Nov. 20, 2011: Light Flail Update

In the near future I will be making some changes to the light flail. I'll be reducing it's weight, changing the size category, altering the damage, and altering feats needed to use it.

Old (current): 1d8 (20/x2), medium size, 5 pounds, martial weapon proficiency needed
New (soon): 1d6 (20/x2) small size, 3 pounds, martial OR monk weapon proficiency needed

Why the changes? Looking at the light flail, it almost screams "nunchaku!". From how it's held when not in battle, to how it's animated in combat, it's got monk weapon written all over it. So, I'm basically making it a small weapon that can be dual wielded, giving free proficiency to monks, making it easier for halflings and gnomes to wield with a shield, making it less of a burden for those that aren't as strong, and making it available so you can have a nunchaku wielding warrior taking Weapon Focus (light flail) (and possibly higher level feats). Plus, I'm going to make some new models for the weapon that look like da chucks.

Why, yes, this does stem from another thread discussing the basic lack of functional nunchaku in the game.

Heavy flails will remain unchanged as giant swinging hunks of deadly metal on the end of a chain.

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Edit: Crap. Seems light maces have some hard-coding in the game engine that limits making changes to them. I was testing the changes to the light flail, and a couple of important things wouldn't work: off-hand wielding (so no dual wielding the nunchaku), and no weapon finesse (which is hard-coded).

So...while I'm still going to make the size/weight/damage changes to light flails (there's still morningstars and clubs for medium bludgeoning damage weapons), the "flail nunchaku" are going to be remade as "mace nunchaku" (which already do the intended type of damage, with the same amount and crit. effects, and are of the proper size and weight). I've tested it, and doing it this way still works properly with the weapon animations, but it also works with both dual wielding them and benefiting from Weapon Finesse. I'll just be altering maces so that monks get them as a free proficiency.

Sounds like a great MacGuyver fix to me! Well played!

Woohoo! Any chance they'll get full monk weapon functionality?

Anonymoogle wrote:Woohoo! Any chance they'll get full monk weapon functionality?

I doubt it, though I am Techless. But anything the Monk may currently apply towards the Light Flail will help, and is already extant in the game.

Elhanan wrote:

Anonymoogle wrote:Woohoo! Any chance they'll get full monk weapon functionality?

I doubt it, though I am Techless. But anything the Monk may currently apply towards the Light Flail will help, and is already extant in the game.

Correct. In NWN, the kama is the only weapon that gets the full monk benefits (flurry of blows and "unarmed" monk BAB), and it is hardcoded into the game engine. Still, this change will open up a method so monks can use "nunchaku" for free, plus work in Weapon Focus and other melee weapon feats. I'm not sure, but the move to a small size might make Weapon Finesse work on the light flails (not sure about this one).

Edited to add: Oh, yeah. And when the hak is updated to make the change to light flails, I'll be adding some new flail parts to the game (in addition to planned "nunchaku" models), since I whipped something up quick for the Custom Content Challenge on the Bioware forum...

Nice! Those are some boss looking flail parts, boss!

Simple nunchaku preview.

Bah! Light maces are still going to be altered, but some things seem to be hardcoded into the engine. See (edited) initial post for more info.

These will start appearing in-game after I next update the module. The updated hak files are now available.