Dark Sun Weapon: The Crusher

Let me take you back to September 1992. Dragon 185 had come out and it’s support of the 2E Dark Sun was in full swing. Dragon 185 had one article in particular that had some points of interest: “The Arena Master’s Arsenal.”

Several of the articles found in Dragon from 1991 to 1993 were used as the basis of several items, monsters, and concepts found in the current 4E campaign setting, and this one was no exception. This particular article described 10 weapons for use by players. Five of them (Cahulaks, Dragon’s Paw, Gouge, Tortoise Blades, Widow’s Knife) found their way into the 4e Dark Sun Campaign Setting. Two others were fairly mundane (Weighted Pike and the Master’s Whip). Three however did have a flair of uniqueness, which surprisingly didn’t make it into the 4e setting. They were the Bard’s Friend, Crusher, and the Datchi Club.

Since WotC didn’t bring all the material from this article (i.e. these last 3 weapons) to bear, and as I remembered this weapon from 18 some years ago I decided to go back and see if I could bring the omitted weapons back to 4E. Of the three weapons though, there was one that was truly unique and worth bringing back to 4E: the Crusher.

A crusher is a spiked stone or metal ball at the end of a 20′-25′ flexible pole. The wielder plants one end of the pole in the ground, then whips the weighted end back and forth until it nearly strikes the ground both in front of and behind him.

To use this weapon in 2E, the wielder had to spend a round planting the end in the ground and begin a whipping motion. After that, one picks a “danger space” in front of them with a corresponding danger space directly behind them. That’s when it gets crazy, because any creature that enters the danger space in front or behind the wielder suffers up to six total attacks in the round. And of course, the wielder can’t move around because he needs another round just to stop the Crusher from swinging around and pick it off the ground. With specialization a wielder could do a bit more by making the danger space a complete zone around him and attack anything in that zone.

Aside from being completely impractical in any place but wide open spaces, the weapon does have a unique quality you don’t find often in traditional melee weapons, so the though occurred to me that an appropriate 4E conversion could be made to bring it back as something PCs might go up against either in the wilderness or in the arena. I didn’t think any character would care to use it, so perhaps it would be better represented as a hazard or a creature, encompassing the weapon, the guy holding it, the reach of the weapon, and the time it takes to set up and use it.

I decided that a creature would be better since the guy could, if it was really necessary, pick up and move. The mechanics themselves as described in the 2E article wouldn’t fit into the 4E system well, so I decided to go with simplicity rather than thinking where exactly the crusher could be swung based on its position and momentum or how long it took to set up and get going. Keep in mind that this hasn’t been play tested: