Have a hero or a heroine that you would need to arm? Maybe not with something as raw as a sword? Perhaps with a fighting stick that would a master of martial arts would use istead? In that case, why don't you have a look of this piece over here because this stick could be exactly what you always needed.
Extracted in FBX format, it's consisted only out of 6.304 polygons. However that can alter and tweaked later on concerning your needs, and may render to an even higher resolution indepedently. Nicely made, it is only constisted by quads and will not deform inappropriately up to any spot.
Created with 3DS MAX 2012 with pleasure by Bigjim3D. Any problems you might face, or any questions you wanna ask, send me a message and consider your problem solved~