Some Good Weapon Ideas?

I'm writing a Fantasy story, and the main plot is gonna focus around 20 Specific Weapons. however, my knowledge goes from Swords to War Hammers and Katanas and other generic, lame weapons. If anyone could give me some ideas for the weapons, I'd greatly appreciate it.

What's the tech level? Does magic exist? Weird phlebotinum?

I assume this is what you're looking for?

maybe go for something fun, like a shaolin spade

Magical weapons, or based on real weapons?

Real Weapons, but they have they'd have magical effects to them.

I've put most of my effort recently into late middle ages and early modern but if you wanted my favourites for that time period there's the...

• Estoc/tuck
• Koncerz
• zweihander

Someone already posted a good link above to a list of medieval weapons.

If there's ranged weapons you care about, i love the "cho ko nu", nothing quite like an automatic crossbow.

Didja forget archery?

Assuming that this fantasy is going to have a historical or otherwise not-modern vibe to it, swords are an extremely varied bunch. I mean, you have your standard broadswords used by classical knights and the samurai's katana. There's BFSes like the Japanese tachi and the Scottish claymore, rapiers, the Chinese jian... and knives and daggers, too. You seem to be leaving out a lot of different weapons. Polearms come in tons of varieties all over the world and are effectively one of humanity's oldest weapons. Xiaolin monks fight with unadorned staves (you could probably dress up a staff with intricate patterns carved into one). You also have gauntlets, battle scythes, and a myriad of objects that magic can be focused into. Final Fantasy Tactics A 2's cards (which fly in a loop and hit enemies) come to mind. There's tons of examples on Weapon Of Choice.

Anchor on a chain. You swing it and hit stuff with it.

Also, naginata. It's a blade on a stick; not a spear, but an edged blade for slashing as opposed to piercing.

Mmm, I've never really seen some things used(though I'm planning to).

A sling. Chain blades(more cliche, but still less used.) A boomerang maybe. An elephant goad. Several varieties of firearms. There's the atlatl too.

Really, go back far enough, and you'll find that weapons get more and more varied due to the green beard effect. Also, the asians seemed to just choose a shape and tried to kill each other with it.

Good luck, friend.

Shields can be used as weapons, if you want to expand in that direction.

Also, garrottes.

Spider Gun.

A katana-pistol.

Yes, this is real.

Kataras: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katara_%28dagger%29 It's like a big dagger on your knuckles and you punch with it!

Chakrams: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakram Sharpened discs, you throw them in people, Xena had one.

The Whip Sword,(needs no explanation).

Baruna in Vagrant Soldier Ares had a cool weapon. It was like two daggers connected by a long chain.

Weapons used in Silat, a badass Indonesian martial arts.

Here's a rough list of some you could consider

-Dagger -Sword -Shield -Bow -Lance -Spear/Halberd -Staff -Chain -Axe -Wolverine Style Gauntlets -Mace -Whip -Scythe

I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of at this hour.

edited 27th Jul '11 7:14:36 AM by BaleFire

Seconding Katars/naganatas both are bad ass weapons.

Don't forget composite weapons, which actually existed in renaissance Europe.

Basically, these were black powder firearms built into polearms and other applicable weapons. Halberds and maces were popular insofar as these kind of things went. Generally, composite weapons were pretty ornate and expensive, not to mention fairly impractical. But they are impossibly cool.

Okay, that pistol-katana was just awesome!

Oh! How about a pogo-stick scythe? The main problem with scythes as weapons is how you have to get the blade behind your opponent in order to do much damage with it, but if the blade's on the end of a large spring it might be able to shoot out and retract at high speed, mitigating that little flaw. The wielder could also press the blade against the ground and use the spring mechanism to launch themselves into the air.

Or is that a little too silly for the setting you're aiming at?

Best weapon name ever, no?

• Dog crap on a stick. That'll keep the enemies away .

Rat flail. Can cause plague on your enemies.

Good ol' Morningstar/Morgenstern is an awesome weapon for The Big Guy. Put a heavy spiked ball chained to a short stick, and send it in the guy's face.

Chakrams and scythes makes good mystical weapons, too.

Better than a morningstar: a human morningstar!

Basically, you have a very small person (either a child or someone with dwarfism) wear several pieces of spiked body armor designed so that, when they curl up into the fetal position, the armor locks together, forming a giant spiked ball. This armor is then attached to a very long chain, allowing another person to whirl them through the air.

This would provide a bit more versatility than the typical morningstar, since the human morningstar could adjust to what they're being swung at. If swung at an unprotected person or someone with a flimsy shield/armor, they can curl up into a spiked ball and smash through it. If their opponent is well protected, however, the human morningstar can lash out at them with their hands and feet (which are covered in metal spikes, bear in mind), letting them strike someone directly through the eye-slit in their helmet, for example, or hit the enemy's shield feet first and then leap over it to attack them directly.

Of course, the person serving as the human morningstar would have to be very skilled to be at all effective in that role, and the person swinging them around would need strength bordering on Charles Atlas Superpower.

...I...I think I'm in love.

That's EXACTLY what I needed for The Big Guy and The Smart Guy of my story, who are sisters and fight together...They were more like Heavy and Medic/Engineer, but THAT would fit perfectly well in my world :D

Thaaaaaanks so much