Re: AG: heavy weapons

From: dsaville@unm.edu (David G. Saville)

Date: Wed, 21 Jun 1995 00:00:00 +0000

In article <Pine.A32.3.91.950621124240.30828K-100000@black.weeg.uiowa.edu>,
T. Woods <twoods@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu> wrote:
>
>	Has anybody heard anything recent on the new heavy weapons in the
>game?  When will they be available?  Any final changes?  Maybe even a run
>down of them?

Nothing recent but I will fill you in on what I know since I
am the one of the driving forces behind it.  A couple of months ago
Hugh mentioned that the Super Heavies would come out after the
the revised rulebook was complete.  The driving force behind
considering them needed is that super strong characters become
limited once they get to 38 strength or so.  They can wear the
heaviest armor and helm, swing the biggest weapon, and have a
buckler.  The super heavies are designed around the principle that
there should always be equipment out there heavier than a character
can carry.  At high levels, a 10 pt wpn just does not have the
devastating effect that it had earlier on.  A high str design
sacrifices greatly in other areas (ever try to get a 40+ str?)
and usually has much fewer actions (Paz will out attack the top
ogres in the game 30 to under 5) and has great difficulty hitting
anything due to low dex/cun and fewer wpn pts.  They need wpns
capable of taking out their peers in 3 shots or so.  Also, the
superheavies may mix up the armor mix some.  Most high level
characters routinely wear plate mail.  Of course, the time line
for introduction could have changed since the survey or Hugh may
have changed his mind.  Here is a partial list of the wpns I
sent Hugh that he responded favorably to (I submitted the buckler
long ago as well):

Weapon        Range      Hands     Fatigue         Damage
War Flail     Med/Long   2         11              Heavy**
Mega Mace     Med        1         20              Incredible**
Super Hammer  Med/Long   2         20              "
Maul of Titans  Long     2         24              "
Lance         Long       2          9              Heavy
Huge Shield   Short      1         20              Medium  Prot: 26

There may have been others that I am forgetting.  The flail
and the Lance were included to give those wpn series a Heavy damage
upgrade.  As you can see, major sacrifices would be required to
pick one of those wpns up.  For those that do not know it
(oldtimer super secret coming out! :)  ), there is a significant
bonus to learning wpn pts with a similar wpn (a wpn lord in flail
would learn war flail faster than he would learn say a Heavy
Warhammer).

So, lets say I am a 100% parry type with a small wpn and I
know many others who are, what are we going to do?  Has game
balance gone out the window?

I dont think so.  There are several options available:

1)  Get in the same boat as your perceived threat and start from
0 with wpn pts and pick up a new heavier wpn.  No one could start
with those 20 pt monsters so in addition to the sacrifices getting
a gross str, there will be a mid career wpn change.

2)  Intelligent Parry:  You dont need to be a Paz to be very
good at dodging these brutes.  Also, blink would be very effective
vs the type of character who could swing these.  You would be
suprised how fast a 1500 power character can get competant in
dodge vs larger, slower opponents.

3)  Take your chances as you are since it will be rare to run
into these wpns.  There already exists certain designs that
eat another for lunch.  Many choose to accept this in order to
excell in other areas.

In short, I feel the high str designs suffer under the
current system and the super heavies are needed for game balance.
I cant remember the last time Paz felt threatened by anyone
(pc's) using large wpns.

Dave
(Paz, Maug, Vrock, Gwion, and Dorvan)

PS:  I will be taking the scroll and will publicize the results.

References

AG: heavy weapons
"T. Woods" <twoods@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu>
Wed, 21 Jun 1995 00:00:00 +0000

Referenced By

AG: heavy weapons
"T. Woods" <twoods@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu>
Wed, 21 Jun 1995 00:00:00 +0000