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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Henry" data-source="post: 2904173" data-attributes="member: 158">I'd love to see an example of this concept in action, in the 1E rules set; every time I tried a "swasher," he was a disaster, except for the one time that my DM worked with me on weapon skill house rules, and the 2nd edition swashbuckler kit. In 1E, the lightly armored fighter may have gone first (we used the old "d10" init house rule, with weapon speeds), but he didn't do enough damage to avoid being screwed when the heavily armored, hulking brutes with the B-29-sized Two-handed swords finally came up to bat. Plus, on my 2E character, his armor class hovered around 5 or so (leather + high DEX) until the magic leathers and rings of protection came along, and even then didn't go below a 2 at 9th level! Plus, he would have to advance and close just like any other sword-slinger, and play it by the numbers (init 1,2,3, 4, 5, etc.) with the spellcasters probably going with their fireballs before he ever got his rapier swinging! That's my recollections, and while I had fun, it was more due to the group I played with, and the feeling when we actually WON, thanks to the spellcasters, rather than because my Character contributed in a meaningful manner.I suspect it was more because Gary was a medieval weaponry afficionado. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> Ultimately, those pole arms could have been mechanically broken down into about four different ones - the hooks, the cleavers, the piercers, and the combo-models. mechanically, they really were not distinguished except for "damage vs, armor type" and that was terrible for us to keep track of. However, my experience was just that, with minor exceptions. Our little ten to twenty year old minds didn't process it if it wasn't in the books or a dragon magazine, because the wealth of web pages, forums, and fanzines just weren't available to us. For our tactics we went to things like Battletech or Super-modified Axis and Allies games or Starfleet Battles; D&D didn't have fancy tactics written in the book, so none were forthcoming.As well it should, because speaking to quite a few D&D players across the board, I believe your experiences were the exception to the rule; seems like the ones with excellent DM's and a penchant for description and working with their players to add crunch where needed, and DM/player trust mostly stuck with older D&D games; you already had what was missing.Most like me saw the wealth of options added to the core books and jumped on with both hands clenched like hopping from a riding horse to a locomotive. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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