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Old 06-12-2021, 11:23 PM   #10
JustAnotherJarhead
 
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Join Date: Jul 2019
Location: Cali
Default Re: Fencer two weapons question - 2 sabers?

Lars is spot on.

It continues to get worse, when you zero in on the original poster's question.

The rules get a little fuzzy once again;

In the two-weapon talent, option (c) it says A Fencing expert gets to take advantage of the double parry full defense.

(c) "parry with both weapons adding an Extra die to attempts to hit you AND stopping 4 points of damage from any successful attack, but not threatening the enemy."

At this point it's assumed you are just adding 1d6 to your defend roll, at face value it's a single d6 to all melee attempts to hit you, where this is a bit obscure is the use of the word Extra, as a normal defense would present an opponent with a 4d6 roll to hit when only defending with a single blade.

This use of a 2 bladed double defense "could" be read to add an Extra die to the current defense of "defend" status which would have any character with a melee weapon already in a 4d6 status for defend.

Obviously it can be, and will be read differently by different players.

We further cloud the clarity on this, as we reference back to the Fencer talent:
* Bonus to defend. All melee attacks against a Fencer who has a weapon(s) in hand are at -1DX.
If a Fencer chooses the Defend option, attackers must roll an EXTRA die when attacking.

This phrasing of the point is essentially the same as above for two-weapons, with the added clarity of specifically listing the option of "defend" and pointing out the addition of the extra d6 to that defend status, equaling a 5d6 roll to land a successful attack.

It could be argued that the two-weapons "defend" option was trying to say the exact same thing. As a standard Defend option only requires a single weapon in hand, and the focus of the Two-weapons talent options specifically shows the benefits extended by having a second weapon in hand.

If you look at the statement of "parry with both weapons" that seems to indicate, you can parry with just one, normally... but if you parry with both, you add more difficulty to your opponents roll, hence add an additional die.

Now, obviously this is a very powerful maneuver, and for game balance I have ruled against the direct wording, and gone with the choose option, 1 of 3 options for a defensive maneuver, but it goes to show the confusion that could have been resolved by listing all of the features under the appropriate talent at the risk of some redundancy, as well a single combat example would have been a good add as well.

For completion I rule that you can choose a single parry and have no defensive bonus that works against the opponent's to hit roll, and stop 2 hits.
or
Perform a 2 weapon parry under Fencer description and giving the opponent 4d6 to strike you and stopping 4 hits.
or
Perform a full Defend action, stopping 0 hits with your fencing weapons but giving the opponent a 5d6 (6d6 Master Fencer) roll to hit you.

As a final note, 2 rapiers can be used with all benefits as outlined in the last paragraph ITL p.41 of the Two-weapons talent, but not 2 sabers.

If you want to swing two-sabers (or any other heavier weapon than a rapier) then invest into the Two-weapons talent the full 2 points, and I'd probably give it to you as a GM. Also as a GM I remove any penalties that someone might point out against DX while using a Main-Gauche if you are a Fencer, that doesn't make sense to me, Fencing requires a high DX, and Master an even higher DX, so that MG penalties just don't make sense to me for Fencers.
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