What you may be looking for, Luminosity, is an arming sword/knightly sword rather than a longsword. Longswords are two-handed warfighting weapons, but what a lot of video games and other modern material calls longswords are actually that arming sword/knightly sword up there.
I'unno. I'll admit to having not read the sheet, but the debate seemed to be one where that fudge was relevant. I've seen a lot a lot of folks fall down that trap.
Anyways. Insofar as ranged defense on a lightweight dispowered character...well. Most of the historically accurate defenses against ranged weapons generally came down to "wear a lot of metal" or "carry a big freaking shield"; something to get in the way. Neither of which are options. You could probably get away with carrying a buckler shield, though. While I wouldn't want to try and protect myself from arrows with a dinner plate on a handle, I would take the dinner plate on a handle any day over nada. And bucklers were easily enough worn on a belt or such (they were, in fact, designed for it if I recall) and could thus be taken up at need with your free hand rather than having to permanently occupy that mitt.
Also a helm of some sort. There's a reason all those old gladiators out there are shown as nekkid save for one arm and a helm. Gotta keep dat noggin intact in front of damn near everything else.
'"wear a lot of metal" or "carry a big freaking shield"' Actually, that's only really true for arrows and a couple of thrown projectiles. It's quite noticeable historically that after the popularisation of the greatest of all ranged weaponry, the firearm, shields and metal became nearly useless overnight. After that tactics and having a longer range weapon than your opponent became more important. Though I guess you could argue by the first world war and the birth of the tank things had swung back round in favour of wearing lots of metal.
Bucklers are parrying tools, and considering the character is a ninja-archetype (I'm guessing here, but throwing knives, very light armour and such tend to suggest this type of character) it would be a criminal waste of a free hand that can be lobbing knives and whatnot to waste it holding a buckler.
In a combat sense a helm would certainly be useful, but awfully conspicuous. They also tend to reduce visibility, make stealth near impossible and otherwise make for an ill-equipped scout or acrobat or particularly a spy.
You're right about the sword though, an old fashioned one handed blade of that kind would be more appropriate than a longsword, but the wakizashi-style blade Luminosity settled on is probably just as good if not better.
Interesting points regardless.
To clarify, I do believe the best option the character has in its current format to protect themselves from ranged attacks is to close effectively using cover and once at suitable range just start throwing knives willy-nilly to offset their opponents aim as they close to melee range.
I was mostly trying to come up with a name for the type of sword seen in my character's image. I like the look of it, but the angle kinda makes it hard to tell what it is. I suppose it could be a katana, but I can't tell if it's curved, and a katana is probably too long for what I would need. In any case, her sword is too thin to be most kinds of European things, I think.
Thank you for the tips, though, @DLL. I was thinking about some kind of full-faced mask/helm thing. Gotta find something aesthetically pleasing first, of course. Guilty pleasures come first.
And thanks everyone for the help. Lots of good points to consider. I appreciate it.
I was mostly trying to come up with a name for the type of sword seen in my character's image. I like the look of it, but the angle kinda makes it hard to tell what it is. I suppose it could be a katana, but I can't tell if it's curved, and a katana is probably too long for what I would need. In any case, her sword is too thin to be most kinds of European things, I think.
Looks like some kind of straight Japanese sword tbh, as far as I know their sword designs are the only ones with that kind of thin sleek design that also completely disregard hand protection.
Perhaps the dreaded Magna Pater can give Nergal a run for his money?
Name: The Magna Pater
Aliases: Salmu Pulhu (Sumerian), Shasheuss-Throth (De Vermis Mysteriis), The Sleeper of the Clandestine
Gender: Male
Species: Elder Horror, Primeval Vampire
Lifespan: As long as it can continue drinking blood. It doesn't age when it sleeps for years in-between large meals.
Age: 1,927
Appearance: A piebald monstrosity with slime slicked flesh and no hind legs. Its only limbs are two long, winged arms and a powerful tail. It has four claws on each forepaw, with the middle one being eight inches long and capable of slicing through muscle like tissue paper. The beast's head is mostly a dripping maw with oily, unseeing eyes on top, accentuated by long, crinkle cut ears. It has a sharp, hollow tongue which can extend three feet from its mouth and act as a siphon to suck in blood. From snout to tail base, it is over eight feet long. The tail is fourteen feet. It weighs in at about two-hundred and ninety-five kilos, as much as a siberian tiger.
