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Old 04-29-2022, 09:04 AM   #1
Michael Thayne
 
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Default [Martial Arts] Weapon Adaptation (Broadsword to Two-Handed Sword or vice versa)

The rules for Weapon Adaptation say one skill must default to the other at no worse than -4 and use the same number of hands... however there's an exception for cinematic campaigns, where anything goes. Honestly, I'm inclined to allow this for Broadsword and Two-Handed Sword, just because the character point tax for being skilled in both one-handed and two-handed use of a katana, longsword, etc. is just too punishing. And I think the game mechanics should work fine, since some weapons (notably spears) already support both one-handed and two-handed use with a single skill. But it does seem to raise a few questions, particularly about certain techniques.

For example, Reverse Grip has different defaults for one-handed and two-handed weapons. If you have Weapon Adaptation (Two-Handed Sword to Broadsword) [1] and Reverse Grip (Broadsword) (A) Broadsword-2 [4], would you roll against Broadsword-2 to use Reverse Grip two-handed, or could you recalculate your technique level from the improved default to roll against flat Broadsword? Could you learn Sweep (Broadsword) without first taking Skill Adaptation? (Presumably this would limit you to using the technique with two-handed grips.) Finally, Dual-Weapon Defense is in some sense two techniques, since the one-handed and two-handed mechanics are different. Assuming an appropriate Weapon Adaptation perk, would Dual-Weapon Defense (Broadsword) also work two-handed. Or conversely, would Dual-Weapon Defense (Two-Handed Sword) work one-handed?

(I think these are the main techniques where questions like this arise, but there might be others, feel free to point them out.)
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