Knife Reaches

Sindri · 05-16-2014, 01:28 AM

Unlike most broadswords (the katana being the exception) where thrust reach is greater than or equal to swing reach knives have swing reach greater than or equal to thrust reach.

At first it seems obvious that thrust reach should at least equal swing reach but upon reflection it becomes apparent that once you take into account the requirement to actually solidly pierce the opponent rather than poke them swing reach could be longer than thrust reach and that a sufficiently curved blade could cause you to lose effective reach. It still seems kind of odd that the method of attacking that gives you the most reach changes as the length of a blade increases, that there aren't any other stats for katana style swords (mechanically a swing reach 2, thrust reach 1,2 suggests itself), and how small a fraction of knife and main-gauche weapons have thrust reach 1.

It seems like there is room to extrapolate a main-gauche knife with reach 1 swing cutting and reach 1 thrust impaling from the example of the jutte and sai. Possibly with higher damage. Though reach 1 for thrusting and swinging for jutte and sai seems a bit odd compared to a long knife's listed length. What do you think?

Why does a main-gauche's thrust reach change to C when used with knife skill and a long knife's swing reach change to 1 when used with shortsword skill?

05-16-2014, 01:28 AM	#1
Sindri Join Date: Nov 2011	Knife Reaches Unlike most broadswords (the katana being the exception) where thrust reach is greater than or equal to swing reach knives have swing reach greater than or equal to thrust reach. At first it seems obvious that thrust reach should at least equal swing reach but upon reflection it becomes apparent that once you take into account the requirement to actually solidly pierce the opponent rather than poke them swing reach could be longer than thrust reach and that a sufficiently curved blade could cause you to lose effective reach. It still seems kind of odd that the method of attacking that gives you the most reach changes as the length of a blade increases, that there aren't any other stats for katana style swords (mechanically a swing reach 2, thrust reach 1,2 suggests itself), and how small a fraction of knife and main-gauche weapons have thrust reach 1. It seems like there is room to extrapolate a main-gauche knife with reach 1 swing cutting and reach 1 thrust impaling from the example of the jutte and sai. Possibly with higher damage. Though reach 1 for thrusting and swinging for jutte and sai seems a bit odd compared to a long knife's listed length. What do you think? Why does a main-gauche's thrust reach change to C when used with knife skill and a long knife's swing reach change to 1 when used with shortsword skill?