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Historical European Weapon Equivalents
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<blockquote data-quote="Cannyjiggit" data-source="post: 6405940" data-attributes="member: 6780231"><p>Great post and pretty accurate from my experience. Most weapons will have more than one way of dealing damage however for game terms we need to limit it to keep the combat complexity down. The English Longsword for example (usually used in 2 hands but light enough to still be cotrolled if one hand is withdrawn to enable reach) is initially aimed at slashing damage but still has a sharp point for thrusting with. Against an unarmoured opponent, a solid attack with either will cause a serious wound but if the opponent is armoured the point and thrusting becomes more important (it was often used in "half-sword" format with one hand on the hilt and the other halfway down the blade).</p><p></p><p>Now coming to my point, whilst longer blades may be designed to primarily use either a slashing or a piercing attack (even though alongsword has a point and a rapier is still kept sharp down the blade), with shorter weapons there is not usually enough momentum behind a swing for a slashing attack to be its most effective attack. Almost all shorter weapons are either designed to be sharp piercing weapons or weighted to cause bludgeoning damage at close range. </p><p></p><p>Transferring to game mechanics, whilst most weapons in the dagger category will have sharp blades as well, treating them all as piercing weapons is not historically innacurate.</p><p></p><p>Weapons I would struggle to place in the 5E ruleset though are the common and various broadswords and backswords (very similar but broadsword is sharpened on both edges whereas backsword has one true edge and one "back" edge that is not sharpened and hence adds more weight to attacks with the true edge). For me, they are the weapons on the cusp of the change from primarily piercing to primarily slashing - which is why I explained the above. However I would probably still have to classify them as slashing weapons yet there is no suitable weapon in the PHB to treat them as. They should be the slashing equivalent of a rapier as the rapier developed from these types of weapons. This could partially be achieved by calling them longswords but they absolutely cannot be used in 2 hands other than for halfsword techniques. Many have a basket hilt which would make it impossible to wield in 2 hands.</p><p></p><p>For a look at the type of thing I'm talking about, check out the video from Matt Easton of Scola Gladia Toria at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0TmSLdNVbU" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0TmSLdNVbU</a></p><p>For anyone interested in Weapons in general, he has made tons of short videos and really knows his stuff. He has also studied many of the historic manuals around so his stuff is about as close to the truth as its possible to get these days (much of the knowledge in the West has been lost as we stopped teaching it soon after the advent of gunpowder)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cannyjiggit, post: 6405940, member: 6780231"] Great post and pretty accurate from my experience. Most weapons will have more than one way of dealing damage however for game terms we need to limit it to keep the combat complexity down. The English Longsword for example (usually used in 2 hands but light enough to still be cotrolled if one hand is withdrawn to enable reach) is initially aimed at slashing damage but still has a sharp point for thrusting with. Against an unarmoured opponent, a solid attack with either will cause a serious wound but if the opponent is armoured the point and thrusting becomes more important (it was often used in "half-sword" format with one hand on the hilt and the other halfway down the blade). Now coming to my point, whilst longer blades may be designed to primarily use either a slashing or a piercing attack (even though alongsword has a point and a rapier is still kept sharp down the blade), with shorter weapons there is not usually enough momentum behind a swing for a slashing attack to be its most effective attack. Almost all shorter weapons are either designed to be sharp piercing weapons or weighted to cause bludgeoning damage at close range. Transferring to game mechanics, whilst most weapons in the dagger category will have sharp blades as well, treating them all as piercing weapons is not historically innacurate. Weapons I would struggle to place in the 5E ruleset though are the common and various broadswords and backswords (very similar but broadsword is sharpened on both edges whereas backsword has one true edge and one "back" edge that is not sharpened and hence adds more weight to attacks with the true edge). For me, they are the weapons on the cusp of the change from primarily piercing to primarily slashing - which is why I explained the above. However I would probably still have to classify them as slashing weapons yet there is no suitable weapon in the PHB to treat them as. They should be the slashing equivalent of a rapier as the rapier developed from these types of weapons. This could partially be achieved by calling them longswords but they absolutely cannot be used in 2 hands other than for halfsword techniques. Many have a basket hilt which would make it impossible to wield in 2 hands. For a look at the type of thing I'm talking about, check out the video from Matt Easton of Scola Gladia Toria at [URL]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0TmSLdNVbU[/URL] For anyone interested in Weapons in general, he has made tons of short videos and really knows his stuff. He has also studied many of the historic manuals around so his stuff is about as close to the truth as its possible to get these days (much of the knowledge in the West has been lost as we stopped teaching it soon after the advent of gunpowder) [/QUOTE]
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