so i am a nerd. i play dungeons and dragons and i was going through the weapons section of fourth edition and i come across this weapon that they call a falchion. it looks nothing like falchions that i have ever seen before. especially since they consider this a 2 handed weapon. so what would this weapon be considered in real life? or what coulld it be described as?

its the one on the far right
for scale the other swords are described as a rapier and greatsword.

[ Linked Image ]

Reminds me of the glaive from the Maciejowski bible:

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I was taught that a glaive was a type of pole weapon but it still sounds like the most accurate description to me. I would have discounted it altogether but the Mac picture there does look surprisingly close.
Sorry, I was kind of distracted by that thing on the left. It's pretty hilarious.

From the guard, it looks like it's meant to be held concave edge forwards. So perhaps a falx, e.g., as seen on http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=15659

D&D weapons are hilarious. And I say that as a gamer myself. :)

Based on the image, I'd call it a short glaive. Sort of a nagamaki type deal, or indeed the Maciejowski chopper.

Based on the stats, it's a two-handed scimitar - except that it hits only as hard as a one-handed scimitar. So probably the only difference is that it has an extra long handle that would be awkward in one hand. So, again, short glaive sort of thing, and a fairly light one at that.

Based on the text descriptions, it should be a two-handed kriegsmesser or Swiss saber.

(Based on the 3rd edition image, on the other hand, it's an utterly silly thing that should not exist. :p)

Quinn W. wrote:

I was taught that a glaive was a type of pole weapon but it still sounds like the most accurate description to me. I would have discounted it altogether but the Mac picture there does look surprisingly close. Sorry, I was kind of distracted by that thing on the left. It's pretty hilarious.

It's a "spiked chain". It's supposed to have the reach of a polearm but be handier up close...

Of course, that's still not as hilarious as the "dire flail". Basically, two flails on the opposite ends of one haft. I have no idea how they thought you could use that with anything resembling efficacy, or even basic safety...

Wow. That chain thingy is close to the least practical weapon I've ever seen. Still, the spiked club with two more spiked clubs connected by long chains takes the cake still. There was no way to use it without hurting oneself.

Still, probably the most historic analogue to your weapon is a kriegsmesser or maybe a dadao.

im definately going with it being most similar to a dadao, hands down, the ide blade and the handle of almost the same lngth... makes it a westernised version of a dadao IMO

I'm gong to go by the descriptions more than the illustrations, because the D&D ilustrations range wildly from mostly ok to WTF were they thinking.
What D&D calls a Falchion most resembles something like a Kriegsmesser, as a two-handed weapon, distinguished from the greatsword by being a dedicated chopper with more power but somewhat less finesse than the latter.

In previous editions, the Falchion was a one-handed chopper much more akin to a Cutlass, I'm not sure what prompted the change.

I should say that the weapon refered to in D&D is the oversized, two handed falchions shown in the hands of heathens in medevial art.

the logic goes as follows; oriental heathens are described to a late medevial artist as using a "single edged sword." The artists thus draws the heathen with the kind of single edged sword he is familiar with; a falchion. And to bring the point across he makes it ridiculously large.
Victorian scholars look at the image, and deduce from the depiction that oriental heathens used huge two handed falchions.
Gary Gygax reads this book, or more likely, talks to someone who did, and puts down "falchion" as the name of a two handed curved sword.
30 years later, a fantacy artist that has no clue about historical weapons reads Gygax' description, and draws a falchion with a sweihander handle.

I belive there are some chinese or indian executioners swords that could look roughly similar. There are also some depictions of very large falchions in some late medevial manuscripst, but these do not have very long handles.

The best description would probably be "twohanded falchion".

The old D&D designs were not that bad. Unlike the modern fantasy designs they just have different parts of different swords meshed together, some of the modern fantasy swords has a gigantic blade and almost impossible to even hold one. And that horse seems to enjoy his master cutting another man in half, just look at him smiling!

I second that the posted imagine mostly closely resembles a two-handed dao. Various curved, single-edge swords with long handles saw use in China and Japan for ages, so I figure they were pretty effective. As folks have noted, similar weapons appeared in Europe.

Somewhat reminds me of this...



http://www.kultofathena.com/product.asp?item=...n+Scimitar