Strength and agility requirements for melee weapons and polearms, plus defining one and two handed weapons.


Other RPGs


So, I've been thinking about the ability of a character to use a particular weapon effectively in my game. Now, this game doesn't have "proficiencies", it uses a skill system, but that still lets everybody use a weapon regardless of their stats. We all know that if you give some people some weapons they will be unable to handle them, and some others may be able to handle them, but only with both hands. So, to handle this, here's what I came up with. I just want general feedback on this.

Strength requirement:
All sidearms have a strength requirement of 2 for a single hand, 1 for both hands.
All light one handed weapons have a strength requirement of 6 for a single hand, 3 for both hands.
All heavy one handed weapons have a strength requirement of 8 for a single hand, 4 for both hands.
All hand and a half weapons have a strength requirement of 10 for a single hand, 5 for both hands.
All light two handed weapons have a strength requirement of 21 for a single hand, 7 for both hands.
All heavy two handed weapons have a strength requirement of 32 for a single hand, 8 for both hands.
All great weapons have a strength requirement of 50 for a single hand, 10 for both hands.
Failing to meet a requirement gives up all benefit from the strength score to your weapon. This means a loss in attack, damage or penetration, critical threat and guard saves, removing accuracy, lethality and defensive power from your weapon. If you do not have at least half the requirement, you cannot use the weapon this way at all.

Agility requirement:
All simple weapons (clubs, maces and spears) have no agility requirement, intermediate weapons (axes, hammers, some blades) require 5 and complex weapons (swords, swords and swords) 10. If you fail to meet this requirement, you don't get any benefit from your agility for this weapon. That means losing the agility bonus to attack, critical threat and attack rate, making your weapon slower, less accurate and less lethal. There is no secondary point that prevents you from using the weapon at all, however, and no benefit from using both hands.

One hand and two hand definition:
This is a second thing. How do I make a one or two handed weapon function as one or two handed, without just claiming you can never even try to wield them the other way? And here's my answer: Two handed weapons are two handed in that their strength requirements shoot through the roof when you try to use them one handed, making it much less likely (for great weapons, almost impossible) to use them that way. One handed weapons lose agility when used with both hands, due to the lack of a grip, and sidearms also don't get as much strength. One handed heavy weapons lose half of their benefit from your agility when used two handed, one handed light weapons lose all of it, and sidearms also only get 1.5x strength instead of 2x.

So, that's it. Opinions?


If the heavier weapons do greater damage, you're going to run into a problem.

The high-strength characters are already going to be doing a lot more damage just from being strong. If they are also using weapons that deal greater damage (which other characters can't use because they don't meet the prerequisites), strength characters will essentially be double-dipping on strength based damage benefits.

My guess is you'll end up with Barbarians suddenly leading the melee damage race by very large margins.


Doomed Hero wrote:

If the heavier weapons do greater damage, you're going to run into a problem.

The high-strength characters are already going to be doing a lot more damage just from being strong. If they are also using weapons that deal greater damage (which other characters can't use because they don't meet the prerequisites), strength characters will essentially be double-dipping on strength based damage benefits.

My guess is you'll end up with Barbarians suddenly leading the melee damage race by very large margins.

1. This is already accounted for with heavier weapons being inferior for and against guarding. This goes up to great weapons basically having a -10 to guard and the DC of guard saves against them. (Two hand heavy -8, two hand light -7, hand and a half -5, one hand heavy -4, one hand light -3, sidearm -1.) A typical person with an arming sword will have no issue parrying a greatsword (with an effective +6 against them), and if they get in close (the greatsword wielder has a substantial reach advantage they have to get past) the greatsword wielder will have a hard time parrying against them (effective -6).

2. 10 is about standard for NPCs in all stats. PCs tend to be stronger than that. It's only particularly weak characters (or regular characters that have lost strength, likely due to a critical hit) that will be unable to use a weapon. This is mostly just important in that it means a character that gets critically hit might lose enough strength that they can't use their weapon anymore and need to switch to a lighter and/or simpler one.
3. Larger weapons also suffer much worse when grappling, giving smaller weapons another benefit. (Grappling also penalizes swinging attacks, but that's beside the point.)

But yeah, of course stronger characters with heavier weapons will do more damage. That's kinda the point of both heavier weapons and higher strength. Skill will also increase your weapon's power, and agility will make it more accurate, eventually attack faster, and more likely to land critical hits. (And, of course, it'll make you harder to hit as well.) Putting a lot of points into strength, but neglecting agility and perception (determines skill advancement, most important for complex weapons, not useful for simple weapons at all) isn't the best idea. Ideally, any combatant, be they primarily melee or ranged, will have a good mixture of strength, agility and perception.

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