Two-handed weapon fighting & Faq

[Björn Ironside]

Hello everyone,
Here's my second question.

Weapon actions with the Shield Hand
Everyone can use both hands to perform weapon actions, but the following two rules must be used.
• The Free Combat Points (those not locked to specific weapons or tactics) apply twice: once to your
main hand, and once to your shield hand.[/q]

So, this new rule seems to improve by a lot fighting with two weapons and with weapon+shield. How does it work for two-handed weapon combat?
What kind of discipline or speciality are included?
Armed fighting/unarmed fighting count as as included or as a specific tactic?

Let's think about a random character named Björn, with Fighting 10, armed fighting 5, 1handed heavy weapon (r) 5, battle Experience 5, shield 5, fighter 5 (just to make simpler calculations) we have:
30 cp that can be used for attacks
25 cp (or 30 if armed fighting counts) that can be used for the shield
10 cp for attacks and parry.
It can be really easy to go for 3-4 solid attacks and still have a lot of resources for parrying at least a couple of times.
Well, if Björn's cousin, Ragnar, has almost the same skill expect no shield and two handed weapons instead of 1handed heavy weapons he should have 40 cp for attacks & parries, with only 4 weapon action to manage.

If things are in this way 2handed fighting seems less viable. What do you think?

[Råttfångaren]

Yeah, 1-handed weapon and shield is probably better for many characters but I don't think it is too unbalanced really. Generally speaking, 2-handers deal a lot more damage, getting open rolls on roughly 1/3 of all their hits while 1-handers get it on 1/10th (for light weapons) and 1/5th (for heavy weapons). If we compare the weapons that do most similar amounts of damage, the 1-handed heavy weapons can do at most 3 attacks in 1 round while a character with level 5 in 2 handed weapons can do 4 attacks. 1-handed weapons, as discussed, balance this by getting a higher total combat capacity if they use a shield (and have the appropriate specialization). It is worth noting however, that if the shield breaks the character's combat capacity is suddenly halved (this happened to my character once).

2-handed weapons on the other hand has a lower defensive capabilities, meaning that - as in medieval history - it probably works best in combination with some good armour. If your armour is good enough, it won't matter if your enemies land a few hits and you can focus on the offense.

As for the other question, no, armed fighting does not count twice as they are not free combat points (they are tied fighting with weapons).

[Björn Ironside]

I think I'll need to try it out. My group is in Wildheart right now, and maybe in a couple of fights I can get a better Idea of the new balance of the rules.
Until now I didn't notice the faq, and so we'll see.

I find two-handed weapon as a glass cannon.
You are right they can perform 4 attack, but in this way they can't parry.
A solid armor can be a good choice with smaller foe, such as humans or forest trolls, but if I need to think about a gray troll here I go again with how hard it is to survive without parrying or dodging/evading.

[Luca Cherstich]

Please, remember that Two-Handed weapons are usually limited to 2 WA for spending your CP.
The WA can be increased to 3 and 4, only by getting better at the Two-Handed weapons specialty.

I frankly find this realistic since this system also favours the "Weapon & Shield" combination which is the most common combo which warriors used throughout history.

This also fits well with the -15 to the Shield Hand (diminishable at expensive cost by the Body Control and Ambidexterity) and the total negation of that penalty by Shield Bearer.

Again: using a Shield is a priority in this game, as it was also in real history.
Whatever popular cultures believes, there were not two-handed swords in Viking times (although they are present in Trudvang) and two-handed Axes were useful for breaking shield walls, dealing plenty of damage....but were also dangerous to use for the specific warrior, if he was not skilled enough.

The rules just favour a more classical, typical "Spear & Shield" or "Axe & Shield" approach.