Abilities
~Limited flight. Due to its wingspan and body weight, it can only fly for a maximum distance of ninety meters and remain aloft for little more than a half minute.
~Ectothermic: It's body temperature adjusts to match its surroundings. It can withstand the hottest or coldest environments.
~Tremendous strength and speed, the likes of which dominate the animal kingdom.
~Keen hearing and sonar. It's echolocation has a maximum distance of 6,700 meters and can detect objects moving at half the speed of sound. Its hearing is so good it can locate a victim even through miles of dense forest and with its back turned. Anything faster than its echolocation it can sense almost instantly via air pressure gradient.
~Heat pits: Can detect the heat of organisms.
~Tongue: Can draw in blood through a wound like a vaccuum. It can also squirt or spray blood and bile. The bile is not highly acidic.
~Natural weapons: Its teeth and claws are composed of a complex chitin and protein polymer, harder and sharper than a Humboldt squid's beak, which can pierce modern body armor. The Magna Pater's bite force is superior to what a Nile crocodile can exert.
~Can squeeze into any opening that it can fit its head through.
~Capable of entering a state of metabolic stasis which can last for decades. It retains spatial awareness during this "hibernation" and can awaken at will.
~Sense of smell: It can track down others thousands of kilometers away just by smelling them on the clothing of its prey.
~Intelligence: Is far more clever that it looks. It has nearly two millennia of experience as a highly prolific interdimensional serial killer, can grasp (but not speak) all languages, and never makes the same mistake twice.
~Can quickly regenerate from wounds by consuming blood and flesh. The amount of mass healed is proportionate to how much is consumed, I.E one pound of food to replace one pound of damaged tissue.
~The membrane of its wings is tougher than Kevlar, and can easily stop bullets of the highest caliber.
~Its body mucous and saliva contains anticoagulant, cytotoxic, and bufotoxic properties. Those whom it bites or claws will suffer gradual necrosis, unstoppable bleeding, and fast-acting, nightmarish hallucinations. The speed at which the bufotoxins take effect depends on how close the wound is to the head, ranging from several minutes to several seconds. It is immune to its own toxins. The viscosity of the mucous can be regulated, allowing the Magna Pater to be extremely slippery or adhesive. The mucous functions also to mask its scent. It can convert and excrete up to twenty percent of its body weight in mucous. It becomes significantly faster when empty, and can regain the weight by eating.
~The Alpha:
Though it would never allow its young to live unless driven to desperation by an immense threat to its existence, for it is a selfish thing that dislikes sharing its hunting grounds, it is able to impose its will upon its brood of lesser vampires via shared split-consciousness. By forcefully breeding with another organism, it can produce in one month a litter of four juveniles. The juveniles mature after a single month and become fully capable of killing and breeding, weighing at that time around 100 kilos each. The brood will never grow to more than 200 kilos. Each one can have a litter of four young, and can breed with as many victims as are available. Any sort of living organism that weighs at least seventy pounds, male or female, can be impregnated. At such a rate the number of mature brood would grow exponentially as follows, assuming the lowest estimate of each one breeding a single time per month.
Month One- The Magna Pater breeds and the young emerge.
Month Two- Five mature brood counting the Magna Pater.
Month Four- Twenty brood.
Month Six- Eighty Brood.
Month Eight- 320 brood.
Month Ten- 1,280 brood.
Year One- 5,120 brood.
Year Two- 26,214,400 brood.
Year Three- Planetary Extinction.
~Malocchio:
It may use its "true eyes" by shutting down its other senses. Before it uses the Malocchio, the intended victim(s) will have a brief premonition of the danger to come. Those who see the true eyes will, each time they go to sleep, enter a trance and begin moving in the direction of the Magna Pater, wherever it may be. They will awaken at the time they normally would, such as a few minutes for a nap and several hours for deep sleep. It also allows the Magna Later to see through the eyes of its prey at any and all times, even at the same time if there are multiple victims. By using the Malocchio on one who is already cursed, the victim's sight will be replaced with that of the Magna Pater's until it deactivates its eyes.
