Rules Encyclopedia ESD out

[Eridanis]

That's funny - I haven't seen a copy of it in years, and kicked myself for not picking it up when it came out in 1991. Then, Saturday, I was in a used book shop, and found a good, solid copy for $10 - immediately bought it - then came home and found this thread.

I'd rather have the hard copy, anyway... boy, was that a fun trip down memory lane.

 

[Henry]

I, too, have toyed with a weapon mastery conversion.

There was just one thing that always rankled me about the Weapon Mastery as presented.

Anyone care to name the weapon that does the second-most damage at Grand Master level of mastery?
...A dagger. Obviously thrown in so the magic-users wouldn't feel so "out of sorts" in melee combat. Come on. :-(

Um...

A dagger might be third or fourth, but second? Not quite.

Pike does 1d10+14
Poleaxe does 1d8+16
Bastard Sword does 1d10+12
Battle Axe does 1d10+10
Normal Sword does 2d6+8


Comparatively, a dagger does 4d4, with a chance for double damage. Powerful, but not second-most powerful by the charts.

The other weapons I mentioned also have special abilities at grand master level that compare favorably with the dagger's possibility of double damage.

Secondly, if I were a wizard, I would rather train in Staff use than dagger use, because you also get a -4 AC against up to 4 opponents.

I can't see where the dagger damage causes a real problem, especially since grandmastery is so rare in occurance, assuming the actual rule about the percentage chance to attain the necessary training is followed.