Combat Skills

[imported_Rasyr]

In another thread, somebody suggested reworking the Combat Skills slightly....

Here is the result:

• Axes & Hammers (Str - Melee): Hand axe, Battle Axe, and War Hammer.
• Basic Martial Arts (Spd - Unarmed): This skill covers the most basic Martial Arts. This allows a character, when unarmed, to fight using the Unarmed Combat Moves that have a zero cost. Refer to p. for more information on Unarmed Combat Moves and the damage that unarmed attacks do. This skill is a prerequisite for learning Sanju.
• Bows (Wis - Ranged): Includes Short Bow, Long Bow and Composite Bow.
• Boxing (Spd - Unarmed): The art of fisticuffs. See Boxing on p. for more information.
• Chains Plus (Dex - Melee):  Includes Ball & Chain and Morning Star.
• Clubs (Str - Melee): Includes Baton, Club, Mace and War Hammer.
• Crossbows (Int - Ranged): Includes Light Crossbow and Heavy Crossbow.
• Great Blades (Str - Melee): Includes Bastard Sword and Greatsword. Weapons of this group are used 2 handed.
• Heavy Blades (Str - Melee): Includes Bastard Sword, Broadsword, Falchion.
• Light Blades (Dex - Melee): Includes Rapier, Scimitar, Short Sword and Smallsword.
• Pole Arms (Str - Melee): Includes Pole Arms, Pole Axes and Spears. Weapons in this group are used 2 handed and may be used to attack foes up to 10' away.
• Sanju (Spd - Unarmed): This is a special Combat Style using the Martial Arts. It requires the character to have an equal or greater number of ranks in Basic Martial Arts. See the description on p. for more information on this style and how it works.
• Short Blades (Dex - Melee): Includes Dagger, Main Gauche and Sai.
• Slings (Dex - Ranged): Includes Sling and Sling Shot.
• Spears (Dex - Melee): Includes Javelin and Short Spear. Weapons in this group are used 1 handed and may be used with a shield.
• Staves (Spd - Melee): Includes Quarterstaff, Short Spear and Spear.
• Sword & Board (Dex - Melee): This is a special Combat Style that focuses on using a sword and shield in combination. See Sword & Board on p. for more information.
• Thrown Axes & Hammers (Dex - Ranged): Includes Hand axe and War Hammer.
• Thrown Blades (Spd - Ranged): Includes Dart and Dagger.
• Thrown Spears (Dex - Ranged): Includes Spear, Javelin and Short Spear.
• Two Weapon Combo (Dex - Melee): This is a special Combat Style that utilizes two weapons. It requires the character to have an equal or greater number of ranks in the weapon skill associated with the primary weapon of this combo. See Two Weapon Combo on p. for information on this style and how it works.
• Wrestling/Grappling (Spd - Unarmed): The skill of man-handling a person or creature, immobilizing it. Refer to p. for more information on Wrestling/Grappling.

Opinions wanted...

Question: Should I leave Short Sword in BOTH Light Blades and Short Blades?

Also note the inclusion of the new melee combat style, Sword & Board, which is now separate from  Two Weapon Combo, and yes, the style does contain several Shield specific Combat Moves, such as Shield Bash ( and Shield Parry and Shield Slam -- which is a Bash that can knock foe down...)
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[Fidoric]

Question: Should I leave Short Sword in BOTH Light Blades and Short Blades?

I feel that a short sword is closer to other swords in the light blades category. It is a primary battle weapon. Daggers and maingauche are better assassin tools or secondary weapons. This is the only distinction I feel between the two categories.

[imported_Rasyr]

I had also been thinking about adding in a Small Sword (Piercing) to the Light Blades and a Sai (Piercing) to Short Blades.

Note: Short Sword is more of a chopping/slashing weapon while the Small Sword would be more of a stabbing weapon, with some slashing capabilities.

In fact, if you are a Shadow World fan, the Long Kynac is actually a Small Sword, and the Kynac is something of a cross between the Maine Gauche and the Sai. And I would love to be able to gave characters who could have a similar setup weapon-wise.

Here is an image of a matching SmallSword/Dagger (actually, that Dagger could also be classified as a Main Gauche as well) set, that I would think make for a good, and then a pair of Sai

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[imported_Rasyr]

Okay, I have moved the Short Sword completely to the Light Blades category, and added Smallsword (think of it as a smaller version of the rapier, with a bit more slashing capability to Light Blades as well. And then I added Sai (parrying dagger that is designed for piercing, not slashing at all -- main gauche would be the slashing parrying dagger)

And then later on, we can add in the jitte, which is essentially a type of baton (bashing weapon) with the parrying capabilities of the Sai