In real life a lot of weapons rely on strength to hit.
But unfortunately, not the ones listed in the PHB.
In real life, hitting with a longbow depends on your strength. English longbows recovered from the sunken ship "Mary Rose" had an estimated pull strength of 150-160 lbs.
At that power level a normal human could pull the bow but not hold it at full extension while aiming the bow. Effectively, you could shoot the bow but not hit anything, unless of course you were part of 20+ men shooting at an entire army. But if you were a body builder type, you get different results. The higher strength you had, the longer you could hold it, taking your time to aim. So the stronger guy hits what he aims at.
More importantly, there is a difference between being able to carry a weapon for a few minutes and being able to swing it around for a full minute. If you are wielding a 7 lb great axe (as in the PHB listed weight), all the weight is at the blade end. Swinging that thing around for even 60 seconds is something that I personally COULD NOT DO. You would have to be of very high strength to use that weapon.
That said, in real life, the following weapons could easily be used by a child: Dagger, Crossbows of any type, Darts, slings, javelins/small thrusting spears (not throwable by a young child), and blow guns.
In real life a lot of weapons rely on strength to hit.
But unfortunately, not the ones listed in the PHB.
In real life, hitting with a longbow depends on your strength. English longbows recovered from the sunken ship "Mary Rose" had an estimated pull strength of 150-160 lbs.
At that power level a normal human could pull the bow but not hold it at full extension while aiming the bow. Effectively, you could shoot the bow but not hit anything, unless of course you were part of 20+ men shooting at an entire army. But if you were a body builder type, you get different results. The higher strength you had, the longer you could hold it, taking your time to aim. So the stronger guy hits what he aims at.
More importantly, there is a difference between being able to carry a weapon for a few minutes and being able to swing it around for a full minute. If you are wielding a 7 lb great axe (as in the PHB listed weight), all the weight is at the blade end. Swinging that thing around for even 60 seconds is something that I personally COULD NOT DO. You would have to be of very high strength to use that weapon.
That said, in real life, the following weapons could easily be used by a child: Dagger, Crossbows of any type, Darts, slings, javelins/small thrusting spears (not throwable by a young child), and blow guns.
Except the STR to pull the bow is one thing, but the DEX to aim it properly is another. And yes, heavier weapons do require STR to use. I have a 12lb flamberge sitting on my wall and you gotta be jacked up to swing that around, but the balance is important on those.
It does NOT take Dex to aim a military bow. Dex requires time to aim, which does not come into play until you are strong enough to hold the bow steady. The stronger you are, the more time you have to aim. In real life, if you are strong enough for Dex to come into play, you switch to a heavier bow. Why? Because poor armor stops weak bows, good armor stops normal bows, and great armor stops strong bows. You want to shoot through a knight in full plate? You want a minimum of 150 lb bow, possibly as high as 200 lb. Because anything less than 150 lb draw will bounce off full plate unless you manage to shoot them through the eye slot or similar location.
Dex only matters if:
You are using a hunting bow designed for unarmored game.
You are using a modern composite bow whose pulleys mean that once the bow is drawn you do not need any strength to hold it ready.
You are using a crossbow that again does not need any strength to hold it ready.
Dex means NOTHING for a long bow user. Not if they want to be able to pierce a dragon's hide / full plate armor.
In real life a lot of weapons rely on strength to hit.
In real life all weapons rely on both strength and dexterity to hit: it requires a certain minimum force to execute certain maneuvers (strength) but they also have to be executed correctly (dexterity) and in practice you need excess of one or another because control drops off substantially when you're trying to operate near the limits of your strength. Some weapons have pretty trivial strength requirements (you need a pretty strong wrist to use a fencing foil, but otherwise not a whole lot) and it takes more strength to execute any given maneuver faster so strength has some value even for extremely light weapons, but it's far more important to your ability to use larger and heavier weapons.
Maybe if you are aiming at something like a dragon, but if you are trying to hit someone running? All the STR in the world doesn't make your aim better. And even the strongest armor has gaps in it. The assumption isn't necessarily that you went through the armor - you could have hit a gap.
