Re: Glorantha Digest V4 #223

From: Frederic J-M Moulin <moulinfr_at_pilot.msu.edu>
Date: Thu, 27 Feb 1997 23:00:08 -0500


>Now, this is a bit rules-ish. Has anyone dealt with people wielding two
>weapons (for instance two broadswords)? I realize that a shield/weapon
>combo is more popular due to the increased armor points of the shield. Yet,
>it would still seem that a weapon/weapon combo could be quite potent,
>especially with a few armoring enchantments and/or geases. Is fighting with
>two weapons more popular than is let on in the general literature? Or, is
>there a good reason most people use a shield? It seems like it would be
>much more difficult to use two weapons than a weapon and shield. Has anyone
>dealt with this, perhaps even coming up with rules?
Well, one of the main limitation seems to be the "minimal STR" requirement. I consider that the "secondary" hand of a character has only 3/4 of its STR, and so usually fighting with 2 broadswords is difficult. The only character in my campaign fighting with two weapons is a woman using two shortswords. And this is mostly because she does not have a really combat-oriented character and fights only when cornered, using magic most of the time. Since you have to climb "RH shortsword attack", "LH shortsword attack" and similarly for parry, a character using 2 weapons is not as rapidely effective as one using only one. Her technic is: two "fireblades" and dodge... It's efficient but much more dangerous. In any case, the player character only has two combat options per round, and for a strong warrior, if he wants to do a second attack, he can always try a kick: 1D6 + bonus is very respectable. I have suffered enough in AD&D with the "ambidextrous two-weapons using" characters. How many historical heros were using two weapons ? I know only of a few japanese.
Frederic

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