Two-handed weapon fighting vs dual-weapon-wielding fighting issue

[Hide]

I am GMing a fantasy game in which one of the players mains a two-handed weapon wielder. In our recent game, she was faced against an enemy with dual weapon wielding skills.

Both of them had similar skill levels, and I realized there was a “serious” disadvantage for the player using the two-handed weapon: She couldn’t rely on dodge to avoid all of the attacks and she couldn’t effectively defend against the combination of feint and attack (via dual-weapon-attack) all of the time.

Reducing things to weapon related dice throws, the player basically had 1 chance to roll per round (either defending or attacking, because her weapon is unbalanced and also requires both hands), while the enemy had about 4 rolls (two attacks and two defences).

I know there are other manoeuvres such as committed attack, all out attack and all out defence, but it wasn’t enough against the dual weapon wielder.

The game has built some momentum at this point, right now it’s not possible for the player to learn another weapon. Buying “extra attack” isn’t an option either, as it’s not the time to acquire advantages.

I already recommended the player taking her weapon to the Dwarves to make it “counterbalanced” and/or learning a special technique to “remove” the “U” penalty. However, two consecutive attacks against a single weapon wielder eventually catches up against you. What can we do here?

Also, could she take “dual-weapon attack: karate and two-handed weapon”?

Thanks in advance!

[Ulzgoroth]

So there's one maneuver you appear to be overlooking, and it's really important if a non-berserker insists on using a two-handed unbalanced weapon: Defensive Attack. It can let you sacrifice some damage to get rid of that nasty nasty U.

Also, you probably should use the Parrying with Two-Handed Weapons section from MA123. Those do a lot to put a two-handed weapon close to even with two weapons for parrying. EDIT: Technically, that section doesn't apply to TH-Axe/Mace weapons. Which are basically the iconic bad choice (unless, perhaps, you're a berserker). But as GM you could elide that detail if you wanted to.

But really I'd generally recommend (as you did!) not using a two-handed, U-parry-only weapon. U-parry combined with a shield is maybe tolerable, but without one it's pretty bad business. You could try to cheese that by adding a hands-free shield (See Low Tech for that.)

[mr beer]

U weapons not coupled with a shield are at a horrible disadvantage. If I had a player with that build, I'd strongly suggest they change weapons in any combat focussed game.

Getting the weapon Dwarved-up is a good idea, if your player doesn't want to take your excellent suggestion, I think it's on them.

[DangerousThing]

Originally Posted by Hide

I am GMing a fantasy game in which one of the players mains a two-handed weapon wielder. In our recent game, she was faced against an enemy with dual weapon wielding skills.

That is a problem. It probably cost more CP to create the dual-weapon attacker than the two-handed fighter.

Dual-weapon attack is a hard technique. This is typically done with shorter and lighter weapons. Each time they parry the two-handed weapon, they should check for breakage.

Let's see about cp costs. Assuming that the weapons are something like short sword and dagger, then each of these skills needs 5 cp to remove the penalty from the dual-wielding. In addition, the two skills need to be raised to the same level as the pc's weapon skill.

Is the pc wearing armor? It might be highly unrealistic to have the dwarves make him a weapon that removes the problems of a two-handed weapon, but dwarves are also supposed to be masters of armor-making.

[mr beer]

Originally Posted by DangerousThing

Is the pc wearing armor? It might be highly unrealistic to have the dwarves make him a weapon that removes the problems of a two-handed weapon, but dwarves are also supposed to be masters of armor-making.

It's an option in the Dungeon Fantasy series, so it's unrealistic but fine for some campaigns.

[Balor Patch]

Definitely upgrade to Dwarven.

Beyond that, if the 2H weapon user has more reach then a judicious use of steps, retreats, and waits can make it far more complicated for the other guy to kill him. There was a recent thread that went in depth on this.

[MrFix]

Originally Posted by Hide

Also, could she take “dual-weapon attack: karate and two-handed weapon”?

You must learn Dual-Weapon Attack (DWA) separately
for each skill. For instance, attacking with two axes requires
two DWA (Axe/Mace) rolls, but attacking with an axe and a
whip requires a DWA (Axe/Mace) roll and a DWA (Whip)
roll.

Never. See: MA83

[Rupert]

However, she could learn DWA (Two-handed Axe/Mace) and DWA (Karate) is the DWA technique is available. Note that Karate is affected by encumbrance levels (unless the Armour Familiarity perk (MA49) is available and taken), so DWA (Brawling) might be more attractive if adding an extra kick attack is desired.

[Steen]

I would suggest that your player uses more Defensive Attacks (Martial Arts p. 100) and perhaps allow that same player to make use of the Parrying With Two-Handed Weapons (Martial Arts p. 123). If Defensive Attack also means that the parry that it allows doesn't also disallow an attack with the same Unbalanced weapon the following turn (I'm actually not sure about this), then your player could use that parry to Riposte and set-up heavy punishment against the dual-wielding foe.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by DangerousThing

That is a problem. It probably cost more CP to create the dual-weapon attacker than the two-handed fighter.

Dual-weapon attack is a hard technique. This is typically done with shorter and lighter weapons. Each time they parry the two-handed weapon, they should check for breakage.

Let's see about cp costs. Assuming that the weapons are something like short sword and dagger, then each of these skills needs 5 cp to remove the penalty from the dual-wielding. In addition, the two skills need to be raised to the same level as the pc's weapon skill.

OP might be using the rule where DWA was changed from technique to perk due to maxing out DWA being low-incentive as that's same cost as Ambidexterity

Could've just made that cost more... B59 High Manual Dexterity is 5/level for 2 hands, so based on Arm ST on B40 also being 5/level for 2 hands, 1-handed HMD could be +3/level so 12 points instead of 5 to buy off the off hand penalties?