2-handers in 1-hand

[Steelie]

The rules allow for use of a 2-handed weapon (e.g. Greatsword) in one hand if the character has sufficient strength to do so. It implies that the weapon does the same damage whether used in 2 hands or 1. This seems counter-intuitive - it feels as if more force should be brought to bear if the sword is used in 2-hands rather than swung with 1.

Have I missed something?

[Gurps Fan]

I think you are right. There seems to be no reason why a sword does the same damage regardless whether with two hands or one, while a two-handed spear gets +1 more damage than one-handed. The authors should have been more careful designing the related rules.

[Ze'Manel Cunha]

Originally Posted by Steelie

The rules allow for use of a 2-handed weapon (e.g. Greatsword) in one hand if the character has sufficient strength to do so. It implies that the weapon does the same damage whether used in 2 hands or 1. This seems counter-intuitive - it feels as if more force should be brought to bear if the sword is used in 2-hands rather than swung with 1.

Have I missed something?

Using a Greatsword one handed requires the use of Broadsword skill, (or other appropriate one handed skill), and does -1 dmg.

Using a Broadsword two handed requires the use of Two-Handed Sword skill, (or other appropriate two handed skill), and does +1 dmg.

I'm not sure that ever made it to a FAQ, but it has come up a few times.
http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=9955
http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=11015

[LordHelmet]

Originally Posted by Ze'Manel Cunha

I'm not sure that ever made it to a FAQ, but it has come up a few times.

I´ve heard a few times about this FAQ, but where can it be found?

[Ze'Manel Cunha]

Originally Posted by LordHelmet

I´ve heard a few times about this FAQ, but where can it be found?

http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/faq/

[Kromm]

Martial Arts will also address this. Bear in mind that a lot of combat rules in the Basic Set were deliberately left vague on the grounds of "it works well enough for those who don't want nit-picking detail in their games." We assumed that readers who cared about fine details would get Martial Arts when it came out . . . a situation that is in fact no different from how things were done in 3e.

[Gurps Fan]

The greataxe does sw+3 cut when swung with two hands. With sufficient ST, you can use a greataxe with one hand. If it does -1 damage, i.e., sw+2 cut, it's the same as the one-handed axe despite greater mass and leverage.

The maul does sw+4 cr when swung with two hands. With sufficient ST, you can use a maul with one hand. If it does -1 damage, i.e., sw+3 cr, it's the same as the one-handed mace despite greater mass and leverage.

Will Martial Arts also mention these issues?

[Kromm]

In a nutshell, since 1H and 2H damage rarely differ by more than 1 point for similar weapons, we had two options:

1. Decide that weight and length matter most, and keep damage the same for a given weapon whether it's in 1H or 2H.

2. Decide that number of hands matters most, and let damage vary by 1 point between 1H and 2H use, even if this makes a heavier weapon no better than a light one.

We went with #2, on the grounds that in GURPS, weapon damage is mostly determined by what the user does, modified slightly for the weapon, and not by the weapon, modified slightly for the user (as in D&D). It isn't perfect, but it's consistent. If one needs an argument for it, one can say that a two-handed weapon in one hand needs to be choked up and used less efficiently. But changing all two-handed weapons in the Basic Set to do +1 damage so that there could be an intermediate step when people use them one-handed (or use one-handed weapons with two hands) wasn't an option.

[Gurps Fan]

Thank you for answering, doctor. If that's the decision the designers made, I'd go with it.

[Kuroshima]

Well conside one thing. The bigger, two handed weapon, by virtue of being bigger, it has a higher minimum ST. This makes it more usable by high ST creatures since the max aplicable ST is 3xMinST.