Capguns scare away dogs…Do you think they would scare a bear? I would think it might.
Sure do. It’s a big town! Why the :eek:? Come to a Dopefest. I’ll probably be there 
With reguards to a buffalo, they are apparently pretty easy to take out. According to the Simpsons you can just toss an apple core their way and they fall right over!
I don’t know that we are answering the OP folks. He/She asked for functional differances between the weapons that would be used on each type of critter and how that would differ from men.
We seem to have a consensus on entanglement and keeping them at a distance. This would work with something like a person with our clumsy limbs and meager strength. Probably with a wolf with the size differance. A deer wouldn’t be too hard either. a net to tangle the antlers and control its head would put you on the way to a victory. Tangling up legs and antlers and such and then poking away with a spear works here.
Does it work with bison or a bear or a tiger? Doubtful. They have too much strength and mass. If you can’t shoot them you have to hope to disable them enough to finish the job without being trampled/mauled/eaten. Possibly by hamstringing or a similar tactic. I think that the above three would just kill our fictional weapon wielder. I’m glad that we have ammo and big guns to deal with them.
A pole arm with the Blade/Point combination would seem to be ideal with a net to back it up in some circumstances. No?
If you’re talking self-defense, I think your best bet is the boar spear. Basically just a long-hafted spear with a cross piece to prevent the animal from pushing all the way down and goring you. With luck and skill, that will take care of any animal that charges you.
Is every one protecting cubs, or just the bear?[ul][li]Fox: The fox is a small animal. Kick it. Or get away from her cubs.[]Wolf: Large dog, no? See tiger.[]Tiger: Big muther-scratchin’ cat. See bear.Bear: Big muther-scratchin’ animal. Running shoes probably count as a foot weapon, but getting the hell away from the cubs seem the best possible bet. I guess I’d say a gladius since it has a broad blade and is useful in tight-in fighting. I had a boss who once said that you should never shake a stick at a cat because it will climb up the stick and latch on to your face, and the Romans were perfectly cognizant of the fact that stabbing is far more efficient that slashing. So I guess if you can’t stick the animal in the face with the sword and disabuse it of any notion that the most effective means to passing on its genes is by saving its young, you still have a weapon you can use while in close quarters. If you get a scutum (a shield of the Roman infantryman, IIRC), so much the better.[/ul][/li]
Deer? Ditto, I guess—lead with a thrust to the head, or push the antler down and drive the blade in through the shoulder and into the vitals.
But a bison?! Running shoes, baby. I once saw a rodeo clown put the palm of his hand on a bull’s forehead and run in circles—the bull was completely unable to turn quickly enough to get the clown. After than, you’re just waiting for exertion and rage to wear the animal down.
A gladius and some good luck. What time period? Has he just been standing guard on Hadrian’s wall, or was he in the legion that took New Carthage? I’ve heard that axe-men were at an advantage in terrain that didn’t allow for formation fighting; then again, it could just have been home terrain advantage. I’d stick w/ the gladius & scutum, I guess.
Of course, the cattle prod/stun gun combination sounds pretty effective, too.
Are shields effective against slashing animals?
I wonder whether the trident might confuse an animal (good) like the 4 legged chair confuses circus lions and tigers.
Capguns and chemical weapons are not allowed. 
The trident and boar spear may have functional similarities.
js_africanus:
I was thinking that only the bear would be protecting her cubs.
I was also thinking that our fighter would be hunting the fox and deer, a difficult task without bow, arrow or firearm.
Running shoes are interesting, but my understanding is that running away from a preditor is a really really bad idea. At least with mountain lions, you are suppose to stand your ground, shout, and throw things at the animal (without bending over). Key message: “I am a fellow aggressor: I am not lunch!”.
Our roman foot soldier is probably in his teens (1 year experience, right?). He has “average” experience among 1 year troops, whatever that means.
If spears (and spear variants such as the halberd and trident) are so effective, what was the role of the sword? I think I’m missing something.
