Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony
The stiffness of the haft isn't really that important; what matters is the part of the weapon that holds most of the energy and momentum of the strike. When a weapon hits a target, the weapon deforms until the force required to deform the weapon exceeds the strength of the target or weapon, or all of the energy of the strike is absorbed. For an axe or a hammer, the amount of force required to deform the weapon rises extremely quickly; for a sword or rod, it rises less quickly.
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The stiffness of the haft is pretty important, as it's where some of that force you looking at to create striking head deformation escapes to and manifests.
This is about the entire system and many thresholds being reached and exceeded.
Either way, the difference between the different weapon types you mention still have to apply in the whole, and in terms of overall effect on both weapon, armour and target, I'm not sure within that it will actually matter that much (certainly not when compared to stuff like comparative hardness, deflection and how penetration occurs, which will effect different weapons in different ways). Also I'm not sure how this is relevant to penalties to hit?
For instance as I pointed out an axe blade, which on war axes tend to be quite fine will by it's construction be more prone to bend (to avoid breaking) than a blunt weapon. In fact even looking at just at your point can you show that an axe blades and mace head will be equally prone to deformation in an impact (and better than clubs and swords), as I suspect it will be mace/club vs. axe/sword in this due to the way blades are constructed.
Similarly as Ulzgoroth points out once you factor in elastic impacts, it's going to be less relevant again, and these are going to be elastic
TL:DR the very specific and narrow effect your highlighting is not I think very relevant to the overall result. So don't get me wrong I'm sure in abstract there is a difference in different weapon deformation force curves, I'm just not sure it going to matter proportionally once you look at everything that is going on. Certainly not in terms of a to hit roll penalty (what effect it would have would be in the being able to penetrate armour, which would better shown by adjusting DRs vs. different damage types)