[Basic] Realistic Low Tech Challengers

[Rasna]

Originally Posted by phayman53

I disagree that ST12 is too high for an average Legionnaire or Spartan soldier. You are talking about two types of professional soldiers in an era that specifically required strength as key to weapon use. While I am less familiar with the specific Spartan training methods (it has been a while since I read about them, so the details are a bit foggy), I do know that they were intense and started at a young age. As for the Legionnaires, we know they specifically trained both strength and endurance intensively. ST12 is not that ridiculous, I was at least ST12 as a football player in High School judging by the lifting definitions of GURPS ST, and that was in explosive, fast lifts.

They're surely well trained, but the average size of most ancient Mediterraneans wasn't much impressive. Anyway, the main problem isn't the BL, but the ST-based damage table. According to the table, a ST 13 Neanderthal with a light club is capable to smash through plate armor (2d crushing)! That's why I'd prefer to assign them ST 10-11 with one or two points of Lifting ST.