It’s true that spears, and various other modified pointed sticks, are amongst the simplest and most effective melee weapons ever devised. However, they’re not without weaknesses. If you’re facing a spearman, and you get inside the point of his spear, he’s in serious trouble. Spears are not good for very close quarters fighting. Imagine you have an 8’ spear. I come at you, you thrust the point at me. I dodge or parry your thrust and leap towards you. Now what do you do? I’m too close for you to bring the point of your spear to bear, so the best you can possibly hope for is some sort of quarter-staff-like use of your weapon, but even that requires a fair amount of space. With a short sword, I have you completely at my mercy.
This, in essence, is why the Romans beat the Greeks (though there’s more to it, tactically, critically involving choice of terrain for battle).
The big advantage of the spear is that it keeps your opponent further away from you, making it harder for him to hurt you. However, the longer your spear (and further you’re keeping your opponent away), the harder it is for you to move the point fast enough to prevent him from slipping past it. In military contexts, this weakness is compensated for by close ordered ranks, where the second rank, and sometimes even third, fourth, or fifth, all have their spears pointing forward, so there’s lots and lots of points to get past. This, of course, is hard to do on uneven terrain, and in the context at hand, i.e., single combat, is irrelevant.
All that said, I definitely want the boar spear, or something like it, versus the bear and bison for sure. Weapon is largely irrelevant for the deer and fox, if we’re hunting them - catching them is the hard part, not killing them. For the big cat, the spear is a tad iffy for reasons explained above. I’m not sure about this one. I’ll still take the spear, if I can have a knife in my belt in case the cat gets in close.
Against the legionary? I’m really not sure. A longsword and a buckler, maybe. Would give a bit of a speed advantage compared to the large Roman shield (which was more for protection from arrows and javelins), retain a reach advantage, but not give much up in close where the legionary’s trying to get in order to use his shortsword.
Gorsnak: Terrific answer: that’s the sort of analysis that I was looking for.
If you are (somewhat artificially) not allowed bows and arrows, I’d say that a spear would be a necessity against foxes, deer and the like: swords, after all, are difficult to throw.
My summary:
A spear-knife combo would work fairly well against your generic animal (leaping felines notwithstanding); swords are designed for close-quarter fighting amongst humans who are not in tight formation.
Further questions:
-
Compare and contrast the boar-spear with the trident.
-
How would something complicated like the halberd work against various predatory animals?
-
Some claim that the experienced spearman has the overall advantage in an open field over the sword-wielder. Is this bogus?
-
I’ve noted that nobody has advocated the Japanese Daisho. Any particular reason? Remember, our fighter can train for 5 years.
Hm. Would you like to comment on Gorsnak’s post? How would you fare against a decent swordsman in an enclosed space (say a hallway)? (TIA)
An atlatl and a handful of darts. If they were good enough to take down mammoths, they should be good enough for other stuff too!
And a dart* could double as a lightweight spear.
*Atlatl darts are 5 - 6 feet long.
That depends on the sword. If they are using something short, they can probably do more damage in a hallway than a QS man. You can poke with a staff, but it doesn’t hurt as much as being poked with a sword. 
I would make a geodesic sphere about 3 feet in diameter out of razor wire. Then I’d mount this on the end of a trident. Anything that was agressive enough to try and push past the razor wire would then be skewered.
With the rather generous 5 years training mentioned in the OP I might consider the bisento or similar polearm designed for taking out horse and/or rider. This is an extremely heavy glaive that will quite easily slice through the legs of a running horse. It does take a lot of training to be able to use one without its weight causing the user to lose ballance. That said it is strictly a weapon for expected battle, not practical to deal with an unexpected attack from close quaters.
For all except the roman soldier, a heavy whip would be useful, the noise, speed and pain of such would discourage any animal. (though I am not sure how heavy bison or bear hide is, I am sure a whip could be constructed that would get through it). But this would not be a good way to kill an animal if that was the intension. To kill the animals mentioned I would also go with a number of boar spears, preferably with barbs to ensure that it couldn’t be removed from the animal when one hits keep spiking the animal until the weight and pain of the embedded spears leaves it imobile.
Not ruled against in the OP, but probably not considered would be a highly poisoned light bladed sword (eppee, or rapier (sp?)), I am not sure what poison would be best, probably a combination of muscle relaxant, anasphetic, and neurotoxin would take anything down quickly enough to be risk free.