Site icon Dice Goblin

Dark Souls-inspired Weapons for Into the Odd/Cairn

wood dark dirty military

Photo by ArtHouse Studio on Pexels.com

Next up in my series on Cairn-inspired writing, weaponry! I love the quick combat of Cairn, so I don’t want to slow that down too much, nor do I want the character sheet to be filled with a load of special maneuvers.

The main goals for this project, which I’ve given the working title of Dodge, Parry, Block (DBP) are:

This post is a continuation of my Dodge, Parry & Block post, and will be built upon further in an upcoming post about Careers & Skills.


Weapon Types

First of all, the basic categories of weaponry:

The philosophy here is that a dagger (small damage die, piercing) allows you to bypass armor by precisely stabbing weak spots, armor can be bashed in with bludgeoning weapons, and most basic armor is designed to stop slashing weapons.

Weapon Tags

These are variations/expansions of the weapon tags and exotic weapon tags found in Into the Odd.

Special

Learning How To Use A Weapon

If you are not proficient with an individual weapon, the weapon damage die is lowered one tier (d12>d10>d8>d6>d4). To gain proficiency with an individual weapon, roll max damage with the weapon 3 times while in lethal combat.

To use the weapon tag (Brutal, Sweep etc.) of an individual weapon, you need weapon mastery. This is achieved by making 5 killing blows with the weapon while in lethal combat.

If you are not proficient with a weapon type, you do not gain the benefits of Piercing/Bludgeoning/Slashing. To gain proficiency with the weapon type, make 5 killing blows while in lethal combat with any weapon of that type.

You get better at utilizing weapons by using them. Once you're used to slashing weapons, you can pick up another to easily slash with, but you do need to get used to the new balance, weight and "moveset" of the new weapon, hence the lowered damage die.
Using a weapon in more advanced ways (using its tag) requires the most practice and mastery.

Example Weapons

All inspired by Dark Souls. Rarity is an indicator of price and likeliness to be found in loot.

If tied into the aforementioned Dodge, Block, Parry system, I think it would make sense to have all d6 damage die weapons count as fast, d8 weapons count as ‘normal’ and d10 weapons as strong.

Piercing Weapons

Bludgeoning Weapons

Slashing Weapons

I'm a bit torn as to whether axes should be Brutal or Heavy. 
Exit mobile version