(TFT) Lifeisfun: Weapons and STR mins

[Ed Thorn <prophesor@yahoo.com>]

Quoted for future searchers in the archives.  "Outdoor Scale..."  Just a bit of topic drift.

----- Original Message ----
From: lifeisfun@aol.com
To: tft@brainiac.com
Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2006 10:24:42 AM
Subject: Re: (TFT) Outdoor Scale - Request for Comments

Now, I know that the Mele rules say that you need to have X strength to use Y weapon.  But seriously, a ST 14 person "could" lift and probably TRY to use a pike axe.  It's not as if the pike axe is so much heavier than a halberd that it can't be picked up and swung around.  I think that the point they wanted to make with the minimium strength was that if you wanted to use the weapon effectively, you needed to be stronger.  This example to me is more clear with the medium sized weapons.  Hatchet is 9, Hammer is 10 and Mace is 11.  Honestly, a strength 9 person would be able to pick up a mace and swing it around.  The difference is just the weight and length of the handle.  To me, it is more of a measure that after two minutes, you would no longer be able to swing the mace if you were strength 9.  But by contrast, a strength of 11 would still be able to weild the mace after the two minute flurry of orc smashing.  At least, that's how I justify it in my mind. 
 
In the end, I think that if in a battle a 10 strength character was to break his hammer and there was a mace lying on the ground, I would probably allow him to pick it up and swing it as a weapon every other round. But the mace would only do 1d+1 damage, the same damage as his hammer.  Much of the damage I think is in fact the strength behind the weapon, not the shape.  The penalty of swinging every other round would account for the extra weight.  I would not let him defend with it.  
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