Rapier

Three rapiers.

Rapiers are lightweight swords with long, narrow blades, and often were decorated with elaborate crossguards. They are commonly associated with fencing and bards, and are often used with a main gauche or dagger.

Construction

Like all swords, rapiers are made up of two major parts -- the hilt and blade. The difference between a rapier and a longsword in construction is that the rapier tends to have a blade that is no wider than 1 inch and is longer than 35 inches. A rapier blade is typically incapable of blocking a heavy blade outright due to its lack of mass, and therefore usually has a large crossguard or closed hand-guard so that the wielder could block a strike close to the hand without much fear of the opponent's blade striking the hand.

The hand-guard of a rapier usually takes on one of two styles -- a bell guard, which is a spanish style, that is placed on the blade just above the quillions or a wire hilt, a german style, which protects the hand. A pappenheimer is a german style hilt that is similar to a wire hilt, but has a solid guard similar to a bell guard.

Game Mechanics

Weapon	AG	Cloth	Leather				Scale				Chain				Plate				RT	Min RT	Damage Type	STR/DU
	AsG	1	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Rapier	DF	.325	.225				.125				.125				.075				2	4	Slashing/Piercing	30/100
	AvD	45	40	39	38	37	30	28	26	24	35	31	27	23	15	9	3	-3

Related Articles

• Forging
• Edged Weapons

References

• http://www.play.net/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapier