Most Lusternian weapons combat seems built around using two weapons simultaneously, with perhaps the occasional shield here and there. I think it would be interesting for some weapons to require both hands to use (appearing to be either wielded in both hands or simply staying in one hand while the other is kept free; pick up something in the free hand and you can't use your Great Big Thing no more), allowing for additional tactics to be formed by both their wielders and those going up against them. These would obviously be slower than existing weapons, and would leave you open to attack like nobody's business, but in turn would be more powerful, and perhaps more accurate. You'd have to stifle the giggles inherent in a faeling hauling a claymore around, of course. This would also apply to quarterstaff-style fighting. Some larger one-handed weapons--broadswords and friends, etc.--might be able to be held in either one or both hands, affecting combat style appropriately.

Assorted Examples:

claymore
flail
quarterstaff
spear
pike
halberd
scythe (not a sickle, I mean a big ol' harvest-the-barley thing)
battle axe
maul
really enormous mace
military pick
pitchfork

Everybody! Tell me how much you think this idea sucks! But at least keep in mind that I do have a warrior archetype alternate, and therefore have a .01% chance of understanding that which I describe.

"More powerful" is something IRE doesn't know for knights, I mean, what if a tae'dae with a halberd would do triple the damage than two jabs from a blademaster? Generally 3 times 100 is still only 300, plus they'd be way more slow and vulerable, throwing their effectiveness way below zero. Obviously the only feasible knights will be aslaran with artifact rapiers, damage doesn't work, strength and weapon stats barely affect your damage, it's crap all the way. Just like in Achaea, the only way to kill people as a knight is with afflictions, and seeing the ineffectiveness of venoms, I doubt even that'll be possible.

I think two handed weapons like that would be pretty cool, though at this point not very effective, and not many would use them. Perhaps if they threw in some nifty skills into blademaster and Bonecrusher for usage of two handed weapons though . Like perhaps a great two handed sword might have the chance of causing special kinds of afflictions that might end up being more dangerous, cause more bleeding than the regular weapons, to somewhat make it more effective, and to be realistic that a bigger weapon 'is' going to cause more bodily harm in a strike.

Like perhaps beyond a simple artery strike it might be able to half lop their arm off or some such, causing bleeding and damage to their arm. (sort of like two afflictions with a single blow with the destructive power of the weapon and to make up for the fact that it's slower and even that way you still have only a chance for up to 3 afflictions if the toxin rubs off)

Or simply make those types of weapons more powerful, or perhaps just some special techniques in battle that require one of the two handed weapons to pull off.

Edit: Perhaps a technique like a cleave attack, which uses a certain amount of power and requires a heavy weapon for an extra powerful slash. I can probably think of something better later, but just an example idea.

*goes off to wonder if the bigger weapons have better chances to behead people*

There are already two handed weapons: Bastard sword, Quaterstaff, Halberd, Warhammer and Bardiche. Maybe they could include more two handed weapons. But Lusternia does need to work on damage dealt by warriors, and how weapon's power influence said damage. Some skills within Blademaster/Bonecrushes, exclusive to two-handed weapons would be great, seeing how it is much more common for people to seek one-handed weapons... this could cause a change.

EDIT: A good idea, would be if two-handed swords had greater opportunity to severe limbs, cause very deep wounds almost nearing impalement with a massive hemorrhage. Not just a chance of beheading like Malevius suggested By the way, I think that in rl, most heavier weapons were used for hack and slashing, always taking the advantage of the weight of such weapons. So, speed decreased should be a factor, but strength should be much greater... if of course, weapons and damage were fixed altogether in the first place.

Two-handed weapons are worthless for several reasons.

1- You can only inflict half as mnay afflictions.
2- One hit from a two-handed weapon does less than two hits from a pair of one-handed weapons.
3- Bonecrusher and Blademaster skills only work with 1-handed weapons.

Currently, every single forgable weapon in the game except for one handed blades and blunt weapons is worthless, as far as I can tell.

Thus, the following weapons from the 'HELP WEAPONS' scroll all have just about no use:
Bastard Sword
Handaxe
Quarterstaff
Dagger
Dirk
Javelin
Halberd
Spear
Warhammer
Trident
Whip
Bardiche

But who says they won't be useful in the future?

