Just have two more categories: natural weapons, hardened natural weapons. Hardened to cover things like dragon claws.That's actually a pretty nifty system. Easy to track since everybody just jots down what they have on their sheet and moves along.
I don't necessarily agree with the accuracy of pieces of it (chain mail being the standout), but that's readily fixable and on the whole it makes things more interesting.
There are still specific instances where it'd get odd in play due to how weapons are categorized (claws and teeth are good against Fullplate, for example... my imagination might be off but I'd think tiger vs. fully-armored knight ends up with the tiger getting frustrated and walking away, not chewing through the plate like it's not there), but on the whole it does a solid job, and the issues are more the fault of the weapon categorizations than anything else. And I'm not sure how to improve the weapon categorizations without overcomplicating the system, honestly.
While this works, you run the risk of going down the path of (as Tark so charmingly put it) "DR/me mum's left toe." I think in this specific case, it makes more sense that the better armors are just DR/-. (And if I had to invent something, I'd probably use "DR/Two-handed weapon" to represent the fact that, fundamentally, the way to crack heavy armor is with such a weapon.)
I like Freehold's idea, although it's not clear to me if this is supposed to be in addition to the armor bonus against being hit in the first place. One of the issues that has plagued RPGs since the beginning is the tension between "armor makes it harder to hit you" and "armor makes it easier to hit you but harder to hurt you." There's a lot of under-the-hood balance that has gone into designing into designing a modern system like Pathfinder and I think the bathwater-to-baby ratio is a little too low for me to feel comfortable throwing out the current system in favor of some number pulled from thin air, even if they were pulled by someone I respect as much as Freehold.
thanks man! That means a lot to me.
You mean like DR/slashing, DR/Silver, DR/bludgeoning, and DR/me mum's left toe?
Blades good vs cloth armor etc.) but in a tabletope game - it's too much to keep track of so it slows down the game to little benefit.
The current DR system is more often than not based off of creature type (skeletons and bludgeoning, werewolves and silver, demons and cold iron) rather than the equipment that the character is wearing.
Because it is easy to remember which guy has the big devil horns, not so much on which guy has chain mail and which guy has a breast plate (particularly since most people do not have minis that would show the difference, and as such you only rely upon the GM's description and you asking what he is wearing 12 times each battle; plus, enemies can get new armor if they escape and come back better prepared, and who wants to bother with changing the mini).
The rapier is a descendant of the smallsword, which was a civilian defense weapon that evolved from light cut-and-thrust blades. It had almost nothing to do with knights or cannons, because it did not come about primarily as a battlefield weapon. Rapier is probably derived from a German corruption of a construction meaning "dress sword." Eventually, as has happened frequently, the name for the most popular form of sword become synonymous with swords in general.
The form and use of the rapier, before the era of modern fencing, is strikingly similar to the jian, or "Tai Chi sword."
The complication there is that it is also similar to estocs, which was the end of the evolution of longswords into armor-gap-seeking piercing weapons (thin, tapered point; often did not have a cutting edge).
Of course yes, civilian arms had a large part in it. The question is whether it was also the bastard child of estocs, as well as certain daggers used by knight like rondels, stilettos, knightly daggers, etc.
A thing that i dont know have been mentioned is that we have the presence of magic in this world, so even if we didnt have the gunpowder based weaponry of the gunslingers we still have the spellslingers.
In a world were magic requires a great deal of dedication a rapier could mean a easy way for a weaker person to whield.
Eh, strength and weakness often do not play too much of a factor outside of polearms (which are obviously too heavy for most to carry around all day). Most swords, even large claymores, weighed under 5 pounds at most. Anything heavier than that is just a parade weapon to used for show.
Now, that doesn't mean that rapiers do not have advantages for the inexperienced. Thrusting attacks are fairly simple and intuitive, and as such pretty much anyone can get the general idea (obviously there can be a lot more to fencing, but we are talking about a good old shanking here). Slashing weapons need at least a bit more practice, since you might accidentally let the blade turn a bit too much to the left or right in your hand, which means that it hits the opponent like this: / . That would be more of a glancing blow, and not quite the same power.
The rapier is a descendant of the smallsword, which was a civilian defense weapon that evolved from light cut-and-thrust blades. It had almost nothing to do with knights or cannons, because it did not come about primarily as a battlefield weapon. Rapier is probably derived from a German corruption of a construction meaning "dress sword." Eventually, as has happened frequently, the name for the most popular form of sword become synonymous with swords in general.
Yet the rapier (or blades like it) did get used as the main battlefield weapon during the 17th century.
The form and use of the rapier, before the era of modern fencing, is strikingly similar to the jian, or "Tai Chi sword."
I agree.
While this works, you run the risk of going down the path of (as Tark so charmingly put it) "DR/me mum's left toe." I think in this specific case, it makes more sense that the better armors are just DR/-. (And if I had to invent something, I'd probably use "DR/Two-handed weapon" to represent the fact that, fundamentally, the way to crack heavy armor is with such a weapon.)
I agree, because most of the more advanced armours were composites anyway - of plate, chain, and padding usually. However you do not need to have DR/two-handed-weapon because a two handed weapon does more damage to overcome the DR anyway.
But then, if you are going to this level of detail, you should also bear in mind that some armour was partial, and have an AC adjustment for trying to get past the armour...it gets too complicated too fast!
While this works, you run the risk of going down the path of (as Tark so charmingly put it) "DR/me mum's left toe." I think in this specific case, it makes more sense that the better armors are just DR/-. (And if I had to invent something, I'd probably use "DR/Two-handed weapon" to represent the fact that, fundamentally, the way to crack heavy armor is with such a weapon.)
I agree, because most of the more advanced armours were composites anyway - of plate, chain, and padding usually. However you do not need to have DR/two-handed-weapon because a two handed weapon does more damage to overcome the DR anyway.
But then, if you are going to this level of detail, you should also bear in mind that some armour was partial, and have an AC adjustment for trying to get past the armour...it gets too complicated too fast!
you should see what i did for masterwork weapons.