Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony
Being left handed means your style is less familiar to likely opponents, which is an advantage, but also means it's harder to find people who know how to teach you, which is a disadvantage. Overall, it's probably a net positive. The fact that you're attacking your opponents from their weapon side instead of their shield side is negated by the fact that they're doing the same to you, and is thus net neutral.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Pursuivant
It depends on how you're trained.
Realistically, if you're a lefty fighting right-handers in a world where right-handedness is normal, you have a minor advantage. This is because you're used to fighting right-handers but right-handers have a minor Unfamiliarity penalty (-1 or -2) unless they've specifically been trained to fight left-handers or the combat skill you're using makes left/right distinctions relatively unimportant (e.g., wrestling or sumo wrestling).
Likewise, unless YOU have been trained to fight left-handers, you also have an unfamiliarity penalty should you encounter a sinister-handed opponent (and vice-versa).
In many cases, there are minor hassles to being a left-handed combatant, like guns with ejection ports mounted on the right side which spit hot brass onto your arm if you're a left-handed shooter and melee weapons optimized for right-handed users. In particular, some shields have strap arrangements which force leftys to use the shield upside down or at a similar odd angle and basket-hilted swords often have hilts which make it impossible for a lefty to hold them properly. Modern compound bows might have grips, arrow rests, and sights designed for right-handers.
If you're a lefty in a "refused" stance, with a weapon in your left (leading) hand the side of your torso which contains your spleen and pancreas is facing forward, meaning a slightly greater chance of hits to those organs than to the liver which is on the right side. Likewise, the left ventricle of your heart (which pumps blood through the body) is on the leading side. Since getting shot or poked in any of those organs is bad news, it's a wash in terms of combat survival, but wound mechanics will be slightly different and damage to the left ventricle is more likely to be lethal.*
If you're in an "open" stance (e.g., like a wrestler), left/right hand distinctions don't matter as much, unless you have a habit of attacking to just one side of your foe's body, in which case you have a Quirk.
*Leftys are also at slightly greater risk for electrocution since they're likely to touch a live wire with their left hand, grounding themselves via their left arm and the left side of their body, so current is more likely to go through the left ventricle.
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Yeah my experience matches Pursuivant's left handed fighters live in a right handed world, but right handed fighters often only briefly visit a left handed one.
But yeah what you are doing matters a lot. For an extreme example sports fencing with foil (so very side on and a long way from fighting). On my first day at the University fencing club our ability had all been roughly assessed to see where we were in terms of experience. I had a few years at that point so was OK and obviously better than the people who'd never picked up foil before, just the flyer at freashers fair. So they put me up against this 2nd year who'd been in the club for the previous year. So I'm 5' 11" pretty broad and right handed but she was maybe 5ft, very slim and left handed. (Foil's restricted target area).
So yeah I have a massive reach advantage magnified by step advantage, but for me it was still like hitting a postage stamp on the other side of the world. Whereas for her
if she could get inside it was like hitting a lake while standing on the bottom.