and i thought whips were horrifically impractical as a combat weapon. i wouldn't even wanna be in the same BUILDING as one of those things, let alone swing it around.Humans have come up with much stranger weapons, like the urumi.
And it throws! I've actually held a couple of African throwing knives.Have you ever seen a picture of a mambele? That's actually a throwing weapon.
Stranger than what? The urumi is a functional weapon, so it's not stranger than a starknife.Humans have come up with much stranger weapons, like the urumi.
You'd still have one blade along your arm, which doesn't seem very practical. You'd also still be holding your hand in a very awkward position, "dipping" it into the central circle to grip the handle.Most likely cause of your problem is artist ignorance, I think. Rotate the handle so its inline with one pair of blades (instead of offset), and most of your problem would disappear I think.
IIRC those were in the weapons list as "African throwing knives" in 1st edition Tunnels & Trolls, and pretty darned effective too. That game was chock full of weapons that didn't appear in D&D for ages, which kind of fits with the general narrative of it being written as a "we can do better" response to OD&D.Have you ever seen a picture of a mambele? That's actually a throwing weapon.
I remember looking at the weapon lists in 2e's Combat & Tactics and seeing "knife, throwing" doing something like 2d4 damage (I don't recall the exact number, but it was significantly higher than a dagger), and only when looking at the actual description of the weapon realizing they were referring to one of those African weapons.IIRC those were in the weapons list as "African throwing knives" in 1st edition Tunnels & Trolls, and pretty darned effective too. That game was chock full of weapons that didn't appear in D&D for ages, which kind of fits with the general narrative of it being written as a "we can do better" response to OD&D.
Yeah, I suddenly remember using a small hand axe during scouts in the wrong way and it bounced back from the small tree almost in my face. I suddenly imagine a double sided axe blade bouncing back into my face... Ugh!Battle axes, for example, historically had smaller heads and pretty much never double sided, unlike what much of RPG art would like you to believe.