Why can large species wield small weapons?


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Dungeon Dilettante

Posts: 4

Joined: Monday, 30th April 2018, 19:22

Post Monday, 30th April 2018, 20:15

Why can large species wield small weapons?

I was crawling through the dungeon with an Ogre the other day, and found a buckler I couldn't use. That made sense, I thought, but then I looked at my other hand holding a normal one-handed club and began to feel like Harry Potter running around clubbing people with my wand. So, how about the following:

1) make all one-handed weapons unwieldable for large creatures
2) make all two-handed melee weapons one-handed for large creatures (two-headed ogres can run up on you with two giant clubs, so why not?)

This will make the early dungeon quite a bit harder for Ogres (and trolls who, for whatever reason, don't like to get their claws dirty or train UC), and it's already hard for them (I lose fistfights with lone kobolds on the regular) so I'd suggest a slight buff to ogre's unarmed attacks. Failing that, maybe some early-dungeon two-handed weapons that just kinda suck, but not as much as ogre fists? (a tree limb?)

Crypt Cleanser

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Joined: Saturday, 12th December 2015, 23:54

Post Monday, 30th April 2018, 23:47

Re: Why can large species wield small weapons?

If we must have consistency on this point, I think it'd be better to just allow large species to use bucklers and not add several new weapon types and a bunch more weapon use exceptions.

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Barkeep

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Joined: Tuesday, 11th January 2011, 12:28

Post Tuesday, 1st May 2018, 19:26

Re: Why can large species wield small weapons?

I mean, if you really want a "how does size even work in crawl" think about how spriggans and ogres can both wear a robe with minimal encumberance

What I'm saying is, this is one area where real-life consistency is probably not something we're gonna get.
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Swamp Slogger

Posts: 176

Joined: Wednesday, 11th September 2013, 04:59

Post Wednesday, 2nd May 2018, 04:54

Re: Why can large species wield small weapons?

Ogres can hold adagger with thumb and index finger like a needle and poke enemies with it, it makes sense :)

Swamp Slogger

Posts: 146

Joined: Wednesday, 30th August 2017, 23:08

Post Wednesday, 2nd May 2018, 18:58

Re: Why can large species wield small weapons?

Seems like this just makes Formacid less cool (well, and ogres worse,) for little reason. Small race weapon restrictions are already weird in an unintuitive way, I don't like adding more of that.

Spider Stomper

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Joined: Monday, 3rd April 2017, 11:44

Post Wednesday, 2nd May 2018, 21:05

Re: Why can large species wield small weapons?

I've never really understood why trolls and ogres can't use bucklers. In reality,the size of a buckler relative to the body doesn't have as large an effect as it does of shields; bucklers only need to just cover the fist to still be somewhat effective as bucklers. Shields are just strange in crawl anyways.

Lair Larrikin

Posts: 28

Joined: Tuesday, 17th April 2012, 14:31

Post Wednesday, 2nd May 2018, 21:22

Re: Why can large species wield small weapons?

njvack wrote:I mean, if you really want a "how does size even work in crawl" think about how spriggans and ogres can both wear a robe with minimal encumberance

What I'm saying is, this is one area where real-life consistency is probably not something we're gonna get.


Right, just like the inexplicable reason that Formicids can't wear two pairs of gloves.

Ziggurat Zagger

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Joined: Tuesday, 30th October 2012, 19:06

Post Wednesday, 2nd May 2018, 23:25

Re: Why can large species wield small weapons?

Plantissue wrote:I've never really understood why trolls and ogres can't use bucklers. In reality,the size of a buckler relative to the body doesn't have as large an effect as it does of shields; bucklers only need to just cover the fist to still be somewhat effective as bucklers. Shields are just strange in crawl anyways.

I'd always interpreted it as their hands being too big to fit (imagine trying to use a buckler that's smaller than your palm, your hand isn't going to fit in there) of course any justification is really meaningless.
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