The following information is offered in the Sangband help section regarding the different weapon skills:
This sentence would seem to imply that polearms include some extremely hard-hitting weapons which swords cannot match in terms of raw power. I'm a little annoyed, however, after investing a significant number of skill points into polearms. It turns out that late-game polearms kinda suck, unless my understanding of Sangband mechanics are way off.
Consider the following:
* AFAIK, weapon weight in Sangband has no effect on critical hits. There's no benefit to using a heavy weapon. You'll get more blows with a light version. Criticals are determined entirely from your weapon skill and slays (holy alliance vs. demos, blood dominion vs. undead, etc...)
* Critical hits favor weapons with larger damage dice. Therefore a weapon which does 3d7 damage essentially has more raw power than a weapon which does 7d3 damage. A great critical hit (+4 dice) for each weapon will do 7d7 and 11d3 damage, respectively, which comes out to an average of 28 vs. 22 damage.
When you take both of those facts into consideration, you have to wonder why anyone would ever choose polearms. I think they need to be rebalanced.
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Best Polearms
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Scythe of Slicing (7d3)
Average damage: 14
Great critical: 22
Armor bonus: 3
Great Axe (4d4)
Average damage: 10
Great critical: 20
Halbred (3d5)
Average damage: 9
Great critical: 21
Armor bonus: 8
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Best Swords
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Blade of Chaos (2d13)
Average damage: 14
Great critical: 42
Bluesteel blade (2d11), vorpal
Average damage: 12
Great critical: 36
Executioner's sword (2d12)
Average damage: 13
Great critical: 39
So you can see that the best swords get critical hits that are nearly twice as good as those from the best polearms. Also, the swords tend to be around half the weight - so you typically get more blows. The bluesteel blade, in particular, is intrinsically vorpal, yielding even more criticals.
While it is true that some of the polearms grant a bonus to armor class, the majority do not. The deepest polearm grants only a +3 to AC. The laughable Great Axe (depth 50, weight 20 lbs) seems a very poor choice, especially in comparison to the much shallower Battle Axe (depth 30, weight 14 lbs) which gets better criticals.
It feels like polearms are puny in comparison to their bladed brethren. Am I totally off base here?
Bladed weapons are relatively light and easy to use... However, most swords do not have the raw power that the greater hafted weapons and polearms possess.
Consider the following:
* AFAIK, weapon weight in Sangband has no effect on critical hits. There's no benefit to using a heavy weapon. You'll get more blows with a light version. Criticals are determined entirely from your weapon skill and slays (holy alliance vs. demos, blood dominion vs. undead, etc...)
* Critical hits favor weapons with larger damage dice. Therefore a weapon which does 3d7 damage essentially has more raw power than a weapon which does 7d3 damage. A great critical hit (+4 dice) for each weapon will do 7d7 and 11d3 damage, respectively, which comes out to an average of 28 vs. 22 damage.
When you take both of those facts into consideration, you have to wonder why anyone would ever choose polearms. I think they need to be rebalanced.
-------------
Best Polearms
-------------
Scythe of Slicing (7d3)
Average damage: 14
Great critical: 22
Armor bonus: 3
Great Axe (4d4)
Average damage: 10
Great critical: 20
Halbred (3d5)
Average damage: 9
Great critical: 21
Armor bonus: 8
------------
Best Swords
------------
Blade of Chaos (2d13)
Average damage: 14
Great critical: 42
Bluesteel blade (2d11), vorpal
Average damage: 12
Great critical: 36
Executioner's sword (2d12)
Average damage: 13
Great critical: 39
So you can see that the best swords get critical hits that are nearly twice as good as those from the best polearms. Also, the swords tend to be around half the weight - so you typically get more blows. The bluesteel blade, in particular, is intrinsically vorpal, yielding even more criticals.
While it is true that some of the polearms grant a bonus to armor class, the majority do not. The deepest polearm grants only a +3 to AC. The laughable Great Axe (depth 50, weight 20 lbs) seems a very poor choice, especially in comparison to the much shallower Battle Axe (depth 30, weight 14 lbs) which gets better criticals.
It feels like polearms are puny in comparison to their bladed brethren. Am I totally off base here?
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