Differentiating Weapon Types

phiwum · 04-07-2022, 09:24 PM

If you want the Ax/Mace weapons to hit with more oomph, then any of Shostak's suggestions would do. I think you're wrong about any of the Ax/Mace having higher average damage than the swords of same ST -- the opposite is true. Some Ax/Mace options are a half point less damage on average.

But this could be fixed by Shostak's first suggestion, for instance, that armor is one point less effective against Ax/Mace weapons. I don't know, that sounds pretty damned powerful.

Now, Shostak wants to balance that with something distinct to swords. Already, swords comes with knife, so that's an advantage. Hence the sword advantage doesn't have to be as good as the Ax/Mace armor advantage (if that's what we choose).

I'd stay away from parry because I feel that kind of steps on the Two Weapons talent and also is a whole different notion of parrying than we currently have. The only "parry" action we have is in Two Weapons and the weapon cannot be used for an attack at all when it is used to parry. The Defend action plays a similar role, but again the weapon cannot be used to parry.

On the other hand, the quick draw of the sword steps all over the Quick Draw talent.

The temptation to distinguish Ax/Mace from Sword is reasonable. It's especially sensible to give folks some reason to choose Ax/Mace instead of sword. I have three players with many characters per player and the only Ax/Mace characters are NPCs. Not a single PC has seen a reason to go for that talent! And why should they, when having Knife skill is kinda handy and Swords dominate (slightly) in the average damage category.

But I'm a bit cautious regarding Shostak's initial suggestions.

04-07-2022, 09:24 PM	#13
phiwum Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Boston area	Re: Differentiating Weapon Types If you want the Ax/Mace weapons to hit with more oomph, then any of Shostak's suggestions would do. I think you're wrong about any of the Ax/Mace having higher average damage than the swords of same ST -- the opposite is true. Some Ax/Mace options are a half point less damage on average. But this could be fixed by Shostak's first suggestion, for instance, that armor is one point less effective against Ax/Mace weapons. I don't know, that sounds pretty damned powerful. Now, Shostak wants to balance that with something distinct to swords. Already, swords comes with knife, so that's an advantage. Hence the sword advantage doesn't have to be as good as the Ax/Mace armor advantage (if that's what we choose). I'd stay away from parry because I feel that kind of steps on the Two Weapons talent and also is a whole different notion of parrying than we currently have. The only "parry" action we have is in Two Weapons and the weapon cannot be used for an attack at all when it is used to parry. The Defend action plays a similar role, but again the weapon cannot be used to parry. On the other hand, the quick draw of the sword steps all over the Quick Draw talent. The temptation to distinguish Ax/Mace from Sword is reasonable. It's especially sensible to give folks some reason to choose Ax/Mace instead of sword. I have three players with many characters per player and the only Ax/Mace characters are NPCs. Not a single PC has seen a reason to go for that talent! And why should they, when having Knife skill is kinda handy and Swords dominate (slightly) in the average damage category. But I'm a bit cautious regarding Shostak's initial suggestions.