It is a passive curse that has no immediate negative effects unless the victim is entirely under the influence of the Magna Pater's hallucinogens, in which case the victim will immediately lose their mind from fright. If the bufotoxins haven't taken full effect then the victim will feel an intense fear which escalates in accordance to the strength of the already terrifying hallucinations.
Looking into its "true eyes" for too long can result in the victim's body becoming riddled with cancer at a later period in time, I.E developing prostate and skin cancer two years after the encounter. It takes roughly seven seconds of eye-to-eye contact (does not have to be constant) before the dormant cancer cells begin taking root. The Magna Pater can only keep the Malocchio active for at most sixteen seconds, and cannot use it again until the same amount of time has passed. As an example, if it only uses it for ten seconds and then deactivates, then it must rest its eyes for ten seconds.
~Those that are consumed by the Magna Pater whilst cursed by the Malocchio have their consciousness eternally bound to their physical state of matter. They gain a horrific form of immortality, doomed to live on forever in boundless agony as inert particles bequeathed unto the earth, lost to time and memory beneath the weight of the ages.
(A lesser, juvenile vampire)
Behavior: The Magna Pater is what one would first think of when the word "monster" comes to you in the dead of night. It may be called if one completes a forbidden ritual detailed within the ancient tome of black magic known as De Vermis Mysteriis, but nary a being would consider doing such an obscene thing. It makes no noise, has no mercy, cannot be reasoned with, and lives only to drain the blood and devour the flesh of all living things it can bind within its greasy wings. It enjoys all manner of prey and is especially inclined to go out of its way to find children, but it is shy and despises the light. It prefers to remain in damp pitch-blackness, where no eyes can spy it and no light can fall upon it. When outside of its primary lair it lurks around graveyards, occasionally squirming through the wormy soil to feast upon the dead and decaying when no live meat is available. It will frequently impregnate victims with its brood, keeping them alive until its malformed young are birthed. It will eat both the victim and the young, doing these things not for food but to purposefully inflict prolonged torment.
The few who come into contact with it and live may never be the same as they had been before, for above all else it is a creature of persistence. Even if one leaves the Magna Pater, it will never leave them. A variety of lifelong physical complications and psychological ailments can stem from a meeting with it and it never stops pursuing its prey, even if they move far away. It will also track down any living thing that leaves its scent on a victim. This leads to the Magna Pater consuming the families of those it hunts, along with anyone those families had come into recent physical contact with. Though one may travel often and abroad, once the Magna Pater has chosen a victim their fate is inevitable. It could take days, weeks, months, even years, but eventually on some cold and moonless evening one will awaken to see a sticky face with dead eyes peering through their bedroom window.
History: Once in a millennium is a creature born, a living horror known as the "Magna Pater". The progenitor of monsters, the true genesis, the harbinger of loss, ancient and terrible. Only one has ever lived at a time, for it is greedy and does not abide its own kind, but always has one lived. It is the alpha of its virtually nonexistant subspecies, devouring its own normal young at birth. Only when the lone alpha dies is a new one conceived. It travels far and with little preference, drawn to whatever realm has foolishly called it via black magic. It's race has seen and ended more civilisations than there are stars in the sky. In Sumeria it was worshipped as a cruel deity to which countless sacrifices were made. In this lifetime does a special one exist, the most dreadful of its kind to have ever been. Even the most vile of devils would balk at associating with it. Like each Magna Pater before it, it wields the unique capacity to share the sight and manipulate the will of its subspecies, an apocalyptic abnormality which it very rarely abuses. It treasures the world, but only for the sadistic pleasures it can derive from bringing pain and grief to other living things.
Though it lingers not permanently on this Earth, it is anchored here during times of inactivity. It haunts the secret places deep below ground, amidst a lichen hellscape of death and graverot. It slumbers upon a towering mountain of soggy bones, reigning over its decaying empire on a haphazard throne several thousand lives thick. Those who enter this wretched domain, where the blue sky transitions into a black void, do so at the risk of becoming yet another skeleton upon which the Magna Pater may sleep, with their loved ones soon joining them.
