Dungeon Fantasy Elven Melee Weapons

[c0matose]

I bet you thought this would be an explanation of a balanced rule for "Elven" quality melee weapons in GURPS: Dungeon Fantasy. Nope, I'm just as confused as anybody. I feel as though you should be able to have an Elven Broadsword or Elven Dagger. My idea was an automatic Armour Divisor (1) but -1 to parry due to thinness. Any thoughts?

[mlangsdorf]

I'd probably do it another way, since I'm very reluctant to hand out armor divisors:

Elven Melee: Increases impaling damage by 1, like Fine or Very Fine, and stacks with the Fine or Very Fine Modifiers. Also gives +1 to Parry. Thin elven blades are more likely to break, and give +1 to the odds of breakage. Incompatible with any other racial weapon modifier. Any knife, spear, or fencing weapon: +5 CF.

[Wavefunction]

I'd liken it to the Dwarven modifier, but instead of making Unbalanced weapons a balanced Parry, it gives weapons with a balanced Parry a Fencing Parry. Weapons with a Fencing Parry would probably just get a +1 or +2 to parry. +4 CF

[Kromm]

They're customarily remarkably thin, light, and beautiful, yet incredibly tough for all that. So for yet another take . . .

Elven Blade: Halve baseline weapon weight for actual carry weight, but double it when assessing breakage (e.g., a saber weighs 2 lbs., so an elven saber weighs 1 lb. but breaks as if 4 lbs.). The blade is automatically balanced (+1 to skill), but can have a second level of balanced for +15 CF. It also has a level of ornate (+1 to reactions) and can have up to three more levels at the usual CFs, for as high as +4 to reactions! Any fencing weapon, sword, or knife: +9 CF.

Elven weapons will regularly exercise both limit-breakers, stacking balanced (+15 CF), elven blade (+9 CF), and ornate (+9 CF) to get a sword that costs 34 times as much, weighs half as much, breaks as if it had four times its carry weight, gives +2 to skill, and garners +4 to reactions. Legendary ones will often add fine or very fine to get a damage bonus and further suppress the odds of breakage.

[c0matose]

So a fine elven large knife would come to $40 x19? If I have the perk for cheaper gear (Knives, 40%) and Elven Gear perk from DF3 (10%) can i get that $760 knife for 50% off?

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by c0matose

So a fine elven large knife would come to $40 x19?

Knives are formally sword-class weapons in GURPS (see pp. B208-209), so fine is +3 CF, not +9 CF. With elven blade (+9 CF), total CF is +12, not +18, and the resulting multiplier is ×13, not ×19.

Originally Posted by c0matose

If I have the perk for cheaper gear (Knives, 40%) and Elven Gear perk from DF3 (10%) can i get that $760 knife for 50% off?

Not quite. A few points:

• Dungeon Fantasy doesn't use full-fledged GURPS, but only the subset of rules found in the Basic Set, Dungeon Fantasy supplements, and Magic. The canonical specialties of Cheaper Gear it allows are the specially named ones: Dwarven Gear, Elven Gear, Pixie Shot, etc.
  
  
• Cheaper Gear (Knives) would give 30% off, not 40% off. Knives are a "small subcategory," like sniper rifles. Elven knives would qualify as a "specific class" for a total of 40% off, though.
  
  
• Since only one Cheaper Gear perk ever applies at a time, the discount would be 10% if using canonical Elven Gear (again, this is a version of Cheaper Gear), 30% for Cheaper Gear (Knives), or 40% for Cheaper Gear (Elven Knives). You couldn't stack the effects of these perks in any way.

Subject to those conditions, you could get from 10% to 40% off the final cost, sure, because the item would be an elven knife. The most likely price would be $40 × 13 = $520 for a fine, elven large knife, -10% for Elven Gear, for a net $468. Deeper discounts would depend on the GM permitting generalized Cheaper Gear in a Dungeon Fantasy campaign.

[the_matrix_walker]

I love it!

Added to my Krommnotes!

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by c0matose

My idea was an automatic Armour Divisor (1)

For today only, I'm more than happy to agree to give you AD(1) on all your weapons.

[benz72]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

For today only, I'm more than happy to agree to give you AD(1) on all your weapons.

But to make up for it tomorrow you have to take an armor multiplier of 1 right?

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

For today only, I'm more than happy to agree to give you AD(1) on all your weapons.

Originally Posted by benz72

But to make up for it tomorrow you have to take an armor multiplier of 1 right?

That's right! Armor Divisor/Multiplier of (1) doesn't do anything, because X/1 and X*1 are identical, resulting in X!

Jeeze, did the New Math kill everyone's Algebra skills? o.O