Ulrick said:
Once I was told the reason why 1st and 2nd Edition weapons do greater damage to Large Creatures, but I have forgotten. Would somebody please refresh my memory?
I can see the logic in that large creatures have larger vital organs than medium sized creatures and thus weapons can puncture them better.
Yet this ability to do more damage to large creatures made monster like Ogres less threatening. I remember DMing 2E and describing an Ogre charging toward the party and the first words out of a player's mouth are "Awesome! It's a Large creature! My longsword can do 1d12 instead of 1d8!
Did Col_Pladoh explain his reason in one of the Q&A threads and I missed it?
I'd like to know because I'm thinking of running a 2E game to players who've only played 3E/3.5 and will probably ask that question.
First of all, I think that's stupid if it's true.
That means that I should go an attack and elephant because somehow I can chop through it’s leg easier than I can through a horses, which, has smaller bones, which are far less dense, and surrounded by less thick muscle. I think the rules might have been, you do more damage to bigger creatures because you HIT THEM MORE OFTEN, not that you do more damage each time you actually strike.
Doesn’t your attack die go down each level: if its bigger than you by one, your die goes down by one..and so on and so on, till the point, like your fighting something gargantuan, and its like your throwing spit balls at a building. (A man, with a bow, fighting a dragon)
Now, if you think you do more damage...than, like what someone else said, “trolls, ogers and even dragons” are less dangerous because you somehow get more of your edge upon them Think about it, you’ve got to be reading it wrong. Also, since they are bigger, shouldn’t they shrug off what little damage you can do to them, I mean for those of you who have younger brothers or sisters...how much damage could they do to you. They could kick and punch you, and it might hurt....but really, come on....now, if you turned back and wacked them a good one (not that Im saying you should..haha) but you’d put them down easy.
This point: you might cut and stab the crap out of a larger creature, and it may appear that you’re doing more damage, but your not. Your small, you damage is less by every size level smaller you are then your target. Which is why you need like a tank to take on a dragon, if not ..one good sword swipe and it goes down. (And Im not talking about you jacking a sword into its brain, or into the back of its spine, in those few sweet spots which youd prob never get at) AND if any of you play that, then your ruining the myth that is the DRAGON into the ground.
Have you every thought why big creatures aren’t very nimble....they are big, slow, but thick. They crush and step on, if not swat away their enemies without much fuss. Sure in LOTR the men of Rohan put down the great southern Tolkien Elephants with arrows, but they were hundreds of arrows, and I’d assume that they scared the creature, and made it fall. It’s still an animal, think about it: what would a real elephant do if say, it somehow ticked off a bee’s nest?
I mean, I cold stick you with a hundred toothpicks, but that doesn’t mean your dead. Your prob just pissed, and your skin stings..and later, you might get an infection.
Why does the fact that its biger makes it hurt more...more skin = more damage. Not true, you have to look at %, someone said that if you slice a person and it does 8inches of damage, its 18 inches to a Giant..sounds right, but...the Giant is twice your size, so the overall damge done to its body, is far less then what's done to yours. SO even though it might meassure out to be 18 inches, its prob what a human would feel as a knife wound.
so, to this example: fighting a Giant.
sword-knife
longsword-longknife
greatsword-shortsort or greatknife
now as for a spear...a weapon that is designed to hunt BEARS..and much larger cratures in more ancient days, I'd say that it do only a few points less...beause, unlike a bow..which the force would still be pushed out over a larger area upon impact. a Spear is a solid force that continues its enery through the target.
Point, you might kill a Bear with a spear by stabing it, but if you use a Dead Fall: the bear falls upon it forcing the weapon through its body, it dies. No Bow can fire a single arrow through a Bear...it might go in several inches..and perhaps, if you hit an important oragan, you might seriously wound it..which then, it should run away, or collapse. However, when hunting, youd prob get it lodged in its bone, or thick fat or muscle...AND THIS GOES FOR ALL LARGE CREATURES.
Another example:
take a sword, chop down a sapling...its gone
then chop a medium tree...one if not two swipes should fell it.
now chop down a tree that's your age, and Im in my mid twenties..so that tree would be about eight to 14inches thick..I'd need an ax...and more than two swings.
Now double that...soon it takes a lot of work to cut down a tree.
NOw get to an elder RED WOOD...it would take you, I dont know how long to chop it down with an ax....I'm not even sure you could do it.
The point is, each time your putting out the same amount of enery and force in your attack, but each time the target is getting biger, denser...and finally there is just to much area for what little you can put out to be effective.
Now, a tree doesn't have vitals..so yes, you could jab a crature in the eye, or in the brain...or kidney...or heart or w/e, but your still doing normal damge..the prob is, your now inside its body, so it should't take that much anways. Think about it. take a toothpick, and pic any part of your brain...what would happen if somehow it was to be lodged in there...youd either die, or be a veg...or, I know, some of your say..well you could be fine. True, but your missing my point.
Come on people...size matters *and yes, I know what I just said*
