Shiritai wrote:Judging__Eagle wrote:
Also Souran.... on 2-handed Rapiers. You're an idiot, not because of what you said, but because you're parroting one of the WoTC designers when you say that nonsense; and repeating a wrong won't ever make it right.
Humans have 2 handed Rapiers. You might know them as Katanas. Two hands gives better leverage, strength and speed than one hand does.
I call bullshit. Other than both being swords that can only be used in single time, how the heck is a rapier like a katana? Everything from the hilt to the tip of the blade is different.
In D&D, as Frank noted, the games designers frankly
don't care enough about things like
reality, or
research when doing things.
Daggers are of a single type. While swords come in several types.
That alone is stupid and insane. Humans have developed
more types of knives than they have created types of swords, or other weapons. I mean, humans have made up whole new types of knives "just because", the Bowie Knife was invented by a guy who didn't want to have his handle slip out of his hands when stabbing bison or cows (srsly); the British army
researched and
invented a knife just for killing during the second world war, and every facet of the tool is meant to make stabbing at, or cutting into, human beans easier. Using a flip knife, or a stilleto, or a goatherd's, or a gardener's, or a tile-cutter's knives is all going to be
different. The gardener and goatherd's knives have curves and blades that stick out at right angles to the main blade; a tile-cutter's knife is a round disk meant to cut brittle tiles. An Ulu is a chopping tool with a curved, semi-circular, blade, and a handle along the middle 'back' of the blade (it's a chopping tool mostly, the handle allows for rocking the curved blade back and forth). I could go on and on and on.
All of those knives count as a 'single' type of melee weapon in D&D. A chef's knive and a stilleto count as the same thing.
Telling me that edged, double-lever, force-multipliers like
swords should suddenly
be extra special fucking snowflakes is so insulting not only to anyone who wants to play a knife-user, but to the fact that every part of the world has knives that are unique to their region of origin in terms of use and development.
Swords are sharp metal sticks that are swung around to accomplish one thing:
killing. Knives are
tools made of metal, and humans have used them in countless variations for thousands of years for a wide range of tasks, usually for very fundamental and crucial things. Everything from a BLT sandwich, to a successful surgery, is based on the fact that
someone had the right knife for the right task. The only thing that someone can say about a sword is that either you have one when you need to kill someone, or that you don't have one,
and you did something else to accomplish your goal of killing a human being. A sword is able to be replaced, a knife, almost always, cannot.
A "rapier" in D&D is a 1-handed, finessable, melee weapon, that focuses on using a single edge, and a point, to kill people. I think everyone can agree to that. You slash by making calculated, and eventually, instinctual motions that draw the weapon's slashing edge along your opponent's field of space. Ideally, you'll be using your hips and legs to be the main driving force in each motion, with the arm and wrist being used as the guidance mechanisms for each motion. Additionally, a rapier can stab; this involves more upper chest work, and developed pectorals and shoulders can help here. As with anything related to the body being used to accomplish a task, a firm abdominal core allows to greater flexibility, speed, endurance and power.
A Katana used Nitto style (one handed) is... pretty much the same fucking thing.
A Katana used with both hands, is pretty much the same as a rapier from a mechanical standpoint. You hold a handle, and use your legs, hips, torso and shoulder to power movement, and the arm, hand and wrist to guide direction.
There are knives that seriously fight more dissimilar than a rapier and a katana. A stilleto has specific uses as a stabbing implement, while a Bowie can slash, cut and bash; with some stabbing as well.
Also, don't give me any BS on "two hands can't fit". That's the whole fucking
point. The person using a rapier with two hands
can fit both of their hands on the Rapier's hand, because
their hands are small enough to fit on the handle at the same time.
This isn't a debate stating that Humans or Dwarves using a rapier two-handed. This is Burahobbits and Gnomes, or Gobwins and Cobalts. Their hands are small enough to fit around a human-sized Rapier's handle.
At a -1 to hit penalty, of course.
