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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GenghisDon" data-source="post: 5624474" data-attributes="member: 29824">I think ARMOR is one of the reasons in RL...and in the D&D game.   Armor Class is bypassed largely the same by all weapons...and people in the real world used large 2 handed weapons in the time of the best armor...because things like an ordinary sword were rendered nigh useless (although certain types of daggers were used..attacking the joint areas).   This effect where weapon type doesn't matter on chances to inflict damage was turned into a reason for other weapons inflicting more damage as some kind of compensation I believe.  Interestingly, in OD&D, the weapons all do the same damage: d6. Daggers, however, are noted as being faster, thus gaining 2 attacks per round, while big weapons like a greatsword are slow. Result: Daggers are by far the "best" weapon. Later editions tried to fix this foolishness, in various ways, but mainly by including variable weapon damage.   I saw a post earlier describing multiple attacks in d20 working off a variable modifier rather than -5. I've experimented with that, using diablo weapon speed as the inspiration; very fast weapon (-3) fast weapon(-4), average (-5) slow (-6) very slow (-7). It works, but only in a "realistic" way when armor is divorced from the chance to be hit & does what armor really does; reduce damage. With armor as DR this works quite well. A dagger fighter might get many attacks, but against a plate armored foe most (save criticals or other specials) will inflict no damage, while a slow weapon, like a maul, gets few attacks (or just one), but inflicts considerable damage to armored opponents.  In 4e, one can easily make "monsters" that are deadly with daggers...just use the standard damage for a given "monster's" role & level. For PC's, the rogue class presents the opportunity for a dagger fighter that is effective.  It is a hard thing to make a system with vermisilitude & have it be fast paced & fun at the same time, but good luck with it.</blockquote>

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