Weapon specialization really reduces the fun and value of discovered magic items.
Take my guy in Pathfinder: Kingmaker. He's a longsword and shield guy. I can't use many of the weapons we find at all. I don't use most others because even a powerful mace, axe, bastard sword, or spear isn't going to be good enough to make up for all of the feats and focuses I've put in the longsword. So I use a magical longsword I purchased from a vendor. It replaces the magical one I found very early in the game.
This happens in my GURPS game, too. Magic shortsword with cool powers? Sorry, no one uses a shortsword or is willing to absorb a -2 to skill to default it from Broadsword. Sell it. Magic spear? Backup weapon, or sell it. Weapons either exactly match your specialization or they aren't worth keeping.
One real joy of fantasy games - and post-apocalypse games - is finding some special weapon and getting to try it out. Instead, you end up not using them and regarding them simply as trade or sale goods. The more powerful the weapon, the more likely you sell it - it's worth too much to keep it.
I don't have an easy solution for this . . . I just have been meaning to write a little on this for a while.
It's actually a little weird DF players don't use defaults more, given how many penalties they're generally willing to absorb.
ReplyDeleteYes, although it's not usually just a -2 or -3 to skill, but also -2 per die of damage, too, thanks to usually being a Weapon Master.
DeleteThe usual is one skill + Weapon Bond to a specific weapon + Weapon Master narrowed down to just that one weapon or a very tight group of weapons. Anything that falls outside of that loses two bonuses and takes a penalty on top of it.
Bet it's that Damage bonus that is holding back most PCs from just swapping weapons. The sunk cost into being "the best at one weapon" (or a very narrow group of weapons) really does put the damper on just 'using a different weapon'.
DeleteI'm usually a simulationist, but for weapon spec I'm a gamist. Don't have it, or make it as broad as possible, for exactly the reasons you noted.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Weapon Master (All Weapons) as the only WM might be a better path.
DeleteI was going to suggest this. Another option might be weapon-centric wildcard skills (or the like) and associated WM specialties - things like Blade! from MH. Of course that raises the pricing issue of WC skills...
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