Weapon Ideas For A Genius Bruiser?

My gaming group is gonna be trying a game of Scion in July, and one of our members is partially stuck. Her character's a daughter of Thor, and is very similar to Annabeth Chase (i.e, very knowledgeable about Norse Mythology and so forth). Most of our characters have "god-forged" weapons.

She's already admitted that she doesn't simply want the character to wield a copy of dear ol' Daddy's magic hammer; it wouldn't really match up with the character's persona. So any suggestions for a weapon?

Sword. By far the most complicated sort of melee weapon to use, swords take a lot of thought and strategy to employ effectively. Bonus points: two-handed sword.

A sword you can throw and steer. Say it's Baldr's sword or something.

Huginn and Muninn, Odin's Ravens (aka 'Thought' and 'Memory'), either as suped-up familiars, or else as living weapons themselves- slicing through stuff like they had bladed wings or whatever. Or both, given what I've heard about Scion

Or, if she's seriously brilliant (and magically inclined, of course), maybe she broke the curses on Tyrfing, which would more or less give her a Nordic lightsabre without the unpleasant side effects of... however many great evils it has left to cause (out of three) and killing someone every time it's drawn, whether you want it to or not.

Thunder Gun? A sonic handgun :P?

Maybe I've just been watching too much anime of late, but I'd go with Powered Armor, maybe upgrading later (or as a temporary power) to a Humongous Mecha. Which, naturally, she built and continues to maintain for herself. Powered by her father's lightning, able to make sonic thunder blasts, bright red like her father's hair (total Ace Custom work), and if you want to throw in some pseudo-Old Norse, name it Tannbreki (my off-the-cuff guess at "tooth breaker," in line with what Thor named his goats, Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjostr).

Not sure that would count as a weapon per se.

Some sort of flail, perhaps?

If you can't turn Powered Armor into a weapon, you're not trying hard enough.

My teammate decided that she's gonna go with a katana (not Norse, I know; just deal with it). She's also got a Viking commander's ghost as a Guide, and at times, the sword seems to function at a distance on "remote". It's actually being wielded by the spirit.

Can you talk them out of using a katana? I know it's a modern-day setting so it's not anachronistic, but it still seems wrong to have a Norse character using a Japanese sword.

Yeah, I'm also going to throw a vote against a katana. I mean, if you're going to do that, be the child of either Raijin (Japanese god of storms) or Susanoo no Mikoto (Japanese god of, among other things, storms). You want a katana, be descended from a Japanese god.

You can also insert the standard rant against Katanas Are Just Better here.

The thing that drives me up the wall is that the Norse were already known for a particular sword. It's even called a Viking sword. You could specifically go for the Ulfberht, which is a subset of the same style. If you picked Thor as your parent, and your character is supposed to be well-versed in Norse legends, go full Viking.

Well, if it's a modern day setting, you could make the case that katanas are easier to conceal or at least not to draw too much attention. Plus, katanas can be effective without the need for heavy armour, unlike most western blades that have been designed with the use of armour and/or shields in mind.

But yeah, it's a little inappropriate because of the whole "daughter of Thor" thing. Not wanting to use a hammer? Fine, but at least try to use something that makes sense with your background. Especially since the sword is apparently special. You can't just be part of one "faction" and use a mystical weapon of another without an extensive explanation in your background.

Personally, I'd go with an one-handed waraxe. Can't get much more Norse than that, and doesn't take too much specialised skill to use effectively. Perfect for someone who is naturally strong, but doesn't prioritise battle prowess over academics.

A steel viking sword ought to outperform a katana anyway. Their craftsmanship was way ahead of anyone else's simply because they didn't have good metal to work with.

At least the most expensive ones yeah.

Also, @_@ at this whole thread, but let's talk Norse weapons for a minute here:

If you want to use a weapon that kind of oozes sophistication and intelligence from the perspective of the Norse, you want to go with a spear. I mean, there's a reason it's a favorite of the resident god of knowledge, wisdom, war and all those other fancy things. Alternatively, if you want something that emphasizes the "bruiser" aspect, perhaps an axe would be a good choice. The skeggox in the writeup for Scion is based on the Dane Axe.◊ And let me tell you, an axe is not an uncomplicated weapon - in many ways it's harder to use than a sword, because there's more inherent risk. It also goes well with a shield if she ever decides to spring for something like that. It's also relatively easy to conceal, and if it's somewhat modern-looking she might even be able to justify it by saying it's for lumberjacking or something.

edited 6th Jun '14 10:32:21 AM by math792d

There's no way a katana would draw less attention than a Viking sword in the modern day. Open carry, there's no question - both are huge attention magnets. Even for concealment, a katana is a bare minimum 60 centimeters, which is not much easier compared to the minimum 71 centimeter Viking sword.

As for constructed to handle armor... of course katanas were made to deal with armor - samurai were pretty famous in their day for how elaborate their armor could be. If anything, a Viking sword would be more capable of handling modern combat, as it was constructed to be a mariner's weapon (and heavy armor while on a boat is just a bad idea on any level). The two were constructed for different styles of armor, but both were meant to deal with armored opponents. And given that neither type of armor is used in the present, they're equally anachronistic in that regard.

The irony, of course, is that a magical hammer would be the least conspicuous in the modern day - disguise it as either a mallet or a sledgehammer, and have it with your tool kit in your car (also, always carry around a toolkit in your car, even if your profession never requires one - partly for cover, and partly for Crazy-Prepared status). An axe could also work, though you need to start on a cover more for that. Though, if you could make a spear that telescopes and collapses into a cane, that'd be a pretty badass weapon too (also, the number of thunder gods that have used spears is immense - great reference material there).

edited 6th Jun '14 11:09:16 AM by 32_Footsteps

A character in my Scion game (albeit a Scion of Odin, not Thor) did this.

A Thunder Spear, a spear that rapidly compacts and expands the air around you when it impacts an enemy, with the compacting of the air driving your spear deeper into the enemy (and letting you immediately get close to the enemy if you threw it), and the expanding air driving you out out of range of a counterattack (or just return the spear to you if you threw it).

The sound of this happening is, of course, akin to thunder.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while; I've been unable to get to a computer for a while.

I talked it over with her, and she decided to go with a collapsible rapier (similar to the blade Sulu had in Star Trek 2009). Not a skinny "car-antenna"-style rapier; more like something Nightcrawler would carry. It still has the "ghost remote" feature, though.

Well... a rapier is mildly less anachronistic (from the 16th century as opposed to taking its modern form in the 17th century - keep in mind the Viking era ended in the 11th century), and much less culturally displaced (the rapier developed in either what is modern Spain or modern France, so only a few hundred miles off course). You take what you can get, I suppose. And at least we do know from the historical record that Vikings did visit areas where the rapier developed.

The ghost remote trick makes sense, what with Thor doing some fancy throwing tricks with Mjolnir, which could potentially be replicated with such a power.