Sanguinemetaldawn said:
Greetings Col,
I have some questions about the weapon details on pages 26-27 of 1E Unearthed Arcana.
As AD&D is now the IP of wizards of the Coast, I do not make any comments on the system. I'll make exceptions where the answer is general and not specific to the rules proper.
For the length listing, does that include the hilt/grip? Especially the Two-Handed Sword....its listed at 6'. If that is 6' of blade, that strikes me as monstrously unwieldy.
Also, the table lists the Bardiche at 5' and the Battle Axe at 4'. I always imagined the Bardiche as a Pole Axe, and longer than 5'. Am I just plain wrong? Maybe I should be thinking of something else?
The lengths were entire, not just for the blade, and a two-handed sword was gripped on hilt and lower blade. They were unwieldy for all but very strong men, and even then if the wielder missed likely he was dead.
A bardiche is not a long poke arm, but rather a short one, and the blade of the weapon is typically about two or two and a half feet long otr even longer. It is not an axe but rather more of a cleaver-type weapon.
For the Space Required listing...
Is that radius or diameter? Was there a particular way you expected it to be used? Generally we wouldn't bother with this except when crawling through narrow tunnels or the like. How was this used when miniatures were employed?
It was ignored. The AD&D game was not designed to be a cmbat simulation, and the information should likely have been omitted.
For the weapon To Hit modifier versus Armor Class...
One thing that has frustrated me is the way the same modifer applied to different armor situations...
For example, a Lucern Hammer recieves a +2 against AC 4.
But AC 4 applied to Chain + Shield, Banded, Splint, and Bronze Plate. This seems like a highly varied situation. Was this essentially a simplification?
See above :\
Also, how did you arrive at these modifiers?
Was it a matter of personal knowledge and research plus some educated guesswork?
Something else? Any references you'd recommend on this?
My roots are in military history and military miniatures gaming. I read a lot of books about arms and armor, and then used educated guesswork based on a few solid historical references regarding the efficiacy off weapons versus armor and vice versa.
In all, I included the details because of insistance of some avid palyers that were in touch with me, regretted listening to them, for the RPG is not suited to combat simulation.
Finally...
There are a few weapons that unhorse or disarm on the right to hit roll.
For example a Guisarme would dismount a rider if it hits, and the Ranseur would disarm if it hit an AC 8.
1) Was the player required to announce they were attempting a disarm or dismount? Was choice required for the intended effect? (damage or dismount but not both?) Was the result an automatic side effect if the conditions were met?
The latter. that is the advantage of the pole-arm
2) Were these hit results supposed to account for AC versus Armor type?
For example, the Guisarme has a -3 to hit AC 1. Now lets say a third level fighter is attacking a horsed opponent wearing Full Plate (no shield) with a Guisarme and rolls a 19. Normally this hits, but after weapon versus armor type is misses.
Does this mean that the opponent is unhorsed but takes no damage? Or is the attack considered a total miss?
As I noted above, we never used the weapons vs. armor type adjustments.
Thanks for dealing with so many questions.
Welcone...for such as my answers are
Cheers,
Gary