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Message: <blockquote data-quote="BlockyPS" data-source="post: 4718923" data-attributes="member: 80677">Hi All, I agree with what CovertOps’s has said above and it brings up an interesting point, that trying to turn a ‘game’ into a realistic simulation is not only folly it can also distort our perception of what is realistic. I know it certainly did for me when I was a kid playing D&D. Most significantly, the idea of hit points representing how much ‘damage’ a person could take before falling unconscious made me believe that you need to do some sort of terrible crushing blow or deeply piercing thrust to kill a person – where in reality this couldn’t be further from the truth.  A relatively light blow to the temple can easily kill a person or a gentle brush against your neck opening up the carotid artery with a razor sharp sword would see you dead in seconds. So as an earlier poster said, if you want realism you would have to accept that your character can be killed in one strike. No fun at all imho. Now having been a martial artist for over a decade and trained extensively in weapons I have to say that my favourite weapon combination is two knives/daggers. Imo I think this combination is the hardest to beat and in fact has the advantage over pretty much any weapon. I don’t know what combat experience you have AngryPurpleCyclops but I suspect it has more to do with theory than experience and training. Of course I maybe wrong J Your analogy of hitting two tennis balls with two rackets is quite correct, however, this is not how you use two weapons in a fight. Most of the time one is used to parry while one is used to attack. The greatest strength of using 2 knives/daggers is that you can switch between which attacks and which parries in an eye blink.  Movies are certainly to blame for the lack of understanding how weapons are really used. The need to stretch a fight out into an epic 5 minute struggle means that you get a lot of useless clanging and knocking of weapons away. Someone who knows how to use weapons will parry the first attack and not knock it away but keep it and the attacker close. The off-hand then goes on the offensive either attacking the arm/hand holding the weapon or your opponent’s body. A fight is over in less than 2 seconds with someone who knows what they’re doing. Polearms are large unwieldy weapons, used to great effect in large bodies of men on the battlefield when defending against a charge but much less useful in a one on one encounter. The polearm user will want their first big strike to land home or else the more nimble opponent will be inside and then it’s all over. A Bo (6 foot pole) or a Spear is much more practical in this situation as it is faster to wield and can keep an opponent at bay, however, once inside they’re also pretty harmless.  A sword is much more dangerous, however, the same rules apply. In the same moment one knife parries the other strikes. It’s not a matter of ‘swinging’ a weapon and having to recover it, the two blades work in harmony with each other. Anyway, hope I haven’t over stepped the mark with this little rant for my first post here. Been lurking for ages. Love the site and love the D&D game J CheersBlockyPS</blockquote>

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