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Old 04-26-2016, 12:22 PM   #1
Lucian
 
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Default Weapon skills

I've literally been gming for month's, and this seems pretty basic but I just thought of it.

When you have a weapon skill do you list that particular weapon as the skill or the overall class.

A three part staff is not at all like a flail in it's technique but are listed under the same category.

The skill description seems to indicate you list the category and would be proficient in anything in that category.

But the style of a jian is very different from a rapier inspite of the fact they are two light flexible blades.

A two handled claymore is wildly different from using a katana but are listed in the same category.

Their is no way a Scotsman would use a Japanese katana effectively or vice versa. The skills are related but not the same.



Now on my game I have players list the skill by weapon not category, similar weapons default to one another.
But I just did this out of instinct until I really read the melee weapon description. Am I misunderstanding this?
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Old 04-26-2016, 12:31 PM   #2
Gnome
 
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Default Re: Weapon skills

Melee Weapon skills are listed in the Skills chapter (B208-209).
The difference between the claymore-wielding Scotsman and the katana-wielding Samurai is one of Familiarity (box on B169), not skill.
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Old 04-26-2016, 12:47 PM   #3
Lucian
 
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Default Re: Weapon skills

I see, so I would list the weapon under which you trained with, and any other weapon in the class your unfamiliar with.

I would have given the Scotsman with a katana a -2 anyway
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Old 04-26-2016, 01:03 PM   #4
Fred Brackin
 
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Default Re: Weapon skills

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Originally Posted by Lucian View Post
I see, so I would list the weapon under which you trained with, and any other weapon in the class your unfamiliar with.

I would have given the Scotsman with a katana a -2 anyway
Oh, at least but as a Familiarity that would go away with 8 hours practice. The Scotsman would be far ahead of anyone who'd never used any sort of Two-Handed sword.

Just to re-iterate and clarify. weapons are bundles of specific combat statistics. Skills apply to (relatively) broad categories. When using Familiarities those apply to specific weapons and are listed under the Skill (when necessary).
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Old 04-26-2016, 03:10 PM   #5
Dinadon
 
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Default Re: Weapon skills

Familiarity penalties only apply to skills that mention them. Thus Guns have familiarity penalties, but Melee skills do not. This means there isn't an inherent penalty to switching from a greatsword to a katana.

As noted in their descriptions, each skill covers weapons based on a few key characteristics. The weapons tables are also grouped by controlling skill, and note that some weapons appear multiple times under different groupings. So the bastard sword has stats under Broadsword and Two-Handed Sword, and someone needs both skills if they want to truely master a bastard sword.

Styles are a separated matter entirely, different from skills. The book Martial Arts has in depth rules for styles, but at its most basic a style is just flavour. If the scotsman who trained in greatswords only had a katana available, he would likely wield it like a greatsword, but it wouldn't make him worse at combat.
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Old 04-26-2016, 04:06 PM   #6
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Default Re: Weapon skills

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Originally Posted by Dinadon View Post

As noted in their descriptions, each skill covers weapons based on a few key characteristics. The weapons tables are also grouped by controlling skill, and note that some weapons appear multiple times under different groupings. So the bastard sword has stats under Broadsword and Two-Handed Sword, and someone needs both skills if they want to truely master a bastard sword.

Styles are a separated matter entirely, different from skills. The book Martial Arts has in depth rules for styles, but at its most basic a style is just flavour. If the scotsman who trained in greatswords only had a katana available, he would likely wield it like a greatsword, but it wouldn't make him worse at combat.
This logic simply doesn't work for all examples though.
A 3 piece staff and a 2 handed flail are two entirely differing weapons that are only similar in that they are both flexible.

Now I can use a 3 part in real life, but admittedly I've never held a 2 handed flail still just thinking about it virtually none of the skill would be remotely the same.

I do agree that a Scotsman would likely blunder about with a katana and even though he wouldn't use the sword as it's designed he'd still kill things with it.

I might end up with a house rule for this type of thing and impose severe penalties on using drastically different weapons that fall under the same category.
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Old 04-26-2016, 04:40 PM   #7
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Default Re: Weapon skills

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I might end up with a house rule for this type of thing and impose severe penalties on using drastically different weapons that fall under the same category.
It shouldn't be harder to use a claymore when you know how to use a katana than it is when you only know to use a gladius. Cross-category default penalties are around -4, so the penalty should be -3 or less, and by happy coincidence, familiarity penalties are only -2.
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Old 04-26-2016, 05:23 PM   #8
Ulzgoroth
 
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Default Re: Weapon skills

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Originally Posted by Lucian View Post
This logic simply doesn't work for all examples though.
A 3 piece staff and a 2 handed flail are two entirely differing weapons that are only similar in that they are both flexible.
There's not much else defining the category of 2-handed flails.

You are, of course, aware that the 3-part staff comes with an additional penalty to use which a proficient user will have bought off with a perk.
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Old 04-26-2016, 10:31 PM   #9
Balor Patch
 
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Default Re: Weapon skills

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Originally Posted by Lucian View Post
A 3 piece staff and a 2 handed flail are two entirely differing weapons that are only similar in that they are both flexible.
RAW puts them under the same skill, so a character competent with one will be equally competent with the other. You can, of course, house rule a new skill.
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Old 04-26-2016, 10:59 PM   #10
VariousRen
 
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Default Re: Weapon skills

I've always assumed weapon skills were intentionally broad, to cover warriors training with different types of weapons on purpose so they can always use whats on hand. Perhaps allowing a specialization of each weapon skill to cover only a single entry of that type would be reasonable, which defaults to -4 within the category (and none to other types, since there is no double default!).

So a katana master may have Two Handed Sword (Katana) (DX/Easy), and be at a -4 to use a claymore if he's forced to. Handing him a pole arm is as useful as handing him a chicken leg.
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