Differentiating Weapon Types

[Anomylous]

I have seen a character dual-wield a fine small-axe and mace to great effect, so it's not like the Axe/Mace family is useless as it stands, anyway.

Still, I like Shostak's proposal up top that 8 or more hits before armor with an ax/mace causes knockdown/knockback. This gives that weapon family a bit more tactical versatility, and combined with the throwability of the lower-ST versions it could be quite the toolkit.

Could be expressed as: On dealing 8 or more hits with an axe/mace before armor, the wielder may choose to force a retreat (q.v. LE:ITL p118) regardless of whether they took damage that turn. (If the target took 8 or more hits *after* armor, it's moot as they'll fall anyway.)

This could potentially allow a well-armored, high-DX, battleaxe-wielding fighter to use a combination of Sweeping Blows and knockback to easily carve a path of destruction through a field of mooks, which sounds to me like a lot of very cinematic fun (though not too unbalanced, as getting to that point would take a lot of attribute points and equipment!)

TippetsTX: I like your Weapon Traits idea! Does "Sunder" negate armor?