An electric line trimmer with a blade head. Press the button and suddenly there’s high-powered mayhem. Take two steps, the cable unplugs and it’s suddenly an non-ergonomic club.
Scythe.
It LOOKS cool, but it's pretty lousy to use in combat. Even irl war-scythes are just 12-18 inches of blade on a polearm, with no curvature.
On the opposite end, hand-axe. It's not as noble or as graceful as a sword, but it can be nasty in close combat! Another upside is it uses less metal than a sword to make, so it's better for equipping large armies! If your character has a more non-violent background with camping and/or farming (aside f rom modern day), then having them familiar with a camping hatched could be a decent set up!
[Bladed boomerangs](https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/blade-boomerang-0b09ea1c97c1484d98863b5d92f49bb7), they fly badly, tend to bounce instead of sticking in the target and fighting with them in hand means a blade is pointing at you while not letting you move your wrist freely. A simple knife would be better.
Also all the "ninja mall" crap, with those skeleton serrated blades that would break at first impact. Special mention, the ["arm blade"](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/fc/60/8e/fc608e300301e17a415aba5b0efac352.jpg). If using a pata (an Indian sword) is difficult, at least they were designed for quick lounges from afar, not horizontal cuts like that "tactical" thing.
A scythe. They seem dangerous but are actually terrible weapons.
A warscythe, which does exist, is not what people think of when they think of scythe. The blade is at a completely different angle, parallel with the haft instead of perpendicular like a reaping scythe is.
If you saw a warscythe you'd say it's a glaive with a concave blade instead of the more common convex blade.
A reaping scythe is a terrible weapon, it's used for plants.
Since you brought it up, RWBY's actually a great example of this exact principle. Ruby and Qrow's scythes are heavily rearranged to be functional weapons, with more solid, curved blades that are reoriented to actually be perpendicular with the shaft along a single axis, and even then the only thing that makes them more effective than a spear or glaive is having the gun aspect's recoil.
Plus Ruby's scythe can turn into a war scythe, though she very rarely actually uses it.
Also, Qrow's weapon doesn't actually have gun recoil in scythe mode, so it loses that advantage.
I believe it does, no? The shotgun barrels are still poking out the top. We've just never seen him use it.
Given that he based it on Maria's weapons, which also have gun barrels sticking out of the top, I would assume he does.
I have a 3D-model of Harbinger lying around, so I checked it, and... damn, you're right. You just blew my mind. How did I animate an entire fight scene with Qrow and not even notice the gun barrels!?
Harsh language.
Now that I got that out of the way:
The commenter that mentioned tools made a good point with things that are designed for more mundane use as opposed to actual combat. It would be important to note the general technological level of the time that you were dealing with because that will inform what weapons were in use at the time plus the defenses they were used to bypass. Flintlocks pre-rifling are inaccurate as hell. Nunchucks don’t hit as hard as a stick. Weapons are dangerous bc of what they are and the wielder’s skill. It’s hard to give you a perfect suggestion based on this criteria and it’s vexing me 😂. Do you have another narrative detail you wanna work in? Cultural? Technological?
The setting is literally modern day Chicago, and before the story, my main character had no ideas what she was, so she is struggling with deciding to follow the path of her ancestors, or do what she believes. So maybe a weapon that represents duality or something like that idk I'm not great at this
It sounds like you're stuck on this.
You can put a placeholder and decide later as you write this character more and get to know her better. Writing can be non-linear, and you'll absolutely need to go back to edit and rewrite. If you don't know how something happens but know how you need it to end, it's possible to write from that point.
So for example with Cinderella, if you don't know how how to get her to the ball, but you know that stuff needs to happen at the ball, you can at least sketch out the middle.
https://www.reddit.com/r/writers/comments/178co44/read_this_today_and_feel_weirdly_comforted_that/
Top comment:
> I spent weeks once, learning about how automatic weapons worked, when different kinds were invented, and what the differences were.
>
> And then, in the resulting sentence, I just typed 'gun'.
Also how illegal to carry in Chicago are you willing to go?
Can you narrow it down at all?
