Re: (TFT) Shield rush in Melee

[ErolB1@aol.com]

In a message dated 11/20/2003 11:51:51 PM Central Standard Time, 
cgadda@earthlink.net writes:

> By way of example, consider: a dagger, even in the hands of a 30 ST figure,
> is simply not going to give the same return on invested power that a decent
> broad sword or battle axe will. It will do more damage than if wielded by a
> 8 ST weakling, but not nearly as much as the sword or axe would. And it is
> simply a function of size - the smaller weapon will not be as good a 
"lever"
> as the larger one to allow more efficient use of the excess ST.

With sufficient St, a *bare handed* attack will do more damage than a broad 
sword or battle ax in the hands of an ordinary attacker. On the other hand, I 
think the damage increase due to wielder's high St alone should be less than 
the damage increase due to a weapon requiring high St. And damage done can't 
keep rising at the rate of 1 pt per +1 required St - not in the long run, or else 
giant's weapons would do 6 to 8 dice of damage. That's one reason why I 
settled on my own rule of +1 damage per +4 extra St (up to St 20 - with a slower 
increase above that). 

> So, I would suggest the following adjustments:
> 
> Weapon ST 9 or less: +1 damage for every 5ST over minimum
> Weapon ST 10-11:     +1 damage for every 4ST over minimum
> Weapon ST 12-13:     +1 damage for every 3ST over minimum
> Weapon ST 14+:        +1 damage for every 2ST over minimum

This strikes me as over-complicated. Also, the natural impulse is to try to 
work in "+1 damage per +2 St over the minimum required" - but after much 
rule-tinkering, I've concluded that it's excessive, for any weapon, unless one wants 
to rejigger large, high-St creatures to make them extraordinarily deadly 
(e.g. 3 dice for a St 30 giant's bare-handed attacks, 7 dice if using a one-handed 
"giant broadsword" and 8 dice if using a two-handed "giant battle-ax" - I 
suppose that that is one possible style of play. But IMO GMs/house-rule designers 
need to ask themselves "Is that the style I want?") 

IMO the thing to do is to look at how one wants unarmed attacks to increase 
with St, and then use that as a base for increasing damage with (a) increasing 
wielder St, and (b) increasing weapon-required St. Of course, one could also 
use a "dagger as hat-pin" metaphor - i.e. at very high St, fighting with a 
dagger is like fighting with a hat-pin, better to drop the weapon so as to be able 
to punch at full St. 

I'm rambling. Need more caffine. 

Erol K. Bayburt
Evil Genius for a Better Tomorrow
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