CHOPPER-BOPPER
Weapon—Alien, cannot be concealed, can’t be sheathed, heavy, intimidating
A carefully crafted, balanced, all-metal “augmented pole-axe” of odd design and alien origin, with a semicircular sharpened blade projecting symmetrically from one end and a hefty teardrop club at the other, allowing the user to deal either slashing or bludgeoning WEAPON damage (D6) on each strike. The weapon is wielded with two hands, and it can be used to trip a (roughly) humanoid-sized (or smaller) bipedal opponent by opting to deal no direct damage and attacking with DEX in CLOSE-range melee instead of STR; the target creature opposes this DEX roll and falls prone on the ground for D6 damage if it loses the roll-off, now required to spend its next turn regaining its feet or continue the fight from the ground at a disadvantage. Dealing bludgeoning damage on a critical hit (a roll of natural 20 on a STR-based melee attack with the club end), the weapon knocks the target to the ground in addition to the usual damage dealt (WEAPON+ULTIMATE (D6+D12)).
Notes:
- Keeping with the recent Star Trek-inspired theme, this melee weapon is an homage to the Vulcan lirpa from the Original Series episode “Amok Time”; the original lirpa had a composite construction with a wooden shaft and a metal blade and weight, but I thought this would be cooler.
- See what else is on top of The Loot Pile.