In the description for the dwarf fury, dwarf craft priest, and dwarf machinist I’ve found the weapon list to be more than a little ambiguous. The dwarf fury and craftpriest descriptions both reference ‘traditional dwarven weapons’, and the machinist references ‘a small range of weapons’. They include examples of the weapons they do include. Traditional dwarven weapons (to me) would include all varieties of axes, hammers/maces, and crossbows/arbalests. But later on, in the template section of the players companion, there’s a couple of dwarf fury templates that have spears in their starting equipment. Would that make spears on the dwarf traditional weapons list? Swords are obviously out, but daggers are pretty generic to a lot of classes, so would they be in?
It’d be quite nice to have actual lists of weapons usable by the classes.
As always, IANAA, but this is my understanding:
Craftpriest is Narrow weapon, with (i) axes and (iii) flails/hammers/maces as their two categories. Fury is the same (and the template shouldn’t have a spear). The Machinist is just odd for weapons, with six weapons that don’t comfortably fall into any category.
In each case, they can use exactly what their class description says - any axe, flail, hammer, or mace for craftpriest or fury, or the six weapons in the description of the machinist. Craftpriest and fury get no ranged weapons (other than throwing axes).
I would say treat the list as restrictive but with room for setting differences.
For instance, since dwarves tend to be slow and strong, and mountainous terrain leads naturally to chokepoints, my dwarves are good with pikes and other phalanx weapons.
I agree. If you’re mostly fighting crazed orcs or charging giants, a solid reach weapon is what you’re going to want ANYWAY. And since the “dwarven way” is generally presented as “we’ll hold this point and no one will move us”, spears and polearms just make even MORE sense.
Looking at the custom class rules again, I would guess that the Machinist is also Narrow weapon, with (vii) any combination of 3 weapons taken twice.
Yes and no. The dwarves would often fight underground, where long weapons are as much a liability as an asset. That said, since all the classes mentioned are Narrow weapon selection, they could give up either axes or flails/clubs/maces (or, for the Machinist, three weapons) to get the spear/polearm category, although dwarves can’t use polearms (per the Vaultguard class description).
" although dwarves can’t use polearms (per the Vaultguard class description)."
It’s worth noting that the Vaultguard class description is slightly inconsistent with the PC on this point.
The PC says that dwarf classes may never use two-handed swords or longbows (page 84). The vaultguard also says polearms. (Note that the ban against using human-sized two-handed weapons does not preclude them using, for example, a dwarf-sized two-handed axe; see here for more on that: http://www.autarch.co/comment/8392#comment-8392 , bottom of the post.)
It’s also worth noting which options could be given up for spears/polearms; PC page 84 again, a dwarf class with a narrow selection must include at least four axes/flails/hammers/maces. Since there are only three axes (but five flail/hammer/maces), the dwarf fury would have to give up axes to get spears/polearms.
Good catch on the Dwarf restriction - I forgot to check their custom class requirements. Although technically the Machinist is an illegal class, since it only has three axes/flails/hammers/maces. I would argue for adding crossbow/arbalest to the “must have four of” list, but that would infringe on the gnome’s schtick.
I think the “errata” from http://www.autarch.co/comment/8392#comment-8392 may need to be extended to include dwarf-sized polearms as well, which would probably be modified with a heavy back end, since it would be gripped closer to the butt and need more mass back there to effectively balance the head.