Differentiating Weapon Types
 

TFT gives polearms their own special abilities--jabbing and the charge bonus, but the differences between the Axe/Mace and Sword families is largely one of flavor and price. One could argue that the tactical difference is that some of in the Axe/Mace category can be thrown, but that only applies to about half of them. What might be done to make choosing one type of weapon over another a tactical decision?

Here are some ideas. I would entertain only giving one benefit to any weapon type:

• Axe/Mace weapons ignore a point of armor (rationale: these were traditionally thought of as "can opener" weapons)
• Axe/Mace weapons that deal 8+ points of damage before armor reduction force a 3/DX save for target to avoid falling (rationale: a heavy weight swung at the end of a lever creates a lot of momentum)
• Axe/Mace weapons that deal 8+ points of damage before armor reduction force a 3/ST save for target to avoid immediate 1-hex forced retreat (rationale: ditto)
• Swords have a pseudo-Quick Draw built in, and can be used to attack at -3DX on the turn they are readied (rationale: pulling a blade from a scabbard or sheath is simpler than unlashing)
• Swords can be used at -3DX in a defensive attack that subtracts 2 from a single foe's attack against the figure (rationale: blades are balanced and ideal for combined parry/strikes)

What do you think about these, and what are your ideas about how to make simple yet interesting differences between weapon types?

Re: Differentiating Weapon Types
 

Weapon damage in general is too high for the few hitpoints the PCs have (and armor is underpowered) so try this:


https://www.hcobb.com/tft/new_spells.html#Combat

Re: Differentiating Weapon Types
 

The most obvious issue with the weapons table right now is that there's really no reason to take Ax/Mace. Where the damages differ with Swords, the sword has a half point average damage advantage (with higher maximum and lower minimum). Moreover, if you take Sword, you get Knife essentially for free, and having a dagger skill is very useful in HTH.

Shostak's suggestions would distinguish the two. So would Henry's, but the effects of his suggestion is rather drastic.

Henry's suggestion certainly would make combat a lot less deadly. An ST 9 character with a cutting weapon won't do any damage at all to someone who stops three hits, unless he happens to get a critical hit. (I'm ignoring expertise, obviously.)

Henry, have you actually played this way? Just how long did it take? To take your own example (Chain + Small Shield), a broadsword has to roll 9 or better to do any damage at all. That's damage less than a third of the time. Average damage per hit (ignoring critical hits) in RAW figures at 3.111, while with your suggestion, that drops to 0.55. That battle has just gotten a lot longer.

I'm not saying this isn't realistic (how would I know?) but it sure does seem a lot less interesting for those involved. A DX 12 figure wielding a broadsword against a ST 10 guy armored as above will take roughly 25 turns to put him down if he's willing to stand there and take it. That's compared to 5 turns with RAW.

(Per these rules, a guy using a Morningstar -- 2d+1, but not cutting damage -- would do a lot better than the sword user, taking only 7 turns to put down our figure. The bastard sword wielder -- also 2d+1 -- would take 14 turns.)

At lower armor to damage ratios, I reckon the advantage would be to the cutting weapon user.

Re: Differentiating Weapon Types
 

Yes, historically swords didn't cut through chainmail, much less plate. Hence hammers and such.

A poleaxe should be able to switch between the three damage types at whim.

Re: Differentiating Weapon Types
 

... and probably become unready after use, but that is more detail than I'd want to go into in a TFT game.

Re: Differentiating Weapon Types
 

I'll be you don't really think the poleaxe should count as internal damage, like fire, acid and poison.

Re: Differentiating Weapon Types
 

Spear, hammer, and axe.

Re: Differentiating Weapon Types
 

Oh, I see. You referred to the "three damage types", which I took to mean the three categories mentioned on your web page: Internal (acid, fire, poison, etc.), Cutting (swords, axes, etc.) and Other (just etc.).

Re: Differentiating Weapon Types
 

I desire more differentiation between swords and the hafted weapons as well (pole arms and missile weapons already being quite different from each of the others).

On the side, I've played with tweeking the Weapon table damages such that every hafted weapon averages higher damage than a sword requiring the same ST. I think some already do, but I'd want it more consistent and more pronounced. So the character of hafted weapons becomes more ooomph per unit ST -- simple.

Then the trick I've considered for swords, to give them a compensatory feature, might well be to allow a sword to always make one attack and one parry per turn, at no great DX penalty if any for the doubled amount of action. Thus, while one must choose between attack or defend with the other weapons, with a sword you always get both.

It starts to look mighty complicated though when the existing Fencing and Two Weapon talents come into play, so I continue to just think about it.

Re: Differentiating Weapon Types
 

Attacking and defending in the same turn with no penalty is probably overpowered.