I'm hoping they will , I find the idea of wielding a huge sword and cleaving through enemies pretty cool *grin*.

Mayhaps we should make some ability ideas, I'll list a few I thought up. Also, these are all for two handed weapons of course.

Weighted (skill in blademaster and Bonecrusher): The use of a weapons weight more effectively in attacks, namely slashing. This skill would increase damage mainly for the 2 handed swords, and could perhaps be interesting to effect other weapon damage. Most knights do claim we need to do more, heh.

Blademaster:

Sever: Chance to damage a limb greatly by nearly slicing it off. Requires two-handed weapon.(similar effects to bleeding and maybe broken limb afflictions, to make up at least some for less afflictions, they would have a chance of causing at least up to 3 with toxin having a chance to come off, unlike normal two weapon attacks with chance of up to 4 afflictions.)

Cleave: A savage strike that uses both the weight of the blade and the users own size to afflict damage. Takes more balance for it throws more into the strike, but makes good use of weight in the attack.

Bonecrusher:

Trauma: Similar to Sever, except with bonecrusher weapons and it more or less shatters the limb and causes heavy bruising. (Internal bleeding in the limb)

Cascade: Woe be to the victim of the heavy hammer or mace from above, this technique uses pure blunt force in an effort to afflict considerable damage with a single blow.

Maybe some more ideas later from me, but there for now.

Oh, and also; before two-handed weapons get a beefed up, more attention should be given to shields. As of now they are useless to Warrior guilds- warriors which have a shield enhancing skill and shield parry in their Knighthood skillsets. The extra defense is nothing compared to a second weapon, however. You should be able to slam your shield into an enemy to do a bit of extra damage, for example, and maybe stun them for a bit; like a headbutt that only uses one hand, sort of.

This all sound like neat ideas but those complaining about how things are currently it should be noted how new Lusternia, look at Imperian and how much left it still is doing in efforts to fix things, IRE games are so complex they require patience.

If two handed weapons become an option, blademaster/bonecrusher effects won't matter, because it will most likely be a seperate specialization. I've spoken to a few Gods about that and they've mentioned that new specializations may become available in time. I wouldn't expect it any time soon, but should they come into being, I imagine they'll have a whole new skill with a set of abilities and afflictions that make them worthwhile.

Two handed weapons able to cut off limbs completely! That would be fun

Personally, I think two handed weapon specialization and a sword-shield specialization would be cool.

two handed polearms, such as the bardiche and halberd, should have a chance of randomly impaling the target if they are your size or larger. And sice a halberd doubles as a blade......let it ride with the other two-handed blade abilitites.

I can just imagine a flying Faeling trying to swing a big two-handed broadsword and ending up spinning helplessly through the air.

Shields arent useless for warriors, especially not for the Ur'guard. And you can already stun with shields, its in Combat.

I agree that something more should be given to the 2-handed weapon class, but on a slight side-note, i would love to see throwing weapons, if nothing else just for giggles. I mean throwing daggers would be so much fun, especially if they could stick in people, and then they would need to pull them out...
*Ponders the bragging rights of being able to say " I knifed a faeling from 600 yards the other day! Took over 500 daggers... but I got the job done!*
Anyone Pro or Con my idea?
Also for 1 handed weapons... where's the tonfa???
Citaืืn

Yeep, that'd be scary... faelings out of control, slicing and dicing friend and foe alike

On that note though, perhaps the two-handed specialization could only be open to races large enough. Tae'dae, igasho, orclach, taurian... It's hard to imagine a furrikin or faeling brandishing a warhammer that weighs even more than they do.

Faelings could do two handed with smaller weapons?
For example, Tae'Dae uses a medium sized sword in one hand - the same sword needs two hands for the small faeling...
Im sure faelings would hate it, but oh well.

Aye, let me dual wield Halberds.

I believe bastard swords were a single handeed weapon in ancient times?

The hand-and-a-half or "bastard" sword could historically be used either one-handed or two, though its general size and weight made it rather awkward for anyone without a lot of upper body strength to use one-handed.