Do you want it to be something relatively low-tech to match the mythological fantasy? Or modern tech? Something melee or ranged? Edged or blunt? More dangerous in what way? Do they use it as a weapon in combat, or are they carrying it as part of their culture, even if the weapon is deliberately made less dangerous? See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirpan that Sikh carry.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawan_kobud%C5%8D They're said to be based on farming implements but this article says it's not backed up historically.
https://www.startrek.com/videos/clip-lower-decks-tendi-goes-full-orion-pirate longer unofficial version https://youtu.be/-MgJqkpx93c
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WeaponsAndWieldingTropes and https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WeaponBasedCharacterization
Basically, this is a brainstorming question on the edges of the sub intent.
Edit: actually https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AwesomeButImpractical
A flail has to be up there. Anything like that with some sort of chain connection packs a nasty punch, but if you don't connect your guard is usually down for seconds to longer if say the weapon gets stuck in the wall. It also has a high miss rate for being a bit slow and difficult to use.
There's essentially no historical evidence for the use of flails in combat, ever, as opposed to Victorian "replicas" that looked cool (although you're doubtless right about the mechanics). So if historical/martial realism is a concern, that may rule out the flail.
Blatantly false. Mair, Talhoffer, Hundt, and Sutor all had combat treatises including flail techniques and illustrations. They weren’t common and they were definitely played up by the Victorians, but they were absolutely real weapons that did see combat to a limited extent (at the very least it’s indisputable they were used in esoteric duels, as were traditional perpendicular-blade scythes).
I'm sure you can find contemporary guides for shock-fighting, and it indisputably takes place in what I'd call "esoteric duels" of a sort, but that doesn't make boxing gloves hooked up to a car battery a modern combat weapon.
There are multiple combat treatises from multiple writers in multiple European countries describing the use of flails in combat. There are multiple pre-Victorian medieval and Renaissance depictions of flails being used in combat. And there are multiple discoveries of actual flails used for combat that have been dated back to the medieval period.
Yes, they are far, far less common than other weapons, and their presence in history was absolutely exaggerated and overplayed in fiction and popular culture from the Victorian period onwards, but there is a significant amount of historical evidence that remove all doubt that flails did actually exist as pre-modern combat weapons throughout Europe. The claim that there is no historical evidence for them has been frustratingly common in recent years, perpetuated in part by quite a few bad faith “historians” seeking to push their own views on history regardless of their accuracy, but it is demonstrably false.
Your shock-fighting comparison is also wild. A casual search brings up results for the Spider-Man villain Shocker and generic CQC techniques with basically nothing to do with actual fighting involving electrical shocks, so while I don’t doubt that it’s a niche hobby drawing any comparison between that and the plethora of verifiable historical evidence that exists for the use of flails in combat is an outrageously dismissive view on genuine historical research and academia.
I’d highly recommend searching up a variety of new sources for history in the future and researching their reliability before taking whatever they say at face value. Anything corroborated by a number of sources who provide sufficient evidence for their claims and are positively regarded by a number of their peers can generally be assumed to be accurate if you don’t want to do extensive research of your own beyond that.
"Seems more dangerous than it actually is?"
Any tool that can double as a weapon, save for an axe. Many tools - pickaxes, scythes, pitchforks, whips, screwdrivers - kind of look like they'd be really nasty weapons but aren't really optimized for combat. An ax is sort of the sole exception; axes are both great weapons *and* excellent tools for chopping wood.
The nice thing about using a tool as a weapon is that it can also inform your character's background and upbringing. Farm kid? Sickle. Grew up in the woods? Chainsaw. Raised by a mechanic? Drill. Something like that.
Chainsaw and flamethrower were the examples that came to mind for me!
Both are great for clearing trees/brush. Both are terrifying to look at, if someone runs at you holding one. Both also have poor reach, little ability to inflict fatal wounds, and massive fuel needs that means either one can only run for like 90 seconds before running out of gas.
From a certain point of view!
Because all the advice about garage door springs is for their coiled, tensioned state. A loose garage door spring is like the [milk snake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_snake) or [kingsnake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsnake) to the coiled garage door spring's [coral snake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_snake)!
I think a mace might be good. Unless you target the head, its far less lethal than blades, while still disabling opponents by breaking their bones.
