Fighting Styles.

kitsune85 said:
Argus is searching a body and tucks his long sword under his arm. He has the skill to use a one handed edged weapon.

If Grubber the goblin smacks the long sword under Argus's arm, will he take damage under the spirit of the rules?

I would say yes, as Argus is effectively blocking while holding a weapon in an illegal manner (by the blade using his armpit, rather than by the grip using his hand), and thus cannot block with said weapon without taking damage.
 
Just to take it back to the original point:

Sword and Shield is most common both because of the carrier issue (monsters claws don't run out but healing does so don't get hit) and because sword and shield is the most versatile style available. Short sword and spear is also versatile but it requires quick reflexes and lots of movement. Older and physically slower players will have more difficulty. Note with sword and shield you need fast wrists and short movements. Sword and spear all of you gots to dance. Mind you this is nothing compared to what you need to do with a two handed weapon to be similarly effective. Now two handers can be easier is mass combat....but I am just talking versatility here for now.

~j.s.
 
Well, I concider myself a rather agile 17-yrs old, so I think I may try my hand at sword and spear, just to see how well it works. If I manage to fail horribly at it, then I will pick up a shield.
 
I personally love Sword and Spear. It does mean you lose some defense while front lining, but you get hit by a very little amount of spells. That's the main difficulty with a shield, you have a huge spell magnet.
 
Not all shields are spell magnets... A lot of that can depend on how you wield your shield as well. I wield shield/longsword with my Dark Elf Adept but I'm not really more of a spell magnet than without a shield...
 
Of course it depends on the shield you're using. The only shield I've ever used was made of plywood and was somewhat heafty, and thusly I could barely get out of the way of spells.
 
Shield mobility (or lack thereof) is certainly a factor. But I can say with absolute honesty that as somebody who's a better packet hucker than fighter, I aim for shields on a pretty regular basis - especially when PCing (gotta make every spell count), but sometimes as an NPC too if I'm playing something with intelligence.

They're a big, flat target, and it's pretty hard to dispute the unmistakable "thunk" that a packet makes when it connects with a shield.

I don't have a single PC that's sword and board. The one time I tried it I was not a fan, and half-built the character not long thereafter. My personal preferred style is polearm or two handed sword (and always has been, even before the damage increase with the new rules), my alternative being two-weapon. My one recurring NPC that's sword and shield is a templar, so it works for her, but I don't fight as her that often, so it's hard to give a real opinion on it.

I've said this almost every time this debate comes up - there is no one "best" style in this game. The best style is the one that is most comfortable for YOU. Some will say that sword and shield is the best overall, but if you don't fight effectively with them, it won't make a bit of difference to you. NPC a bit - try out every style/combination out there and see what works for you.
 
I'd love to give pole-arm a shot. Get 33 build for the very first event by back-and-forward blanketing, then build a High Orc swinging 6's. Holy jeebus that's alot of damage for a newbie!
 
best build I've worked out yet and played. lvl 4, 46 build heavy crossbow, throwing 8's with Archery, racial prof and 2 regular profs. :)

It was a good time.
 
Mirificatio said:
I'd love to give pole-arm a shot. Get 33 build for the very first event by back-and-forward blanketing, then build a High Orc swinging 6's. Holy jeebus that's alot of damage for a newbie!

Yeah, right up to the first stun limb. Or shatter, given how hard it is to come up with polearms sometimes. ;) 1h edge has the wonderful benefit of being the most common skill, and that's sometimes in your favor.
 
Wraith said:
Yeah, right up to the first stun limb. Or shatter, given how hard it is to come up with polearms sometimes. ;) 1h edge has the wonderful benefit of being the most common skill, and that's sometimes in your favor.
So a 5th or higher level-equivalent monster can render a 2nd level character ineffective once per life? Sounds fine by me, as that monster was probably sent in-game as part of an encounter designed to challenge characters MUCH higher than 2nd level, and as such the 2nd level character was in over his head.

phedre said:
Staff/short sword is kinda fun too, tried it as an NPC and people had no idea what to do with me :) Then you just do the "templar tuck" (tuck your sword under your non-throwing arm) and away you go with wand damage.
When I was figuring out what weapon style to choose for my first event, I thought that the staff was a two-handed weapon, and as such florentine/two-weapons doesn't work with it. Sure, you can block one-handed with a staff, and that's its real advantage for a caster, but I didn't think that makes it work with flo/TW. If I'm wrong here I really wanna know, because my character could really benefit from having that option!
 
Under the new rules and stuff...yes you can block with a staff with one hand and still attack with a short weapon in your other hand...i.e. staff, 1h e, flor and 2w...can all be used together it's more build effective to go ss/sp...but it gives you options
 
Hm, you're right about it being cheaper to go shortsword/spear instead of shortsword/staff. However, the staff skill is already paid for, and at maybe 28th level it will be necessary for Oak of the Arcane (which looks like a good, good idea for my character at that point). Also, very importantly, I have already made and used a staff physrep, and when I NPC I don't usually get to use a staff, so it's a nice change-up.

I'm just mulling over whether the 11 build (going 1H Blunt and Flo as an adept) would be worth it. It would also open up the use of waylay (another 8 build), and I'm wondering if THAT would be worth it. Ugh, all the options... :|
 
I have a celestial addept that is coming up on levels in which I may be able to use Staff and OoTA soon, I'm definitely planning on spending the build to try it out at least. Having to switch to a Wand or Bow can be very cumbersome and annoying for sure. So yea, I'd recommend it. :)
 
Closing in on the levels? I had no idea your character was approaching 27th; kudos, man! After that convo we had at the cafe I'm pretty well convinced to wait for Riposte before advancing my column past the 5/5/3/2/1 it's at right now, and that would mean 27th level to get through a 4 column and the 4 ranks of celestial formal. For my adept that's a good long ways down the road.
 
lol if you want to know how its not that hard... donations are your friend ;)
 
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