hey speaking of spears, i have nerdy question that's probably in your wheelhouse. which Arbitrary RPG Stat do you think is a better representation of using-a-spear-well? Strength or Dexterity?
Well so long as we’ve got out the way the acknowledgement that these stats are completely arbitrary abstractions of things that, honestly, are less dissimilar than an RPG would really want them to be…
Except no wait, no we haven’t, because disclaimer first and foremost. What I always tend to fuss over with these arbitrary stats is that, when you’re talking about using almost any sword but an extremely large one, or an extremely light one – say, a big-ass long-as-a-tall-man-is-tall pike-formation-breaking twohander versus a very dinky smallsword – you need a certain degree of strength to use the blade quickly, and from there, speed is strength. In that speed is power. In that a bladed thing going fast also carries a lot of power to transmit into what it hits, so if your edge alignment is good and you’re hitting with the right part of the blade, that speed is what’ll cut through what you’re trying to cut. But also, strength is speed, in that strength is what enables you to be fast. Not necessarily bench-pressing power-lifting strength, but muscular strength all the same.
However, this is where I begin to segue into your question. The strength required to be dextrous, however, varies in my experience from weapon to weapon. So too the strength required to actually fight in any kind of prolonged fashion without just failing to hold the damn thing after a while.
And here’s the real fucker — the weapons that require physical strength to wield in a wieldy fashion are pretty much the exact opposite of the weapons a Generic RPG will tell you require physical strength to wield wieldily. One handed swords, rapiers, sabres, etc. require a lot of training just to have a strong enough arm, wrist, and hand to make them useful — to cut hard, parry fast, hold your guard, and contend in a bind. Swords with longer handles, on which you can use two hands, are more forgiving. They use the movements of the whole body, and the leverage of the handle between the hands, to lend speed and momentum to the blade. As such, you can fight faster and for longer with them, while requiring less physical strength. (Mileage on this may vary as the sword gets bigger or heavier in the blade.)
First of all I assume by strength we mean lifting power, but also explosive strength, and general muscular fortitude. And I assume by dexterity we mean both overall agility, spacial awareness, balance, and the coordination of the body. And for the sake of arbitrary RPGness, lets say dexterity also means speed of attack and defense. And if it sounds like dexterity, out of those two, does more in terms of usefulness for sword shite, yeah, you’re probably already sensing where my answer’s gonna go…
If we’re talking a spear used in two hands without a shield – Oberyn Martell style, if you really wanna make a comparison that’s otherwise note very useful because oh my god the fighting in Game of Thrones is by and large abominable – then I would say dexterity’s more important. It’s the coordination of the thing between your hands, the spacial awareness required to utilise it effectively, aim the point, judge distance, and not get clumsy with actually accomodating a big fucking stick into your motions if you decide to do anything but poke with it.
If we’re talking a spear used one-handed, well that limits your options enough that maybe strength becomes a little more important than dexterity. And you’d need more strength to, say, bind with that sort of weapon, and more and more strength the further back down the shaft you wanna hold it, to maximise you reach.
But either way, my reckoning for the majority of weapons – bladed weapons in particular – is that they require varying amounts of strength to use effectively, but after you’ve met that requirement, strength doesn’t necessarily make you a more effective fighter. Dexterity does. And maybe so do intelligence (ability to comprehend the theoretical side of fighting; learn and apply techniques, etc.) and wisdom (situational awareness, reading your opponent, sensing openings). And fuck it, if we wanna talk about something like staying power in a fight, so does constitution — I fenced rapier today and can barely hold the thing up for more than a couple exchanges, let alone retain enough strength in my arm and wrist to actually bind and contest the central space of a fight. But then if you go for close play, and grappling comes into effect, strength takes on a new lease of importance, and we come full circle.
So yeah. Everything’s connected, and RPGs are built on lies.
