ST +2, Only with long knives

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Gnome

Do you house rule the costs for Weapon Master in your games?

I don't think it's ever come up. As you say, most players are happy with one good combat skill.

It seems like the authors' philosophy differs significantly from yours with regard to the utility of bonuses to one weapon vs. many.

Indeed. But one way to measure pricing is to see whether or not players want to buy a trait. When that never happens despite reasonably relevant character concepts, either they don't really understand its value, or it's overpriced (at least in that group's view).

Here, the additional 25 CP from "one weapon" to "all weapons" is probably the sticking point. 20 CP for +2 damage per die is nice -- though 20 CP into ST still gets you +2 damage, so it's the "per die" bit that you really have to exploit. Weapon Master (Big 2H-er) is going to pay off more than WM (Dagger), because you're not getting as many dice with thrusting.) But assuming that base price is okay, you're still looking at double cost for all those weapons you're not likely to use.

most PCs end up with one weapon skill at very high levels and DX at a more modest level, so the only PCs who are broadly capable at an array of weapons are the ones who also want to be awesome at Climbing, Stealth, etc.

Interesting. The complaint about the system in my group is that it's too effective to put all the points into stats, so most skills only get a point or two before it's worth factoring out all those skill increases into an attribute bump instead. Which in turn makes them good at all the other things they didn't really care about. It's only the few "signature" skills for the character that seem to be worth taking up much beyond attribute levels.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Plane

Former do you mean the BROADSWORD skill (B271 inc Light Club, Bastard Sword, Cavalry Saber, etc) or the "Broadsword" weapon (sw+1 cut / tr+1 impale, 3 pounds, ST 10, etc) ?

Latter seems like stacking Powers' "One Attack Only -60%" for Striking ST with Powers' "One Skill Only -20%" for Extra Attack.

Yeah, i meant the Broadsword skill, not the broadsword weapon.

Originally Posted by RyanW

What ranged attacks that aren't muscle-powered weapons get ST based damage?

Originally Posted by Imbicatus

My guess would be Thrown weapons and slings vs Bows/Crossbows. Bows and crossbows are a little wonky to deal with anyway as they are rated on the bow’s st, not the users st. And then there’s the strongbow perk which is effectively striking ST 2 (bow only) for a point.

This.

[GodBeastX]

I would go with the following.

-20% for one skill only.
-40% for one specific weapon only.
-60% for one type of attack only.

I'd be modest with the values, considering Striking ST is already damage only. People tend towards only using a single skill for attacking as it is so it's not much of a limitation to say one skill. They might have a ranged and melee attack, but are likely to favor one or the other, but maybe it's around 50% of the time using a single skill. If you look at accessibility tables (Like in power ups), that's around -20%.

One specific weapon (Like late katana versus broadsword which both use same skill) would limit matters and probably not that much more in some campaigns. But I tend to think it might be a game where they want to upgrade/replace weapons, especially if broken or unusable/switch what they have, etc. So that limits where they might swap to.

And one attack is one method of use for that weapon. Surprise attacks (Enemy is in a state without active defense) are rare or some other rare condition or method (Pommel strike with a sword?).

-80% would be turning Striking ST into a perk. And a perk is probably best for the most rare situations, like maybe on Critical Hits only making your crits more deadly or something. Maybe only against a specific enemy like a zombie in a fantasy setting?