(This thread is a response to Magnate's post in the roadmap thread)
One quick question: when are light weapons like daggers and whips expected to be used? The classes that are bad at melee (especially priests) are currently encouraged to use heavy weapons to get as much damage as they can out of their weak stats. If you disallow heavy weapons for them in the name of creating a use for lightweight weapons, then you've really made the early game hard for them. On the flipside, if heavier weapons are still allowable, then I can only see lightweight weapons getting used in edge cases ("Wow, this dagger is badass!") or as stat sticks ("I'm never going to swing this whip, but who cares? It has +4 INT!").
If you're going to marginalize light weapons for the warrior types, then the only way I can see to making them still have a relevant place in the game is to make artificial class-based restrictions, which basically amount to "rogues and rangers get bonuses when using light weapons". Personally I really like how combat works basically the same for every class though, so I'd rather not see that happen.
I still don't think the lightweight-weapons thing is as big a deal as some others here are making it out to be, since it generally only rears its head in the early game for race/class combos that can really push their STR and DEX. That sounds like a chargen issue to me (or possibly an issue with how blows are calculated), not a combat balance issue. But if you're going to fix this, then you need to have a plan in mind for all of the weapons. If there's no room in your design doc for a character that wants to use daggers, then something's wrong.
Incidentally, to-hit does affect criticals at some level, IIRC. You can drink Heroism / cast Bless and see your damage numbers increase slightly, even though they only affect your to-hit, not your to-dam.
One quick question: when are light weapons like daggers and whips expected to be used? The classes that are bad at melee (especially priests) are currently encouraged to use heavy weapons to get as much damage as they can out of their weak stats. If you disallow heavy weapons for them in the name of creating a use for lightweight weapons, then you've really made the early game hard for them. On the flipside, if heavier weapons are still allowable, then I can only see lightweight weapons getting used in edge cases ("Wow, this dagger is badass!") or as stat sticks ("I'm never going to swing this whip, but who cares? It has +4 INT!").
If you're going to marginalize light weapons for the warrior types, then the only way I can see to making them still have a relevant place in the game is to make artificial class-based restrictions, which basically amount to "rogues and rangers get bonuses when using light weapons". Personally I really like how combat works basically the same for every class though, so I'd rather not see that happen.
I still don't think the lightweight-weapons thing is as big a deal as some others here are making it out to be, since it generally only rears its head in the early game for race/class combos that can really push their STR and DEX. That sounds like a chargen issue to me (or possibly an issue with how blows are calculated), not a combat balance issue. But if you're going to fix this, then you need to have a plan in mind for all of the weapons. If there's no room in your design doc for a character that wants to use daggers, then something's wrong.
Incidentally, to-hit does affect criticals at some level, IIRC. You can drink Heroism / cast Bless and see your damage numbers increase slightly, even though they only affect your to-hit, not your to-dam.
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