I can't help but think of early (1e?) Clerics that weren't allowed to use edged weapons because they were forbidden from drawing blood... But were allowed to use clubs, maces, or staffs to smack people to death.
D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.
- Thread starter Reynard
- Start date
I can't help but think of early (1e?) Clerics that weren't allowed to use edged weapons because they were forbidden from drawing blood... But were allowed to use clubs, maces, or staffs to smack people to death.
SableWyvern
Cruel Despot
I always felt that was illogical in a very realistic and believable way, assuming all clerics belong to pretty much a single order following a general force of Law, ala B/X and BECMI, rather than a disparate bunch of specific gods. Once you reach the point where there a bunch of completely different faiths, it makes much less sense for them all to have strange rules about which weapons are allowed.
Thomas Shey
Legend
That apparently originated from some odd real-world historical situation, but I've long since forgotten the details.
SableWyvern
Cruel Despot
It was based on an apocryphal story about the Bishop Otto wielding a club at the Battle of Hastings. As I recall, he was depicted thusly in a painting, and it was probably some Victorian "scholar" who invented the whole no shedding blood story out of whole cloth.
Micah Sweet
Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
But why would you take more or less (or no) damage if it didn't actually touch you? Where's the setting logic?
James Gasik
We don't talk about Pun-Pun
The fact that such weapons sometimes had spikey bits were conveniently ignored.
Thomas Shey
Legend
Even without spikes per se, just the routine flanges and such were going to do that with a good swing. Maces were almost always something a bit beyond just metal clubs.
Maxperson
Morkus from Orkus
It's the nature of hit points.
Take a fireball. Perhaps you got out of the way barely and a large amount of heat washed by for the damage. The resistant one takes less and the vulnerable one takes more. At half some of the fire caused burns. If it takes them to 0, monster char char.
If the monster is vulnerable to piercing damage, then perhaps the nervousness and fear of the trident causes it to be sloppier than it otherwise would have been and the trident attack gets closer than it otherwise would have. Extra skill hit point damage.
With poison/disease/life drain attacks, contact has to happen and unless it's contact poison, the skin has to break.
Maxperson
Morkus from Orkus
As was the fact that if you hit someone hard enough with a blunt object, you can break the skin causing bleeding wounds. Especially if a broken bone pierces it from the inside.
Maxperson
Morkus from Orkus
I don't know how accurate this is, but it's an interesting read.
Battling Bishops and Crushing Clerics: Why Can't Your RPG Healer Use A Sword?
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