First thing’s first, this is my first post here, so here I go…
When it comes to weaponry and damage types, you've boiled it down to three types; Piercing, Slashing/Slicing/Cutting, and Bashing/Force. The main issue I have with this is it doesn't, at least, just looking at the behaviors of the weapon types according to prior posts, quite do the intricacies of combat weaponry justice... Looking at the RL functions of various weapons and combat, the object of combat is to, presumably, render one of two situations true:
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The incapacitation of the subject through the compromise of internal organs or other vital functions (Cardiovascular, Neural, Respiratory are main target systems/body functions… this is the LETHAL OPTION)
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The destruction of the target’s ability to continue assault- Cripple, targeting the musculoskeletal system to cause damage so as to render the threat of the target to null (remove weaponry and disable… this is the NONLETHAL OPTION)
In the pursuit of either scenario, physical trauma may come in several forms, just to boil it down into catagories-
MELEE DAMAGE
SHARP FORCE TRAUMA
Sharp force trauma, as defined here, is the transfer of force along a narrow ‘edge’ to amplify the strike, creating immense pressures at the blade’s contact point, which allows the weapon to rupture the dermis and possible intrude upon internal systems. When pursuing the LETHAL APPROACH, this is the ideal weapon for fast kills. However, these weapons, while fast and fairly accurate, do not possess sheer force to compare to the blunt weapons. Points for each variant of the weapon is described below.
NARROW VECTOR
The narrow vector of bladed weapons refers primarily to what’s currently classified as piercing damage. The application of a force to a singular or narrow point of impact so as to cause critical damage easily. These tend to be light weapons, but are not the fastest weapons to use. Missing or overshooting a stab can be a deadly mistake, opening you up to attack, which won’t be easy to defend against. However, striking an enemy deals high damage, and critical hits are immensely powerful, as they represent you making a stab (and succeeding) on a vital point. One issue with these weapons, however, is the difficulty in using them against swarms of opponents. I’ll go over hybrid weapon types later, but you won’t be stabbing quite as often when you need that blade to defend against the next bite attack. Makeshift versions of these weapons, or barbed weapons, tend to remain in the wound channel and require pulling the weapon out. Properly made normal weapons do not have this disadvantage, but barbed weapons treat this feature as an advantage, doing half the entry damage when exiting, thus making up for itself. Blocking with these weapons tends to be difficult if you’re not actually using a hybrid with narrow sharp force as primary, due to the manner in which the weapon is wielded, it’s hard to stop incoming attack. Against armor, though, these weapons have a threshold. Most of the time, it’s possible to pierce the armor of the target to get at the soft bits, and critical strikes made by these weapons ignore armor, but an armor which is harder than the blade can pierce will damage the weapon, and NOT AFFECT the armor. This severe disadvantage is somewhat shared with broad vector sharp weapons, but not to the extent broad vectors suffer.
In short, narrow vector sharp force represents PIERCING WEAPONS,
They excel at doing damage to individual unarmored targets (High, consistent damage for a reduced overall chance to hit)
Critical strikes ignore armor, and do immense damage (It's difficult to hit enemies, but critical strikes make up for it in their immense power. Armor ignorance is unique to pierces)
Armor above the threshold, however, damages these weapons with no effect on the armor. (If you cannot penetrate the armor, your weapon SUFFERS)
Overall, the weapon's strike pattern renders it slow, especially on misses. High penalty on recovery, but otherwise mediocre (not ideal for multiple targets, or dodge heavy targets)
These weapons excel at point damage, but are difficult to use nonlethally. Nonlethal use would primarily cripple joints and muscles, but would not be very effective
BROAD VECTOR
The broad vector of sharp weapons refers to the application of the force distributed along a length of ‘edge’, reducing point damage and pressure, but increasing speed and accuracy. Bladed weapons like the katana or broadsword trade size for power, and heft. The increased weight allows these weapons to be more effective at this job. They can engage in two different manners; drawing across the body, or attempting to draw THROUGH the target. The former does less damage than the latter, but does not have a chance to stick in the corpse. Serrated edges do more damage than keen blades when drawing across, providing a potential counterbalance to the assumed superiority of trying to slice through the target. Keen edges are better at slicing through the target, and on hits, will tend to stick halfway in, however, the sheer intrusion of the blade into the body does quite a bit of damage, and you might just manage to cut off a limb for no recovery penalty. Broad vector sharp weapons suffer NO miss recovery penalty, due to the speed of the weapons, and their traditional use in multiple quick combination strikes. Armor is their greatest disadvantage. Drawing across the target will do little damage, as you’re really now just drawing across armor. Your best bet is to weaken the armor through draw-through strikes. Don’t give up on these though, there should be a small chance to get lucky and ignore armor, but criticals do NOT ignore armor unless the RNG decides that was one of the lucky hits. Speaking of criticals, these should be the strikes that sever limbs and severely cripple targets, often killing through the sheer maiming or bloodloss…
In short, broad vector sharp force weapons represent CUTTING/SLICING weapons,
They excel at fast strokes, with two attack variants of their own advantages and disadvantages
They suffer no penalty for missing, but do not make critical strikes nearly as often
