Why’s scim the popular choice?

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Brandon Steel
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Why’s scim the popular choice?

Post by Brandon Steel » Fri Oct 05, 2018 12:46 am

I guess what I really mean is why scim and not rapier or something. Rapier is pretty identical to my understanding. Is armor more commonly found to block slashing damage than piercing? Does scim have better weapons options at higher levels?

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Re: Why’s scim the popular choice?

Post by Echohawk » Fri Oct 05, 2018 12:48 am

Crit range. See also: Rapiers, Scythes
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Brandon Steel
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Re: Why’s scim the popular choice?

Post by Brandon Steel » Fri Oct 05, 2018 12:51 am

Well that’s what I mean, why does scim seem much more popular than rapier with the same crit range and hit die?
Last edited by Brandon Steel on Fri Oct 05, 2018 12:54 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Baron Saturday
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Re: Why’s scim the popular choice?

Post by Baron Saturday » Fri Oct 05, 2018 12:54 am

I generally find more enemies with high pierce resist than slash resist (bloody treants, for example). I suspect some of it is also aesthetic: The skinniness of the rapier can look out of place on a fighter in full plate & armor.
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Re: Why’s scim the popular choice?

Post by PinataPlethora » Fri Oct 05, 2018 12:55 am

It looks better. Scimitars/Rapiers are most popular with Weapon Masters, and the most popular WM builds use heavy armor and a tower shield. Using a rapier with that combo looks goofy.

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Hunter548
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Re: Why’s scim the popular choice?

Post by Hunter548 » Fri Oct 05, 2018 12:57 am

Rapier's piercing damage; There's a lot of monsters levelling that have piercing immunity/resistance, but less/no slashing resistance/immunity.

Otherwise, you're right, rapier's about the same. Also worth nothing that rapier is slightly better for PvP because there's piercing immunity is on shields (while slashing immunity is on chest-slot items; fullplate, etc), so you'll occasionally fight someone in PvP with no piercing % immunity, but with slashing % immunity.

Outside of those two cases, it's just a case of aesthetics between the two. Some people will argue that rapiers look better on "smaller" characters (Elves, female humans) and scimitars look better on male humans and half orcs. Mostly up to you.
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Brandon Steel
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Re: Why’s scim the popular choice?

Post by Brandon Steel » Fri Oct 05, 2018 1:01 am

Seems mostly aesthetic then I guess. Kind of funny though because I always thought scim's with tower shields looked goofy themselves, I guess it probably does look better than a rapier though.

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Re: Why’s scim the popular choice?

Post by susitsu » Fri Oct 05, 2018 3:40 am

It's aesthetic.

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Re: Why’s scim the popular choice?

Post by StrykerMontgomery » Sun Oct 07, 2018 1:07 pm

Well if we had real rapiers, not flimsy ones but the really long ones, they can be quite meaty.
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Re: Why’s scim the popular choice?

Post by flower » Sun Oct 07, 2018 3:20 pm

The issue in fantasy games is that They mix different weaponry from different periods and different combat styles.

Rapier just looks silly in environment of full platemailed guys. But yeah, its a fantasy right?


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Re: Why’s scim the popular choice?

Post by StrykerMontgomery » Sun Oct 07, 2018 8:58 pm

Can't thrust into the weak points? Yeah probably easier to just dent their hammer in.
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Re: Why’s scim the popular choice?

Post by Ebonstar » Wed Oct 10, 2018 1:51 pm

Echohawk wrote:
Fri Oct 05, 2018 12:48 am
Crit range. See also: Rapiers, Scythes
this is the entire answer. its not looks or other things.

the characters who choose other weapons are looking for the look or have a sweet backstory why.

scim is solely for having highest crits when you hit 7 wm
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Re: Why’s scim the popular choice?

Post by Tryn Dralar » Wed Oct 10, 2018 5:23 pm

Meh, I always go scimmy on str builds and rapier on Dex builds. But then I don't do Dex builds ( you can take weapon finesse with rapiers and not scimmys)so........ 😋

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Baron Saturday
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Re: Why’s scim the popular choice?

Post by Baron Saturday » Thu Oct 11, 2018 1:25 am

Ebonstar wrote:
Wed Oct 10, 2018 1:51 pm
this is the entire answer. its not looks or other things.

the characters who choose other weapons are looking for the look or have a sweet backstory why.

scim is solely for having highest crits when you hit 7 wm
Read the full post. Brandon is aware that scimitars are mechanically superior because of their crit range of 18-20, but rapiers have an identical crit range, multiplier, and base damage. The question isn't, "Why are scimitars good?" The question is, "Why do people pick scimitar instead of rapier?"

And the answer is basically:
1) There's more enemies with piercing resist than slashing resist.
and
2) Rapier looks silly when combined with full plate + tower shield.
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