Man, what a mess this game is. Yet, with persistence, I think I'm finally beginning to grasp some of the elements.
Note, I'm specifically talking about 2e, the boxed set.
Anyone know it well?
I've read first and played third heavily for a while. Unfortunately I never got second.
Thanks anyway. I guess I'll try over at TBP and RPGGeek.
It might be helpful to state some questions of more interest, such as things having particularly to do with the rules!
I played C&S years ago, and still have the main books for both 1st and 2nd. I have the Sourcebooks from 1st ed., and Swordsmen & Sorcerers from (I think) 2nd.
Excellent. I don't have the rulebooks in front of me right now, but basically I'm wondering if I've got the correct calculation of WDF.
It looks to me that 2e combat matrices have columns going up to WDF 14, but I don't see how they can get that high, even with critical hits. Maybe using a great blow, but in that case, I think the WDF values should go even higher.
I'll have to find the box where the books are stashed to look up the 2nd ed. particulars.
However, in 1st ed., an old Troll on the monster tables could have WDF 7x/5x, so something like a human-sized hand axe would be 14 (7x2) and a troll would tend to do more even with claws. For characters, PCF 50+ in 1st ed. gave WDF 7x with other than Light weapons.
I think it would be most clear to me if I saw a 2e example of a WDF that came to 14x, and how that got calculated. What I think I saw was that the highest PCF would give you a 7x for M and H weapons, as you say, and a critical would only add 1d6, so you could only have a WDF of 13x.
About the "x", it looks like 1e actually treated the WDF as a multipler, but in 2e it's become an arbitrary number--right?
Aside: I do like the approach of variable armor absorption in place of hit locations, something that later appeared in Stormbringer/Elric, although unlike C&S they retain random weapon damage.