You have to have a draw weight that you can manage, but assuming a stronger character can pull a 150# draw easily and a less strong character can pull it less easily, does that matter to the damage the arrow does? Does that matter to how well you aim?
You have to have a draw weight that you can manage, but assuming a stronger character can pull a 150# draw easily and a less strong character can pull it less easily, does that matter to the damage the arrow does? Does that matter to how well you aim?
It doesn't matter to the damage it does as long as you can full draw, but it does matter to how well you aim -- if you're struggling to keep the bow fully drawn, your arm will be trembling and your accuracy will be lousy.
Now, the difference between 'draw easily' and 'draw very easily' probably doesn't matter, but if it's not easy to draw, your accuracy is going to be reduced.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
In real life a lot of weapons rely on strength to hit.
But unfortunately, not the ones listed in the PHB.
In real life, hitting with a longbow depends on your strength. English longbows recovered from the sunken ship "Mary Rose" had an estimated pull strength of 150-160 lbs.
At that power level a normal human could pull the bow but not hold it at full extension while aiming the bow. Effectively, you could shoot the bow but not hit anything, unless of course you were part of 20+ men shooting at an entire army. But if you were a body builder type, you get different results. The higher strength you had, the longer you could hold it, taking your time to aim. So the stronger guy hits what he aims at.
More importantly, there is a difference between being able to carry a weapon for a few minutes and being able to swing it around for a full minute. If you are wielding a 7 lb great axe (as in the PHB listed weight), all the weight is at the blade end. Swinging that thing around for even 60 seconds is something that I personally COULD NOT DO. You would have to be of very high strength to use that weapon.
That said, in real life, the following weapons could easily be used by a child: Dagger, Crossbows of any type, Darts, slings, javelins/small thrusting spears (not throwable by a young child), and blow guns.
Except the STR to pull the bow is one thing, but the DEX to aim it properly is another. And yes, heavier weapons do require STR to use. I have a 12lb flamberge sitting on my wall and you gotta be jacked up to swing that around, but the balance is important on those.
It does NOT take Dex to aim a military bow. Dex requires time to aim, which does not come into play until you are strong enough to hold the bow steady. The stronger you are, the more time you have to aim. In real life, if you are strong enough for Dex to come into play, you switch to a heavier bow. Why? Because poor armor stops weak bows, good armor stops normal bows, and great armor stops strong bows. You want to shoot through a knight in full plate? You want a minimum of 150 lb bow, possibly as high as 200 lb. Because anything less than 150 lb draw will bounce off full plate unless you manage to shoot them through the eye slot or similar location.
Dex only matters if:
Dex means NOTHING for a long bow user. Not if they want to be able to pierce a dragon's hide / full plate armor.
In real life all weapons rely on both strength and dexterity to hit: it requires a certain minimum force to execute certain maneuvers (strength) but they also have to be executed correctly (dexterity) and in practice you need excess of one or another because control drops off substantially when you're trying to operate near the limits of your strength. Some weapons have pretty trivial strength requirements (you need a pretty strong wrist to use a fencing foil, but otherwise not a whole lot) and it takes more strength to execute any given maneuver faster so strength has some value even for extremely light weapons, but it's far more important to your ability to use larger and heavier weapons.
Maybe if you are aiming at something like a dragon, but if you are trying to hit someone running? All the STR in the world doesn't make your aim better. And even the strongest armor has gaps in it. The assumption isn't necessarily that you went through the armor - you could have hit a gap.
You have to have a draw weight that you can manage, but assuming a stronger character can pull a 150# draw easily and a less strong character can pull it less easily, does that matter to the damage the arrow does? Does that matter to how well you aim?
It doesn't matter to the damage it does as long as you can full draw, but it does matter to how well you aim -- if you're struggling to keep the bow fully drawn, your arm will be trembling and your accuracy will be lousy.
Now, the difference between 'draw easily' and 'draw very easily' probably doesn't matter, but if it's not easy to draw, your accuracy is going to be reduced.