[MA] Weapon Questions: Hook, Two-Handed One-Handers
 

The Hook technique (MA p74) must be based on a specific skill. But if a weapon can be used with more than one skill, does the user need to learn the technique again when using it that way? That seems very expensive - as a hard technique, it costs 2 points to get that first level of penalty reduction, and if you buy it twice (for 4 points minimum, 12 points maximum), you might as well buy up skill level instead and default the second skill.

Am I reading this wrong? Or thinking about it wrong?

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Clearly, if you use two hands on a one-handed weapon, you have to use it with Two-Handed [weapon skill]. If the weapon has an entry in both tables, there's no confusion. What do you do with a weapon that only has an entry in the one-handed version? e.g. a baseball bat is considered a knobbed club (MA p219, under Light Club), and knobbed club is listed under Axe/Mace skill, but not under Two-Handed Axe/Mace... but a baseball bat is traditionally wielded with two hands.

Anyone have a good rule for how to treat that?

Re: [MA] Weapon Questions: Hook, Two-Handed One-Handers
 

Yes, you need the technique for both skills, and yes it's expensive, but there's a work-around. Read the style perk "Weapon Adaptation" carefully, consider the implication of the Defensive Grip, and you will conclude that this is a legal use under the ruls as written:

Weapon Adaptation (One-Handed Weapon Skill => specific weapon in two-handed grip which could use corresponding Two-Handed Skill)

For instance,

Weapon Adaptation (Axe/Mace => Mace in 2-handed grip).

(Note that it should be MACE, for a pickhammer, a mace modified with a backspike & a topspike has sw+2/imp - yikes - in addition to sw+3/cr. thr+2/imp w/o becomiing unready, and thr/cut with a tip slash when cut is needed as with Diffuse opponents. At least as I understand the combo weapon rules, this grisly beast counts as a mace, not a pick.)

Of course, this also works for katanas, so you only need 1pt for the perk, instead of 16 to buy off the default penalty, if kenjutsu is your deal. Just remember it has to be Broadsword => Katana in wH grip, not 2H Sword => Katana in 1H grip.

GEF

PS: As a house rule, you might allow buying off the default penalty between skills as techniques on a per-weapon basis. This gets you a cost of 4, payable in increments, nicely situated between the extremes of 1 and 16 points. For more than 3 weapons, it becomes cost effective to pay for the more general skills.

Re: [MA] Weapon Questions: Hook, Two-Handed One-Handers
 

That seems... iffy. Defensive Grip is specifically about holding a weapon to improve parries, it's not really a way to allow full 2H use of a 1H weapon.

Re: [MA] Weapon Questions: Hook, Two-Handed One-Handers
 

Sure. Sophistry, at the least, and even if it is supported by "rules-lawyering", it is not supported by any example style in the book. However, the absence of my interpretation is even iffier:

Player: I want to be good at a style that really focuses on the fwih, and I want to be equally good wielding the fwih one-handed (so I can use a shield) or two-handed (for better damage, and maybe better reach).

GM: Are you sure that you don't wanna use a spear instead of a fwih? The skill for that covers both one- and two-handed use.

Player: No thanks, a fwih has way more ethnic cool.

GM: Okay, for 20 points, you get the one-handed version of the skill at DX+5, and you have DX 11, so total 16. That's pretty high; you hit almost all the time, and you can hit reliably even with rapid strikes if you take a Telegraphic Attack maneuver.

Player: Sounds good, but what if I have to use it in both hands?

GM: That's only at 12, equivalent to green troops. You can't use a shield, but you do get +1 damage. Of course, you could take the same -4 penalty to hit and get +2 damage even using it in just one hand.

Player: How much to buy the two-handed version up from default?

GM: 16 points, but that would be stupid.

Player: Why would it be stupid? I'd could use my fwih two-handed at skill 16!

GM: True, but if you put those same 16 points into more one-handed fwih skill, you'd have skill 20, and then you could use it in two hands at 16 by default, just as if you had raised tyhe skill directly!

Clearly, there are real-world styles that feature weapons that sit on a break-point in GURPS rules, like Iaido. Weapon Adaptation may not be the best way to model such a style, but it's better than spending more than the cost of Combat Reflexes to buy off the default penalty between "two ways" of using one weapon, differentiated more by game mechanics than by the arts that feature it. I've seen iaido kata switch fluidly between one and two handed grips.
GEF

Re: [MA] Weapon Questions: Hook, Two-Handed One-Handers
 

If weapon capable of one- or two-handed use allows Hook, then initiation always uses the Hook level appropriate to the number of hands the weapon is in. Once the Hook is established, the Hook technique level itself actually becomes irrelevant, as none of the follow-up moves use it for anything. Thus, you can add or remove hands freely. About the only effect this has is to determine what skill you use if you decide to move to a disarm, and whether you get the disarming and ST bonus for using two hands in some circumstances.

If Fighter A has Axe/Mace-14 and Hook (Axe/Mace)-14, while Fighter B has Two-Handed Axe/Mace-14 and Hook (Two-Handed Axe/Mace)-14, then Fighter A has to start out using one hand to Hook at full skill, while Fighter B has to start out using two hands. After that, Fighter A could add a hand or Fighter B could remove hand without affecting the hold established using Hook.

If Fighter A wants to start with his weapon in two hands and Hook, or if Fighter B wants to start with his weapon in one hand and Hook, then tough bananas. Neither has practiced this specialized attack with the skill in question. You also don't get to use your Disarming (Two-Handed Sword) level when you have a katana in one hand and use it with Broadsword . . . you didn't study that.