Weaponry

Weapons

Depending on your specialisation, you'll either have dagger, sword or mace as a primary, if you have one at all for fighting with. Initally you'll find your dagger and sword bonus will be higher than your mace bonus, so from that you can see that advancing dagger or sword will give you the advantage of actually being able to bypass the dodge or parry bonus of the person you're fighting then you can actually hurt them, as opposed to using mace which means you'll more than likely just be parried a lot and not able to inflict any damage at all. For dagger weapons, a good starter would be a simple dagger or stiletto, as they're both cheap and effective. When you've advance more in the guild you may decide to purchase some thieves' daggers which give you +1 dexterity when you hold both of them. They're slightly better than the aforementioned weapons. The end weapon for the dagger user would be the elegant stiletto which is currently the weapon of choice for advanced users.

Swords wise, there are any number you can use out there, they won't hit quite as quickly as a dagger, but they'll damage slightly more. Ruby hilted rapiers and sabres are the most popular currently but they are quite random in the damage they will do. These are both fairly expensive weapons to get hold of, and so something cheaper like a long sword or short sword should do you to begin with.

Maces, the popular tetsubo is still being used by the high end warriors and thieves, with the tachibo polearm being the mid range type weapon with the blade inside removed, to decrease weight. These weapons will deal higher damage but are quite a bit harder to use as they require simple strength to swing them.

The weapons you use will also affect how well you dodge or parry. You'll dodge best when unarmed, so from this logic you can determine that you'll dodge best with the lighter daggers. This makes daggers and dodge an effective combination with the usage of high dex in both also. But on the flipside you'll deal lower damage and if you opt for no armour, you'll take more damage. Parrying is dependant on alot of options;

• Lighter weapons are easy to get into position, harder to deflect with.
• Longer weapons are generally easier to engage and deflect with.
• Weapons with high moments of inertia (more mass) are much harder to parry with, and drain more AP when parrying.
• Two hands are better than one, and the further apart they are, the better.
• Being dexterous helps engage the opponent's weapon.
• Being strong helps deflect the opponent's weapon.
• Tactical knowledge helps both, giving you more time to get into position and swing against the attack.

Both parrying and dodge have common modifiers also, such as burden and how much is in your carried inventory. You'll learn what's best over time.