Halfling's can use demon blades 1H but not double swords?


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Post Wednesday, 7th June 2017, 14:37

Halfling's can use demon blades 1H but not double swords?

What's the rationale behind this? They're both 1-handed long blades, so surely you would think they adhere to same restrictions regarding what you can and can't equip as a halfling, but demon blades are the only one out of the two swords that you can equip with a shield?
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Post Wednesday, 7th June 2017, 15:19

Re: Halfling's can use demon blades 1H but not double swords

They are both 1-handed long blades for normal-sized species. Halfflings are small.

I guess by design decision demon blades are somewhat smaller than double swords. For most species this makes no difference, but poor Halfflings are just ever so slightly too cute to handle a proper double sword.
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Tartarus Sorceror

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Post Wednesday, 7th June 2017, 15:49

Re: Halfling's can use demon blades 1H but not double swords

The description of the bastard sword (a temporary name for the double sword):

A long, large sword. A grown-up human or elf can manage to wield it in one hand, while anyone of a weaker race will need to grip it with two. In fact, it is the heaviest and most damaging weapon anyone other than certain humanoid insects can use with a shield. And meeting a sharp blade this long spells doom for any opponent.

I guess double swords were in the one hand and a half category, inflicting less damage if coupled with a shield and usable by small races only as two handed. Tridents were also like that, I think.
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Post Wednesday, 7th June 2017, 19:32

Re: Halfling's can use demon blades 1H but not double swords

I agree wholeheartedly, one handed weapons should either all be wieldable 1H by all small races, or all wieldable 2H by all small races.

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Post Wednesday, 7th June 2017, 20:49

Re: Halfling's can use demon blades 1H but not double swords

Shard1697 wrote:I agree wholeheartedly, one handed weapons should either all be wieldable 1H by all small races, or all wieldable 2H by all small races.

So you'd want daggers to be two handed for small races as well?

I think it'd probably be better if there were a few distinct weapon sizes that were actually viewable in the weapon description, and had specific rules for races of different sizes.
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Post Wednesday, 7th June 2017, 20:53

Re: Halfling's can use demon blades 1H but not double swords

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=15036

This is an issue, certainly. There's the list if you want to know all the different handness rules. Post is from 2015 so I'm not sure if nothing has changed since then, but I think it's still pretty accurate today? I don't remember any changes, at least. I could be wrong.

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Post Thursday, 8th June 2017, 00:05

Re: Halfling's can use demon blades 1H but not double swords

This is mostly a matter of having _convenient_ documentation. I think the "A" ability screen should actually say "You cannot use X, Y, and Z, and A, B, and C can be used only with two hands." I mean, I know that's wordy but will you really run out of room?
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Post Thursday, 8th June 2017, 00:31

Re: Halfling's can use demon blades 1H but not double swords

Weapon sizes already exist, but I don't know what they do. All 1h long blades are medium, with only the falchion being small. All 2h long blades are large. At least, so says the wiki. Maybe it's just for giving a size to dancing weapons, but I think they actually are all small.

IMHO things should be done differently and more straightforwardly. Like, you are kobold? You can't use polearms and staves, everything else is OK. You are a spriggan? You can't use polearms and staves, as well as any normally 2h weapon; you use all other weapons 2h, with the exception of short blades and maybe whips (because I can't imagine using a whip two-handed).
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Post Friday, 9th June 2017, 05:28

Re: Halfling's can use demon blades 1H but not double swords

tasonir wrote:https://crawl.develz.org/tavern/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=15036

This is an issue, certainly. There's the list if you want to know all the different handness rules. Post is from 2015 so I'm not sure if nothing has changed since then, but I think it's still pretty accurate today? I don't remember any changes, at least. I could be wrong.


IIRC, handedness was changed so that it's the same for all small races now, which mostly just affected spriggans, as far as that list goes.

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