Armor cripples these weapons, but can be weakened by draw-through as a last resort
Critical strikes can cripple targets and put them on a bleedout timer (or instakill if the head is severed)
Trying to use these weapons nonlethally is a bit of a joke, but you can try to hit for blunt force damage on the flat of the blade to KO rather than kill.... I'll get back to that later
BLUNT FORCE TRAUMA
Blunt force trauma is the powerhouse of weapons, blunt force favors concussive force over speed, and does not disappoint. Blunt damage is characterized by the broad application of force to the target directly, and is differentiated from sharp force in that the concussive force is DIRECTLY applied. No blades, no piercing, just sheer force. These weapons can potentially be used for nonlethal damage, knocking the target out, but are still very lethal, when used properly. It’s harder to use a weapon nonlethally than lethally The damage these weapons do is based mostly on their heft, rather than the velocity one can swing it at… 10 pounds of steel falling one meter still applies over 437 newtons of force to the target. Still, velocity matters, and in compensating for their heft, recovery on the larger weapons (classified as Heavy vs Light) is much more difficult than on smaller ones. Strength matters to mostly continue the assault, as these weapons are draining stamina-wise to use. Points for each variant are described below
LIGHT WEIGHT
The more common examples of blunt weapons (No, not including the sledgehammer) are lightweight weapons which are easier to use, and their speed results in high damage for their size. The lightweight weapons category excels at recovery in exchange for the damage blunt weapons are known for. They can easily cripple, and when not breaking the skulls, still gives them a rattling. These weapons daze and stun easily, but don’t handle well against targets capable of redirecting or even completely absorbing such force. Monsters like slime globs are difficult to kill with blunt weapons, let alone the lightweight ones, and make recovery more difficult. Hitting soft targets increases recovery time, but this is compensated by the damage dealt to hard constructs. While not quite as effective as heavy weapons in this aspect, armors are weakened greatly, and at least 20% of the damage ignores armor completely. Softer armors absorb damage better, and give this weapon a hard time, but that’s why you have sharp force weapons. Critical strikes severely daze opponents when they aren’t killed, providing a free turn to run or continue fighting. Status effects include hemorrhaging (internal bleeding) or the aforementioned daze effects. Crippling reduces damage output by the crippled target, allowing a null threat scenario to occur without killing the subject.
In summary, you already know how this got split, it's based on weight, with all force weapons being split between these two categories. (Hybrid weapons will be explained LATER)
Light force weapons excel at stunning and crippling targets, while providing a decent attack rating (High hit, medium status effect chance, low crit chance)
They are reasonably fast, and do not take much time to recover (reduced recovery penalty on a miss compared to heavy weapons, faster on hit, though.)
Soft armors severely reduce damage, and slow the weapon down, but hard armor is no barrier to these weapons (Soft armor makes HITTING into a small penalty, it takes longer to recover, but hard armors are weakened or damaged on hit, and 20% of damage is unmitigated, no matter what)
Status effects such as Crippling, stunning, disorienting, and KO make combat difficult for the enemy. (Especially crippling, which reduces damage output and speed)
These are ideal nonlethal weapons, but are just as lethal when used for murderous intents. (Higher status effect chance when explicitly using a weapon nonlethally)
HEAVY WEIGHT
Light bludgeons may be nice for those without much physical prowess, but the heavy bludgeons define physical concussive force. These weapons crush bones, shatter skulls, and render the subject incapable of walking away… If they survive. These weapons are heavy, and missing is extremely costly. Penalties for recovery after a miss should be large, but the normal damage is high, in compensation. Status effects include heavy crippling, KO (as opposed to just stunning) and limb destruction. As a nonlethal weapon, these are NOT ideal, they are too unwieldy for consistent status effects (SEs happen on Critical hits with Heavy Bludgeons) and do too much damage. Armor just crumples when struck, suffering massive damage, and potentially complete destruction of the hard armor in particular, with 60% of damage completely unmitigated by armor. Soft armors need to be thicker or more effective in order to reduce damage from these weapons to degrees similar to the protection afforded against lighter weapons. Dodge-heavy enemies will counter this, however, easily dodging and countering the strike while you’re still recovering. Brute targets who rely completely on hard armors rather than speed are especially vulnerable.
In summary, heavy weapons are the bread and butter of anti-armor in melee range.
Heavy bludgeons suffer from missing (when they miss), but do high damage when they hit. Critical hits both inflict status effects and severe damage
They also counter armor thoroughly, 60% of damage is unaffected by armor, and armor is usually destroyed or severely damaged outright
Soft targets are vulnerable to a degree, but can recover. Creatures who specifically absorb kinetic energy (slime blobs, anyone?) give heavy weapons a hard time
Heavy bludgeons are also fairly slow. Even when you hit, you still have to heft the weapon back to a position from which to launch the next attack.
Rewrite fairly complete? Just post what you think.
I know you have your own ideas, and whatever happens, feel free to contradict me, but this is a possible groundwork for MELEE weapons. Ranged gear needs to be figured somewhat differently, based on the system I've devised, but I'll get to that after I get to hybrid melee weapons... Anyways, thank you for your consideration, and I hope for you a good day.