A mace is just a masterwork club!

[Ashtagon]

I was trying to figure out what the fundamental differences between maces and clubs actually are, and other than fancier craftsmanship, I'm at a loss.

 

[Empirate]

A mace has flanges, intended to break armor and make deep dents. A club merely provides a lever to amp up your effective blunt force. Big difference in my opinion.

 

[Ashtagon]

A mace has flanges, intended to break armor and make deep dents. A club merely provides a lever to amp up your effective blunt force. Big difference in my opinion.

A Very Nice and Rare Ancient Luristan Bronze Baton Like Mace Head - Precious Art From Past

Here's a mace that doesn't have flanges.

File:Massue Ali Janina.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Here's the legendary mace of Ali Pasha.

File:Assyrian mace.png - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Here's a mace head from Assyria.

So, yeah.

 

[Empirate]

So you googled some pictures - so did I! Flanged maces are the standard model for medieval-european times. As you well know, or you wouldn't link to Assyrian stuff instead. Most D&Ders don't play a Mesopotamian campaign, after all...

 

[Ashtagon]

I never claimed to be most gamers.

 

[kitcik]

RAW: club is wood, mace is metal

plus

no flanges
View attachment club.bmp

flanges
View attachment maces.bmp

 

[Ashtagon]

Once more, I'm not talking about game definitions, but real world definitions. D&D has been fairly notorious for making it up as it went along for some weapon definitions.

 

[kitcik]

Strange to post this question on a D&D legacy forum then. Seems like you need a medievel weapons enthusiast forum.

That said, if you have concluded that historians have referred to metal Assyrian clubs as maces, I cannot argue with you.

If you have concluded that clubs and maces are the same definitionally, I will refer you to Dictionary.com:

Mace
a clublike armor-breaking weapon of war, often with a flanged or spiked metal head, used chiefly in the Middle Ages.

</SPAN>

 

[Empirate]

Also, on Mesopotamian "maces" and their altogether non-club-like function, let me refer you to:

Frans Wiggerman (1985-6): The Staff of Ninsubura. Studies in Babylonian Demonology. Jaarbericht Ex Oriente Lux 29: 5-34.

 

[Sekhmet]

A club, or cudgel, is a wooden stick that is typically thicker at one end.
A mace is never fully wooden (except in Billiards), and typically possesses a flanged or spiked metal head.

A crude club can be pulled from a tree and wrapped on one end in leather or cloth to protect the hand.
A masterwork club could be a carved or emblazoned ritual stick.

A mace is always purposefully crafted.