@MelonHead Well, given the discussion of a few pages earlier I was disregarding firearms and other heavy-duty projectiles, as they don't seem to be an issue in most dispowered fights. In which case, slings and arrows are the big ones, and those were dealt with by either being Iron Man or by carrying your cover around with you.
Still. If the sheet is an outright ninja, then yeah. Smoke bombs, blinding powders, throwing stuffs. Though there isn't a thrown weapon known to man that matches the range or punch of even a sling, let alone a bow or crossbow. Probably just going to have to accept a disadvantage in most ranged fights outside ten, fifteen meters.
As for the blade...chokuto, maybe? I really ought to find that sheet if I'm going to keep yapping. But ehh...where's the fun in being informed, eh?
We're all (at least, most of us at any rate) are RPers first before combat RPers, I think we can handle a little story ;D
I've had a couple characters who were completely incoherent, and one who doesn't talk at all. Always good for leaving your opponent with a 'wtf' on their lips.
I'm currently trying to figure out how I want to approach it and if I want a small group, or a 1x1 mainly. I'm leaning toward the latter rather than a small group because I honestly can't GM anything else at this time and so my partner would likely have to take the lead in it. So, either way it will take a bit before I get that storted since I've still got a lot on my plate and I want to think about it a bit. However, I would be willing to share more details for anyone interested. All anyone needs to do is ask or pm me.
So, can you think of a good back story for our characters? Perhaps Nergal gets ahold of De Vermis Mysteriis and summons The Magna Later, only to find out that it serves only itself.
The ritual to summon it requires the following steps.
The ritual may only be done when there is no moon to see in the sky. The area in which the ritual commences must be entirely dark, aside from six black wax candles each located at the point of a tetrahedron measuring twelve feet across, drawn with the blood of an infant aged no more than three months.
In the middle something must be offered that the summoner truly loves. Then after reciting the incantation in the Black Jargon, all the candles must be extinguished at the exact same time.
If that sounds like the sort of shenanigans Nergal would be up for, then feel free to make the thread!
I can think of something. The company always likes to get samples of new organisms to study. As far as the ritual goes he would have no qualms about it. I'll start it up in the morning as I'm off tomorrow.
@MelonHead Gotta correct you, you can wear a buckler and still have a free hand. You just have to strap it around your forearm instead of hand.
Edit: I don't know why the hand is a Furry hand.
'A buckler (French bouclier 'shield', from Old French bocle, boucle 'boss') is a small shield, 15 to 45 cm (6 in to 18 in) in diameter, gripped in the fist.' Strapping it to the forearm would significantly reduce its worth as a parrying tool, and as far as I can see in regards to a duelling tool it was never used in that fashion.
As far as I can remember reading, bucklers were never historically worn on the arm. They were always held in the hand because of their use in dueling.
Of course, that doesn't mean you can't wear a buckler-sized shield (or something a little larger) strapped to your arm while retaining a free hand. We're not bound by historical veracity or anything. It's just not something that happened in the real world. It's a thing in D&D though (iirc there's a Pathdfinder class built around the idea of wielding a two-handed weapon while wearing a buckler). It's not impossible from a structural/anatomical/strategic standpoint.
@MelonHead @Darth You "CAN" wear a buckler on your arm and still have a free hand.
I know how they were worn dudes, I'm saying that as a fictional character, you have liberties with following historical accuracy. Especially if it's for efficiency's sake.
The tradeoff for stricter parrying maneuvers would be a free hand. D&D may be fiction, but so too is this sport we compete in. Its uses would be stricter, but the addition of having both hands would easily offset the cost if you ask me.
Of course, that doesn't mean you can't wear a buckler-sized shield (or something a little larger) strapped to your arm while retaining a free hand. We're not bound by historical veracity or anything
I would question a buckler's efficiency when strapped to an arm - at that point you may as well just wear a gauntlet or an armored bracer and Wonder Woman stuff. I mean yeah, it can be done, and we all know that inhumanly perfect timing/precision of action is the true universal RP superpower, so you could make it work...but I feel like having the shield immovably strapped in place would strip off a lot of the normal utility of a buckler.
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