Shattered Kingdoms

Staff weapons(blade staff, cane, jo staff, bo staff, spiked staff, ajatang) see little to no use because of a few reasons. They are mostly two-handed weapons with no reach and have an average speed and damage.

What I am suggesting is dual wielded weapons. Basically, having two-handed weapons, such as staff, be used for both a main and off hand when wielded. One of the issues with this on the surface is that a staff is innately slow, so when a swashie were to wield them. It would have trouble reaching its full attack.

If introduced, the finesse list would need to include a couple for it to be useful.
With swahies being the most recent updated class. I don't expect this idea to be a priority.

Why would a Swashbuckler even use a staff? Game wise and theme wise?

I would rather two-handed staffs get a chance to block and increased chance to parry to compensate for their slowness and lack of damage. One-handed staffs should be made maces.

And that's why we need a Monk Class!

As far as game mechanics go, Swashies are the only ones that have main and off hand. With swashies themed to blades, It doesn't quite fit in SK.

I've long wanted to see the staff weapon made more useful in-game too. Even if made just slightly competitive. A staff-wielding monk beating the tar out of somebody or a staff-wielding barbarian chick a la Grace Jones in Conan the Destroyer has always appealed to me.

Unfortunately, even as tough as she was, Grace Jones with her staff -couldn't- compete/compare to the sword-wielding men around her.

As another alternative I've been trying to formulate some kind of proposal for fusing staff + stave for the mage classes. I don't suspect it's a concept that Dulrik would go for, but I like the idea.

When working on the Jade City, N'Kashya, I tried like hell to get Dulrik to add a "sling-staff" weapon type that would act as a sling for ranged attacks, but act as a quality staff when wielded in direct combat. I still built the item, but my dream was ultimately crushed by reality.

I still have hopes that someday the various staff weapons will receive some loving.

I think Volgack's inspiration for the dual-wielding of the staff comes from double-weapon rules that can be found in plenty of games. More specifically found in D&D with each end of the weapon being considered a light weapon and being able to make extra attacks with a penalty.

I've thought of similar changes or additions along those lines. Double-bladed swords and the like for swashies. I had only dreamed it up in part because as a two-hander it would more greatly benefit from strength, and therefore increase the swashbuckler's damage output capability.





The same reason they use farming implements as some of their most common weapons?


We all know Dulrik loves a certain monastery way too much for there to be a monk class that could infringe on them anyways.

But the amount of effort to not only create a new class, even with the mechanic already in the game, but also another cabal to replace the current monk style would be an immense project.



Double-bladed sword could technically be a blade staff. A swashie putting that to good use just make me think of Darth Maul from Star Wars movie.

Unfortunately, we've had this chat.

http://www.shatteredkingdoms.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=23990&p=398371

Perhaps the thread should be focused on staff ideas other than swashie use. Perhaps balancing or bonuses such as ...


How about having staff bonus defense against trip or bash. Using a staff as a balance or prop when being knocked to the ground.