Making two-handed weapons more interesting.

[gilbertocarlos]

Originally Posted by Mathis

Playing and GM'ing a GURPS game set in the warhammer world I have noticed that twohanded weapons rules-wise doesn't appeal very much to the players.

For high strength warriors the damage difference between one-handed and twohanded weapons is just too low to outweigh the lower defense for having no shield, and seeing Knights of the white wolf running around with one-handed hammers and shield just makes me sad.

After seeing the rules for two-handed strike in Martial Arts I came up with the following house rule.

Two-handed damage

A weapon held two-handed will permit the player to put more of his strength in the blow. Two-handed weapons deal +1 damage for each die of basic thrust/swing damage beyond the first.

Does it make two-handed weapons too powerful? Or is it fine in a world that has plenty of dwarves running around with two-handed axes and orange-spiked hair.

And I may look new to the forum, but I have been stalking you for years :-)

Yes, it does, a good way to make them regret having only an axe/mace+shield is to put them against an enemy with a dueling polearm, and, since he have a reach of 2, the strategy will be as follows:
Attack at a reach of 2
Dodge combined with Retreat for +3
repeat until PC is incapacitated
This, added with the new Low Tech shield HP and DR, as well as Icelander extra rules for shields, will help very much.

Obs-If they could afford a ST of 17, a skill of 18, and uses a Long spear+Shield, maybe what you should do is lower the players character points.