Weapon Fatigue

[Albert Sales]

   The way a weapon deals damage has a lot to do with how it is damaged. A cleaving or crushing weapon (like axes and maces) is represented well in the existing fatigue rules. A shortsword or spear is not. Piercing and slicing weapons have an incredibly low tolerance for damage, but exhurt the least force in dealing damage. Slashing weapons (a scimitar, sabre, or other such weapon) exhurt a lot of force over a wide area. Breaking this into a system would be difficult.
   As I mentioned, your skill should REDUCE harm to a weapon, not increase it. Piercing weapons should have about half the FV of similarly weighted cleaving weapons, but recieve less damage from normal use (reduce the FV in case the weapon is attacked). I would probable quarter (or less) the damage dealt by these weapons for determining FV loss, but not breakage. If the attacker is unskilled, treat these weapons as having their FV reduced by (EP remaining to learn /5 RU). Short swords and daggers would have FV at about half that figured based on weight. However, piercing weapons cause less harm when they don't hit a vital area. I would give them a generally lower WSB to reflect this (the other add-ins for severs and deadlies more than make up for it, or they can gain a bonus to severe and deadly damage).
   Slicing weapons should recieve a FV about equal to another weapon of their weight, but should be able to add about a third of the weilder's EL to the FV (much like the shield skill) in determining if the weapon loses a point of fatigue. However, they should also do slightly less damage for the strength bonus of the wielder. Perhaps allowing the user to apply no more SB than the weapon has WSB while gaining the benefit of the increased FV.
   To further complicate these matters, a sword is a wonderful weapon because it pierces, slashes, and cleaves. The weilder would be able to chose their attack mode with it.
   I know... this is WAY TOO COMPLICATED, but it is an idea... It can work well for people who will be chosing one class of weapons, but the complications for sword-users and referee will be high. If someone can help simplify this, please let me know.
                  Albert
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.powersandperils.org/pipermail/pnp/attachments/20031018/84318b4e/attachment.html>