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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ferratus" data-source="post: 5981059" data-attributes="member: 55966">Just test it man.   Grab a sharp blade, stab something.   Affix that blade firmly to a stick, and stab it again.   Your arm hasn't got any stronger because you are holding a stick.   You have no real leverage that you are using.  You have nothing that adds velocity to the weapon.   So where is that extra force going to come from?I thought so what?   If a two handed sword manages to cut deeply, that's a grevious wound.   But thrusting weapons make deeper wounds than slashing weapons while needing a lot less force and energy.   That's why thrusting weapons are probably going to do more serious damage with a glancing blow than your big two-handed sword.   The real advantage to the two-handed weapon is the arc, and your ability to use an edged weapon to control a large area around you.   Its advantage is that it sweeps the guys with the spears aside.   If a two-handed sword was simply better at killing, period, nobody in history would have used anything else.  Two-handed swords however are better for killing in certain situations, which is when people used two-handed swords.Nah, plate armour got thicker, and it continued to be useful.   It is just that mobility became even more useful, and it became far too expensive to make gothic plate for one man when you could simply buy a regiment's worth of equipment (firearm, ammo, uniform, etc.) that was far more effective than one heavily armoured man.Eventually firearms became powerful enough that pretty much all armour was fairly useless, but that came later.Nah, in D&D people generally count on not being seen at all, so they don't worry about using larger weapons.   Also, they use sneak attack in the midst of battle, but instead of it being a case of sliding a knife into the gaps in a blackguard's armour  (since they aren't using a knife, dagger, stiletto or dirk), sneak attack is merely flanking.   Not that flanking isn't a valid tactic, but it isn't really what sneak attack or backstab is trying to convey.You're fighting with the dagger wrong.   You don't slash with the dagger, that's a waste of time.  You don't hold your dagger in front of you and slash upwards.  That's also a waste of time.   I grab you, and slide that bugger in someplace fatal, like in  your shoulder between your neck and your collarbone... straight down.But do you realize how much space you need to swing a greatsword?  How much it weighs?  How hard it is to do a full run carrying one?    A dagger has none of these problems.    A dagger is harder to dodge, harder to run away from, and I'll stab you 4 times for everytime you can swing a greatsword.  4 deep wounds in vital areas, and one stab would put so much pain in you that it is doubtful you could put up any defense against the other 3.Now it certainly isn't a sure thing that you can kill a two-handed swordsman with a dagger.   A two handed sword creates a wide swath of death that I am loathe to try and breach to get inside your defenses.    But if you are a talking a time trial to kill someone (or something) that is unarmed and unarmoured, you better believe a dagger won't take any less time than a two-handed sword. Heck, if what you are saying is true, they'd have used giant two-handed weapons for killing animals, rather than a small surgical slice with a very sharp knife to certain arteries.4e shows that you can have weapon qualities with discrete rules that don't slow down the game at all.    Some reroll 1's for damage, some do extra damage on a critical, some can be used one or two-handed, some are light weapons, etc.   Just as easy to remember as which die type your are supposed to use for each weapon.   Easier even.</blockquote>

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