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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 6056760" data-attributes="member: 54877">They could also reconcile several competing agendas by taking a hard look at some of the early assumptions that, near as I can tell, haven't really been examined with all the other changes to the game. For example, consider:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Sword and Board</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Two handed weapons</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Dual weapons</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Single weapon (empty hand)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Unarmed combat</li> </ol>They tried to do all kinds of funky things, at different times, with 2H and Dual by increasing the damage.  This has typically scaled poorly.  But now with a tighter rein on to hit numbers, maybe do what other games do and have those styles get a +1 to hit?  This is easy to verify as something that scales appropriately, because the system wants the attack numbers to be controlled.  If they are, a +1 to hit is always valuable (maybe not equally, but reasonably so).  This implies that:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dedicating both hands to offense helps you hit more reliably.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dedicating a hand to defense helps you avoid getting hit.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Leaving a hand free isn't as much about direct combat as it is about circumstances.</li> </ul>You can look at the earlier GDS (Gamist, Drama, Simulation) to see how that can appeal.  It's a reasonable gamist trade, or can be made to be one.  The dramatic appeal is generally to let the character pick any style that fits the character, and have it work.  Check.  Simulation?  A guy with a big weapon in both hands, probably is more likely to "hit" in the D&D sense of "do meaningful damage", and the whole point of dual weapon offense is to increase attack angles, and thus increase chances to hit. So then the rules that flow from this to appeal to each group of players are driven by what the hand is dedicated to.  The weapons in the hand become an expression of that.  Now, on top of that layer some other tweaks based on other relevant differences, such as mace versus longsword or great spear versus great sword.</blockquote>

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