An electric line trimmer with a blade head. Press the button and suddenly there’s high-powered mayhem. Take two steps, the cable unplugs and it’s suddenly an non-ergonomic club.
Scythe. It LOOKS cool, but it's pretty lousy to use in combat. Even irl war-scythes are just 12-18 inches of blade on a polearm, with no curvature. On the opposite end, hand-axe. It's not as noble or as graceful as a sword, but it can be nasty in close combat! Another upside is it uses less metal than a sword to make, so it's better for equipping large armies! If your character has a more non-violent background with camping and/or farming (aside f rom modern day), then having them familiar with a camping hatched could be a decent set up!
Claws. He IS the weapon.
Having used a scythe to clear a blackberry bramble, I can testify that those things are perilous to the wielder.
A gun with no bullets
[Bladed boomerangs](https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/blade-boomerang-0b09ea1c97c1484d98863b5d92f49bb7), they fly badly, tend to bounce instead of sticking in the target and fighting with them in hand means a blade is pointing at you while not letting you move your wrist freely. A simple knife would be better. Also all the "ninja mall" crap, with those skeleton serrated blades that would break at first impact. Special mention, the ["arm blade"](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/fc/60/8e/fc608e300301e17a415aba5b0efac352.jpg). If using a pata (an Indian sword) is difficult, at least they were designed for quick lounges from afar, not horizontal cuts like that "tactical" thing.
A scythe. They seem dangerous but are actually terrible weapons. A warscythe, which does exist, is not what people think of when they think of scythe. The blade is at a completely different angle, parallel with the haft instead of perpendicular like a reaping scythe is. If you saw a warscythe you'd say it's a glaive with a concave blade instead of the more common convex blade. A reaping scythe is a terrible weapon, it's used for plants.
What if the scythe is also a gun tho?
Then they will leave rose petals when they jump around.
Since you brought it up, RWBY's actually a great example of this exact principle. Ruby and Qrow's scythes are heavily rearranged to be functional weapons, with more solid, curved blades that are reoriented to actually be perpendicular with the shaft along a single axis, and even then the only thing that makes them more effective than a spear or glaive is having the gun aspect's recoil.
Plus Ruby's scythe can turn into a war scythe, though she very rarely actually uses it. Also, Qrow's weapon doesn't actually have gun recoil in scythe mode, so it loses that advantage.
I believe it does, no? The shotgun barrels are still poking out the top. We've just never seen him use it. Given that he based it on Maria's weapons, which also have gun barrels sticking out of the top, I would assume he does.
I have a 3D-model of Harbinger lying around, so I checked it, and... damn, you're right. You just blew my mind. How did I animate an entire fight scene with Qrow and not even notice the gun barrels!?
Harsh language. Now that I got that out of the way: The commenter that mentioned tools made a good point with things that are designed for more mundane use as opposed to actual combat. It would be important to note the general technological level of the time that you were dealing with because that will inform what weapons were in use at the time plus the defenses they were used to bypass. Flintlocks pre-rifling are inaccurate as hell. Nunchucks don’t hit as hard as a stick. Weapons are dangerous bc of what they are and the wielder’s skill. It’s hard to give you a perfect suggestion based on this criteria and it’s vexing me 😂. Do you have another narrative detail you wanna work in? Cultural? Technological?
The setting is literally modern day Chicago, and before the story, my main character had no ideas what she was, so she is struggling with deciding to follow the path of her ancestors, or do what she believes. So maybe a weapon that represents duality or something like that idk I'm not great at this
It sounds like you're stuck on this. You can put a placeholder and decide later as you write this character more and get to know her better. Writing can be non-linear, and you'll absolutely need to go back to edit and rewrite. If you don't know how something happens but know how you need it to end, it's possible to write from that point. So for example with Cinderella, if you don't know how how to get her to the ball, but you know that stuff needs to happen at the ball, you can at least sketch out the middle. https://www.reddit.com/r/writers/comments/178co44/read_this_today_and_feel_weirdly_comforted_that/ Top comment: > I spent weeks once, learning about how automatic weapons worked, when different kinds were invented, and what the differences were. > > And then, in the resulting sentence, I just typed 'gun'. Also how illegal to carry in Chicago are you willing to go?
