View Single Post
Old 05-04-2017, 03:58 PM   #3
phayman53
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Default Re: House Rule for Realistic Armor Penetration

Another Example: Andre the Swiss Halberdier, ST12, fights an Austrian Knight wearing early 14th century Heavy Mail (DR5/3*cr). The Halberd does (with my modification above) sw+6(1/2) cut, sw+5(1/2) imp, and thr+4(1/2) imp. This means Andre does 1d+8(1/2)cut, 1d+7(1/2) imp, and 1d+3(1/2) imp [note: the main advantage of the thrusting attack is that it can be used as a stop thrust and it does not become unready after the attack]. So, on an average attack with the halberd's axe blade will do 11.5 cut damage against effective DR10*. This means he will do 2 bludgeoning and 1.5 cut, averaging to 3.25 injury. However, on a max hit he will do 4 cut and 2 bludgeoning, equaling 8 injury--almost always a major wound and crippling to a limb. The pick is similarly lethal, but in this case an attack on the vitals would average 3.5 injury and max at 11 injury. So, even an average hit from an average Halberdier will force -3 shock penalties against a well armored Austrian knight at the Battle of Morgarten, while 1 in 6 would be a major wound. The RAW optional rule for converting adds to dice would make max hits even more devastating, though they would happen much less frequently.

At this point I am considering changing the AD for unbalanced cut and imp weapons from (1/2) to (2/3) to make these weapons a little better against armor. In this case, the example above would change to effective DR of 7, meaning the average axe attack would do 4.5 cut and 1 bludgeoning, so 7.25 injury. The vitals shot with the pick part would do 3.5 imp and 1 bludgeoning, so 11.5 on average. Not sure yet if I like this more or not. However, with this change a 1 Handed Axe, sw+2(2/3) cut, from a ST 12 user would do 1d+4 (2/3) cut, so 7.5 (2/3) cut. On average this would get through heavy mail, though just barely. I'm not sure if I like this change or not. EDIT: It would also change these unbalanced impaling and cutting weapons to be more likely to get through helmets (Head armor often has many layers in GURPS), which they seem to have sometimes done according to chronicles and battlefield wounds, though this may be better represented by crits.

Last edited by phayman53; 05-04-2017 at 04:08 PM.
phayman53 is offline   Reply With Quote