Lying B-Sword Question

So I got one of these from the Unnamed City. It says in the Wiki that it is a 2 handed sword. But its animations are more like an axe or a mace maybe.

What is this thing?

The sword is lying to you, my dude.

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I figured.

Im just trying to classify it

a lying thing. :grin:

In terms of hurt, it “axe” like a sword. 64 DMG 14 Armor Pen.

Can’t use throwing axe or shield with it. Block/kick does nothing. It’s a very powerful axe with great armor penetration. It lies to you so you’re confused about how to use it. :slight_smile:

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Having not seen the thing, I’m guessing it’s a joke based off a classic D&D weapon, the bastard sword. It’s a real-ish weapon, sometimes called a “hand-and-a-half” sword, because it can be wielded either 1-handed or 2-handed. They weren’t common in reality, afaik, but they did exist. Anyway, I’m guessing it’s a punny in-joke reference.

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I don’t know how often they were called bastard swords back in the day (most of the time, swords were called “swords” before silly Victorians decided that making classifications and typologies of everything was fun and profitable), but the weapon was basically just a longsword, maybe a little smaller version so it was easier to wield one-handed. But bastard swords were, to all intents and purposes, longswords.

What the Lying B-Sword is, on the other hand… Well, we can be pretty sure that it’s a lying bastard, but whether it’s a sword too is still debatable.

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The bastard sword was actually slightly longer than a longsword, it was between the length of a longsword and a greatsword.

I think it’s safe to say the Lying B-Sword’s name does come from the phrase “Lying Bastard” more than actually from the bastard sword, since it doesn’t have any sword animations, and well, the word Lying in the name kind of hints toward that. I would have to agree with @Kapoteeni that it’s possible it isn’t even a sword, but something completely different, especially considering where it is found.

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The longsword (a real longsword, not your D&D arming sword erroneously called a longsword) is a two-handed weapon. See e.g. Fiore dei Liberi’s Fior di Battaglia for reference. A sword bigger than a two-handed sword would not be a hand-and-a-half sword, would it? (The greatsword, which is what many games call any two-handed sword, was a rather uncommon Renaissance-era weapon that was basically a sword-shaped polearm rather than an actual sword. Very little documentation survives as to its use, although some Spanish and German manuscripts describe its use.)

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Geek alert (more than usual, that is) but it’s nice to not be the only sword-freak 'round here :slight_smile:

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Perhaps unsurprisingly, people who like Conan may also like swords. Even when they’re bastards.

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Oh no, not surprising really, I just don’t see much (or any) talk about it, most of the time. Outside of game terms, that is.

I use swords and shields in a lot of games as for some reason i love being able to defend and attack when the bow isn’t in good ra ge as the foe is too close.

Well…if it behaves like a decent axe does I am fine with that. Although the armor pen makes it pretty juicy

What was the name to the blade, then, that is often wielded with a large shield?

You mean a one-handed sword? It was called a “sword”, like most swords. It has variously been called a knightly sword (when used by knights) or a Viking sword (when used by Vikings) The closest to a modern-day “official” name is arming sword (espées d’armes), a term which was first used in the 15th century because by then it was commonly used as a sidearm instead of a main weapon. Swords are handy to carry around when you’re mainly using a halberd, or a bow, or a crossbow, or a gun, or a siege weapon, but it’s not super effective against any kinds of armor, which is why it was never* a popular weapon of war.

Those knightly duels? Against other armored opponents, knights usually used maces, warhammers or similar heavy, blunt objects. Armor was insufficient protection against their heavy impact, which is why they used their shields to deflect the blow. If the sword was your only weapon and your oppoent was wearing armor, it was more effective to grab the blade and whack the other guy with the crossguard or pommel. (Yes, this technique is actually described in detail in medieval swordfighting manuscripts.)

*Except for Roman legions, who were mostly fighting unarmored barbarians and actually struggled greatly against other cultures who used heavy armor.)

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Generally the Gladius or short sword was quite effective all around as was the Hasta or short spear.

As armor evenolved so did the weapons of war. The rapier and even the Epee was designed to get through chainmail. As it is thin and piercing. Slashing sword were somewhat at a disadvantage.

Popular claymores we’re only popular for a shord period. It was the sheer weight of the weapon that made ot dangerous. If it hit it could knock you down.

It’s also the reason Europe has like…72 dofferent polearms

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Do you have a source for this information? As far as I know, rapiers and similar weapons were mostly civilian (and dueling) weapons with little military application. Also, stabbing through mail with something like a rapier is less trivial as it may sound - a mail armor’s links were 6 to 8 mm in diameter, with four to six other links going through each one, leaving very little actual room for even a sharp blade to pass through. And the padding worn underneath would stop most of the rest. A single-handed thrust from a rapier lacks the punch to break open the links in mail armor. Against unarmored opponents, the rapier is a monster that requires very little force to go through soft tissue.

What you may be referring to is the estoc, which first appeared in the 14th century. It’s a two-handed thrusting sword with enough leverage to punch through mail.

But again, finding specific information on rapiers can be challenging because back in the 16th through 18th centuries it was mostly called “sword” (espada in Spanish, épée in French, spada in Italian - the root is in the Latin word spatha). Luckily the manuscripts were often illustrated so we can tell a 16th century longsword from a 16th century rapier - but going by text alone, most contemporary sources talk about “swords”.

But yeah, you’re right, Europeans mostly solved armor-breaking by attaching variously shaped pieces of metal at the end of long poles and giving them crazy names such as guisarme-voulge. The Japanese, in their elegance, came up with a metal-studded baseball bat and called it kanabo (“metal stick”).

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Very informative Topic thanks for sharing this informations

But you can only look cool doing this with a sword!!!

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