Double Sword/Khopesh variant?

[chorolus]

I'm rather new to DnD, so I apologize in advance if my questions seem a bit out of place...

Anyways, for a while now, I've wanted to create a Beastmaster Ranger -- possibly a multiclass or hybrid class -- who uses a Double-bladed weapon similar to a Double Sword but that is more similar to a double-sided Khopesh then it is to the Light/Heavy blade the Double sword is defined as.

Personally, I think it's silly that a Double Sword is classified as a Heavy Blade and Light Blade... I've always had a heavier, more jagged-edged blade in mind whenever I think of a Double Sword. So my question is this:

Could I create a new weapon classification for my character that is essentially a Double Sword with Khopesh blades on it? Or would such a character concept be limited to House-Ruled games?

I realize that weapons in DnD have been carefully balanced between dice sizes, +hit bonuses, and weapon-type abilities...but if I balanced the weapons stats to be essentially the same as using a Khopesh in each hand, would that work? I realize that such modifications would ultimately be up to the DM, but what are your thoughts?

 

[sev]

Could I create a new weapon classification for my character that is essentially a Double Sword with Khopesh blades on it? Or would such a character concept be limited to House-Ruled games?

I realize that weapons in DnD have been carefully balanced between dice sizes, +hit bonuses, and weapon-type abilities...but if I balanced the weapons stats to be essentially the same as using a Khopesh in each hand, would that work? I realize that such modifications would ultimately be up to the DM, but what are your thoughts?

I'd take a look at the existing weapons and pick something that's close. Use that for the stats, and then re-write the fluff to describe what you want.

You might start with the Zulaat, from the Ebberon books.

 

[Peraion Graufalke]

The double sword has been errata'ed, it's just a light blade now. (Double weapons in general have been affected by errata.)

For a double sword with heavy blades I'd suggest the double scimitar from the Eberron Player's Guide, even though it's underpowered IMO.

You can find the errata (with new stats) here:
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/UpdateMar2010.pdf
Pages 32 and 68 are what you're looking for.

Creating a double khopesh as a unique weapon (instead of reskinning an existing weapon) is pretty much house-rules territory. You could take the double scimitar and add "axe" to its weapon group, for example.

 

[chorolus]

Thanks for the suggestion, I wasn't even aware of the Zulaats existence. I googled up 'Zulaat' and found a dnd 4e wiki site that listed a few other weapons that are close to what I'm imagining as well. The Double Scimitar and Zulaat are both very nice looking... My goal was to find a Double Weapon/Heavy Blade variant(for Heavy Blade Opportunity) with a few desirable damage qualities like brutal/high crit/etc.

The Double Scimitar is pretty close to what I was looking for, wrapping a Heavy Blade, with High Crit, into a defensive double-weapon... I was looking forward to getting the Deadly Axe feat to make the Khopesh variant high crit, but with this weapon, I loose the Brutal 1 quality, and shrink from 1d8 to 1d6 but save a feat and start with high crit in the first place. Sounds like a pretty fair compromise.

The Zulaat also looks tempting since it could have reach on top of having Brutal 1 sort of 'built-into' its dice sizes, and is also defensive.

--edit--
That last post went up as I was typing my response, lol... So the Double Sword has been dropped to just being a Light Blade now? I suppose I need to update my Character Builder =[

I had a new idea though, that I detailed in a second thread. Instead of pursuing the High Crit and/or Axe on top of a Heavy Blade, I'm debating going with a Wraithblade weapon and multiclassing to a rogue to stack sneak attack damage on my Twin Strike crits. Are there any weapons that are still considered Light and Heavy Blades?

 

[Mithreinmaethor]

They were given errata a couple of updates ago. Your character builder should have given you the option to update every time you open it.

 

[Peraion Graufalke]

Are there any weapons that are still considered Light and Heavy Blades?

No, the double sword was the only one.

 

[oakbriar]

The only mechanical difference between a Scimitar and a Khopesh is the high crit/brutal 1 (since versatile won't matter with a double weapon). I'd suggest just asking your Dm if you can take a double scim and trade the crit for brutal. I just ran a quick dpr test on MBAs with both properties, and the brutal actually comes in behind high crit.

 

[DracoSuave]

The only mechanical difference between a Scimitar and a Khopesh is the high crit/brutal 1

and the fact that a Khopesh works with Deadly Axe to give it high crit

 

[chorolus]

Yeah, you can get high crit with a Khopesh, but not until lvl 21...which by that point you should be making mincemeat out of pretty much anything anyways, lol.

Thanks for all the suggestions, after some research and a few suggestions in another thread I'm now trying to decide between a Double Scimitar or a Zulaat instead of creating a Hybrid weapon from scratch -- and probably being limited to House-ruled games with it anyways...

 

[Mika]

They were given errata a couple of updates ago. Your character builder should have given you the option to update every time you open it.

That is only for those people who are on-line most of the time. For security reasons, I generally keep my computer off-line when I am not actively checking e-mail or web browsing. Thus, I am only given the option to update the Character Builder when I actively check for it -- most of the time, I get "Up to Date!" with "Update server could not be accessed" under it.

I am not complaining or indicating any sort of problem -- just pointing out that not everyone gets those automatic reminders.