Personally, I'd have it be a Gnomish invention. Gnomish racial weapons tend to have the silly stuff like being extensible or super fast to draw. They can appreciate the versatility, too! And are more likely to actually be crazed enough with versatility to master the use of such a weapon.
Although if you have it be an Exotic weapon, may I suggest having the collapsed form be a Light weapon? That way, you go from a two-handed weapon to being able to duel-wield the weapon. Having an innate thrown range increment makes it have a nice niche use with the Returning magic item enhancement.
If I really wanted to make a weapon like this that's worth a feat for proficiency that isn't doing stuff found nowhere else, I'd have it be a double weapon that has crit-fishing stats on the Light form and have the two-handed form add an effective statline for much more general use on the other side.
Exotic double-weapons in general should have two statlines with entirely different priorities, like 2d4 17-20 x3 crit on one side and 2d6 20 x2 Reach and Trip on the other. Having the two modes be from shifting the weapon itself makes the idea of double weapons much harder to justify, but most double weapons are a single piece of metal doing both things.
Well, I'm using the official
weapon design rules, and all that allows for is gaining and losing the Reach property. It's an Exotic weapon
mainly because the Longaxe is, since the extra Design Point you get by going Exotic is
immediately taken up with making it Dwarven.
As for it being Dwarven rather than Gnomish, I'm roleplaying it as my character considering combat his craft, knowing that to be the best craftsman you can you must
know your tools, and thinking the best way to know your tools is to build your tools. That's why he started thinking about building gear - it's become a thing where he wants to build or be involved in building all his weapons and armour, at least the stuff he's intending on using a lot. Then, thinking about the tactical disadvantages a lone fighter has wielding a polearm, as opposed to the more disciplined ways of fighting the Home Guard use - he's spent a lot of time guarding his family's caravans, so has had to fight a lot of skirmishes where a disciplined pikewall wasn't the best option - and realising that some of the Gnomish inventions he saw in his travels have some merit to them. So basically it's a Dwarven take on a Gnomish idea, stripped of all the frippery and made as practical and mass-producible as possible - given a certain level of skill in craftsdwarfship, which you can take almost as granted with most dwarves. Thus, no other special properties, no odd damage types or abilities, just as hard-hitting a weapon as possible, that can solve the 'doughnut' problem that most independent polearm fighters face.
And I've decided to call it a 'Switch Axe', which while the Neo-Kuzdhul dictionary I am using doesn't have 'switch', it does have a variation of 'change' that works, and could easily be translated as 'switch'. So, Abrat Axe it is! Or, if I use the NK word for 'Axe', 'Abrat Bark' (changer axe), or possibly siginbark instead of bark for 'two-handed axe', or even '(sigin?)barku-abrut' for '(Two-handed?) Axe of Change'
So, either:
- Abrat Bark = Switch Axe (lit. Changer Axe)
- Abrat Siginbark = Two-handed Switch Axe (lit. Changer Two-Handed Axe)
- Barku-abrut = Switch Axe (lit. Axe of Change)
- Siginbarku-abrut = Two-handed Switch Axe (lit. Two-handed Axe of Change)
And now I just need to pick one of those four. Any preference, guys?
EDIT: Picked one! Abrat Siginbark = Two-handed Switch Axe (lit. Changer Two-Handed Axe, or Two-Handed Changer Axe if we're more grammatically correct)