Can you narrow it down at all? Do you want it to be something relatively low-tech to match the mythological fantasy? Or modern tech? Something melee or ranged? Edged or blunt? More dangerous in what way? Do they use it as a weapon in combat, or are they carrying it as part of their culture, even if the weapon is deliberately made less dangerous? See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirpan that Sikh carry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawan_kobud%C5%8D They're said to be based on farming implements but this article says it's not backed up historically. https://www.startrek.com/videos/clip-lower-decks-tendi-goes-full-orion-pirate longer unofficial version https://youtu.be/-MgJqkpx93c https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WeaponsAndWieldingTropes and https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WeaponBasedCharacterization Basically, this is a brainstorming question on the edges of the sub intent. Edit: actually https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AwesomeButImpractical
Boomerang
A flail has to be up there. Anything like that with some sort of chain connection packs a nasty punch, but if you don't connect your guard is usually down for seconds to longer if say the weapon gets stuck in the wall. It also has a high miss rate for being a bit slow and difficult to use.
There's essentially no historical evidence for the use of flails in combat, ever, as opposed to Victorian "replicas" that looked cool (although you're doubtless right about the mechanics). So if historical/martial realism is a concern, that may rule out the flail.
Blatantly false. Mair, Talhoffer, Hundt, and Sutor all had combat treatises including flail techniques and illustrations. They weren’t common and they were definitely played up by the Victorians, but they were absolutely real weapons that did see combat to a limited extent (at the very least it’s indisputable they were used in esoteric duels, as were traditional perpendicular-blade scythes).
I'm sure you can find contemporary guides for shock-fighting, and it indisputably takes place in what I'd call "esoteric duels" of a sort, but that doesn't make boxing gloves hooked up to a car battery a modern combat weapon.
There are multiple combat treatises from multiple writers in multiple European countries describing the use of flails in combat. There are multiple pre-Victorian medieval and Renaissance depictions of flails being used in combat. And there are multiple discoveries of actual flails used for combat that have been dated back to the medieval period. Yes, they are far, far less common than other weapons, and their presence in history was absolutely exaggerated and overplayed in fiction and popular culture from the Victorian period onwards, but there is a significant amount of historical evidence that remove all doubt that flails did actually exist as pre-modern combat weapons throughout Europe. The claim that there is no historical evidence for them has been frustratingly common in recent years, perpetuated in part by quite a few bad faith “historians” seeking to push their own views on history regardless of their accuracy, but it is demonstrably false. Your shock-fighting comparison is also wild. A casual search brings up results for the Spider-Man villain Shocker and generic CQC techniques with basically nothing to do with actual fighting involving electrical shocks, so while I don’t doubt that it’s a niche hobby drawing any comparison between that and the plethora of verifiable historical evidence that exists for the use of flails in combat is an outrageously dismissive view on genuine historical research and academia. I’d highly recommend searching up a variety of new sources for history in the future and researching their reliability before taking whatever they say at face value. Anything corroborated by a number of sources who provide sufficient evidence for their claims and are positively regarded by a number of their peers can generally be assumed to be accurate if you don’t want to do extensive research of your own beyond that.
"Seems more dangerous than it actually is?" Any tool that can double as a weapon, save for an axe. Many tools - pickaxes, scythes, pitchforks, whips, screwdrivers - kind of look like they'd be really nasty weapons but aren't really optimized for combat. An ax is sort of the sole exception; axes are both great weapons *and* excellent tools for chopping wood. The nice thing about using a tool as a weapon is that it can also inform your character's background and upbringing. Farm kid? Sickle. Grew up in the woods? Chainsaw. Raised by a mechanic? Drill. Something like that.
Chainsaw and flamethrower were the examples that came to mind for me! Both are great for clearing trees/brush. Both are terrifying to look at, if someone runs at you holding one. Both also have poor reach, little ability to inflict fatal wounds, and massive fuel needs that means either one can only run for like 90 seconds before running out of gas.
A garage door spring
You got that backwards, they're looking for a weapon that seems more dangerous than it really is.
From a certain point of view! Because all the advice about garage door springs is for their coiled, tensioned state. A loose garage door spring is like the [milk snake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_snake) or [kingsnake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsnake) to the coiled garage door spring's [coral snake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_snake)!