting other humans with them. If you're going toe to toe with a t-rex's angrier cousin, you probably need the biggest, heaviest thing you can swing.

I love me some oversized swords, but the main problem for me is the method of transport. From what I've read real zweihänders were carried over your shoulder or like a rifle during a parade. My main gripe with carrying them like that is that you only have one free hand which seems like a pretty big problem when engaging in activities like climbing or swimming. Carrying them on you back seems quite frowned upon by people into realism, but it still seems like the best method for casual wandering and dungeoneering when there's no imminent danger. Any better ideas?
I kinda like the method here, at least for more realistically sized swords.

Should've posted a picture where the carrying hook is actually visible.

I actually have a few giant swords, and what I've discovered is that a loose harness at the hip with the blade held near its middle is one of the better ways to carry it. It's usually held horizontally, and pretty easy to run with that way, but can be pivoted upwards in order to turn tight corners.

But, resting on the shoulder is also not bad, and the way most large two-handed swords were carried.

Big pole, bigger slut

That sounds pretty neat, do you have a picture of such a harness? I assume it's openable?

I mean, they're super slow, unwieldy, and heavy but couldn't they actually be very effective if they DO hit?

>story so epic that it made po-ju draw a straight dojeen

no. imagine a sword or an axe. If you'll have small area of impact and faster speed, the pressure inflicted onto you will be greater, so more deadly

Po-ju draws delicious women, yet 90% of the art is varying degrees of feminine boy

i like poju's shotas better

Here, lemme tell you a funfact calling someone 'cuck' (cornudo) in spanish is and has been common for over 100 years. It's literally one of the most common insults in many fucking languages, or at least all latin cultures and languages.

I wish the one I have was worth photographing, but it's an ugly mess of old belts.
But, this is sort of the basic principle, though she has it at her back rather than her side.

After a certain point you wouldn't be swinging the weapon it would be swinging you, momentum is a bitch.

sauce on that hottie?

Oversized weaponry is always a stylistic choice.

That's not lances

I think there is a balance, there are swords that are too big to take seriously but mildly oversided swords are pretty cool

Pretty sure it's paint

>lances
>weapons that are literally only useful in a cavalry charge and that were largely rendered obsolete by the invention of cavalry pistols in the 16th century

>DAoC

my nigga!

I just think it's dumb. That has nothing to do with practicality. It's just ugly and stupid and throws off proportion.

I think it comes down to effort. Using the baseball bat analogy, a plastic bat would require much more effort to achieve the same effect as an aluminium bat. The plastic bat might need several hits or one very hard hit to match a normal hit from the aluminium bat. And a super dense bat with hit harder but require more effort, you might even waste effort carrying the bat and trying to swing it.

So with an ultra great sword like the buster sword, dragonslayer, Greatsword, or any other oversized weapon, unless you're superhuman or breaking the rules somewhere the effort required to swing the thing is probably wasted just by carrying it around.

Plus if you're not swinging it properly and say, just letting it swing/drop vertically, then you're also not getting the most out of the weapon.

Not to mention that every swing and consequent attempt to pick the weapon back up leaves the user wide open.

So basically an ultra weapon isn't worth it unless you're in a setting or playing a character who isn't wasting effort, who has the proper strength and skill to use the weapon.

Depends on what the sword is made for.

The Dragonslayer from Berserk, for example, is an absolutely massive sword that was forged entirely by mundane means for the explicit purpose of breaking through the scales of a dragon. It's too heavy for a mortal man to lift, but there's no armor in existence that can block it.

Personally, I prefer using large axes/hammers in a game over massive swords. It makes more sense to me.

I know war hammers and axes rarely weighed over 3-4 pounds, but there's just something about swinging a block of metal the size of a small child.

>Going HEMA autist on a video game discussion

Good point. Most ugs's and other ultra weapon's require 30-40 strength, and the ones with lower strength requirements all have a dex requirement. Like the Greatsword wich iirc is 28 str and 10 dex or the black knight greatsword which is something like 36 str 18 dex. But even with stuff like the fume ugs at 50 str they all rely on momentum and gravity at least a liitle bit.

All the ultra weapons barring the zwei and a few others have high stat requirements, so a low level player has to sacrifice health and stamina to use them. Would it make sense to limit enormous weapons in dnd and similar to player characters with really high str/dex? Then it would also make it a goal or achievement for a character.

probably, but part of why those stat requirements work is that your stats change often and you get a lot of attribute points to assign over the game, so stats can be easily upgraded from 10 to 40+ over time
whereas in D&D i don't think it's all that common to break past 20 in any stat, and that's usually because you started at 18 or 19 anyway
if i recall, you get like, what, five or so attribute upgrades from 1 to 20 in 3.5e?

It was forged as an insult to a king. It was never intended or expected to be wielded.

>Bringing up the lance like a poland stronk autist in a discussion about good weaponry