Rapier
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 | 3 | Slash/Puncture | 30/100 | ||||||||||||
| AvD | 45 | 40 | 39 | 38 | 37 | 30 | 28 | 26 | 24 | 35 | 31 | 27 | 23 | 15 | 9 | 3 | -3 | |||||