Excerpt: Weapons (MERGE)

[FireLance]

Maybe that will be a Ranger Utility Power. A stance that gives you a bonus to AC for wielding an off-hand weapon.

I wonder if sword and shield fighters can get a stance that allows them to attack with their weapon and shield bash in the same round.

 

[Falling Icicle]

I believe the fighting style you mention involves the use of a katana and wakazashi....or in very broad english terms a long sword and a short sword. Note that even legendary samurai didn't try to fight with 2 long swords at once.

A katana is closer to a bastard sword, actually.

But anyways, I'm not going to argue about whether or not it's "realistic" anymore. This game has thrown verisimilitude out the window in pretty much every other aspect of its rules. I've never head of someone using a dire flail in real life either. Even if fighting with two longswords is impossible in real life (which I don't believe it is), that should be no reason why my character can't do it. This game lets you fly, teleport around, do cartwheels to move safely through enemy lines and shoot two arrows at once like Robin Hood, so I think it's pretty absurd to say "no you can't" in regards to fighting with a pair longswords. And I'm just going to leave it at that.

 

[HeinorNY]

I wonder if sword and shield fighters can get a stance that allows them to attack with their weapon and shield bash in the same round.

They do get a Power actually.

Tide of Iron Fighter Attack 1
After each mighty swing, you bring your shield to
bear and use it to push your enemy back.
At-Will ✦ Martial, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Requirement: You must be using a shield.
Target: One creature
Attack: Melee vs. AC
Hit: 1[W] + Str damage, and you push the target 1
square if it is your size, smaller than you, or one
size category larger. You can shift into the space
that the target occupied.

 

[FireLance]

They do get a Power actually.

Tide of Iron Fighter Attack 1

Meh, I want some actual damage, not a push 1.

 

[HeinorNY]

Meh, I want some actual damage, not a push 1.

Then we will have to wait until June.

But the Tide of Iron is a good indicative we will have some shield-based Powers.
The problem I could see with shield-based attack rolls is that the shields are secondary magic items now. They no longer have an enhancement bonus.
Even with shield-based Powers, it's better to let the weapon handle the attack roll, and the shield to handle some secondary follow-up effects, such as a stun, push, disarm, etc.

The Troy movie gives a lot of ideas for shield-based Powers BTW. Maybe a shield stance that prevents you from being flanked, or an immediate encounter Power that allow you to deflect a ranged attack.

 

[Moon-Lancer]

And he learned it - it being specifically to go with long blade / short blade - by watching Europeans, who had been doing that for quite some time

link?

 

[HeinorNY]

link?

That's just speculation. Everything indicates that Musashi created the style by himself.
That argument is often proposed by those who consider that european swordsmanship was superior than japanese swordsmaship, and although I strongly agree with this, that claim about the Musashi is really just historical speculation.

 

[Ten]

link?

http://tinyurl.com/59wart

Seriously though, it's the second result on google for the phrase I searched for...

I believe he got that from the wikipedia article, which, unfortunately, doesn't have a citation. It merely says "Some historians suspect". To be fair, it sounds vaguely reasonable!

 

[ProfessorCirno]

That's just speculation. Everything indicates that Musashi created the style by himself.
That argument is often proposed by those who consider that european swordsmanship was superior than japanese swordsmaship, and although I strongly agree with this, that claim about the Musashi is really just historical speculation.

There's no evidence either way. Historians just like to bicker about it back and forth.

I side with the Europeans because, well, Japan wasn't exactly known for it's innovation, and because using two weapons HAD been a part of European dueling for some time by that point.

 

[Ravhin]

I believe he used a katana and a wakizashi, and not a katana in each hand.

No, he did develop the style of using two Japanese long swords(though historians do debate many aspects fo his life). The Long sword/short sword style allready existed before him. This style is called Nitto Ryu and is still practiced today in several martial arts, including Kendo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdMZAChx4Nw .

It's effectiveness is debatable, it is different to use two swords then just one, you have less reach, less speed and less control but more options like someone said before, and yes it allows you to do more attacks in the same time you would otherwise do just one, but these are difficult techniques. It is definitely a viable fighting style, and if normal people can do it heroic characters much more so.

That said I think we don't know enough of the rules to make a judgment, personally I find this preview very very lacking. Remains to be seen how it will deal with enlargement spells and the likes.