Weapon Heft Musings

[sgthulka]

I've always loved the way TFT and LAW use Strength and Dexterity to define what weapons and armor characters can use. A peasant simply can't put on a suit of plate mail and carry a lance and be king of the battle field. Being an armored behemoth doesn't just require money, it requires experience.

But I know a lot of people hate the Heft requirements for weapons, in particular. Why should a single point of Strength completely prevent someone from picking up a sword and defending themselves?

One way I've gotten around that in my own head is to stop thinking of the weapons as defined entities, and think of them instead as a "maximum damage" a character can achieve with a particular type of weapon. A character with a "sword" does a D6 to 2D6+1 depending on their strength. Who cares if it's a short sword or a broad sword or a bastard sword? A lot of these labels are anachronistic, anyway. They weren't machine stamped in a factory to precise specifications like an MP40 machine pistol. It stands to reason that someone bigger and stronger would carry a longer and heavier sword.

If you just think the same way with axes and clubs and stuff, you're pretty much good to go. So your ST 10 character breaks his sword. Lying next to him is a dead barbarian armed with an axe. The big northern barbarian had ST 12, so oh no, your character can't pick it up and use it! My suggestion would be let him, but he uses it as a Heft 9 Hatchet (D6+1) instead of a Heft 12 Axe (D6+3).

[mister frau blucher]

I think this is a great way to look at things. As you say, there is no reason someone cannot pick up a heavy weapon - they just can't use it to its full potential.

This also reminds me that our hatchet is still wrong in the rules - it should be d6 at heft 9! I thought we got this sorted out a few times before. D'oh! No rest for the wicked...

[sgthulka]

Aug 1, 2013 9:04:56 GMT -5 mister frau blucher said:

I think this is a great way to look at things. As you say, there is no reason someone cannot pick up a heavy weapon - they just can't use it to its full potential.

This also reminds me that our hatchet is still wrong in the rules - it should be d6 at heft 9! I thought we got this sorted out a few times before. D'oh! No rest for the wicked...

You've probably already sorted it; my rules download is likely quite old.

[platimus]

There is less math involved by using a lighter weapon's damage range and that has merit, but I'm concerned that a character could use a Battle Axe with the same effectiveness as a Hatchet. The ability to consistently hit your target seems more important to effectiveness than your damage range, IMHO.

I use the difference between Heft and the character's ST as a DX penalty on the attack roll. I also ignore criticals in these situations (but fumbles are still in play). This makes the weapon unwieldy but if they do manage to hit the mark, the heft of the weapon still imparts the same (normal) damage range.