The point of strength in fantasy melee was never the weight of the weapons. It was the idea that you can land a blow with those weapons with higher impact. Not a strictly simulationist approach, but most Systems shoehorned in an Explanation of Strength like "not just physical strength or amount of muscle mass but the ability to apply both to appropriate situations". Still kinda bullshitty because the "strength" a martial artist "applies" to their punches and kicks is neither strictly speaking depending on their muscle mass nor on their ability to lift heavy shit.
It is a well-known fantasy trope that puny characters are unable to lift two handed swords. Or sometimes even just swords. Oh, and if you slip and fall down in plate armor, you're dead, just like a tortoise. It can be surprising to some when they find out that a two handed longsword typically weights 1,8 kilograms, whereas the mighty greatsword is only about two times that much.
I think you're getting the right idea here, strength isn't fundamental when dealing damage when melee weapons (or at least not as fundamental as typical RPG systems would leave you to believe), it's more about choosing a proper tool for the job and the proper technique.
Sure, it's great to be big, tall and brawny, and such qualities were often lauded in sagas, songs and tales, but not everyone doing the fighting can be so.
And since you're referring to powerlifters, I have an anecdote somewhere. I remember reading about powerlifting champions wanting to get into MMA. They would discover that their raw strength is more of a hindrance than an advantage, to the point that they would
try and lose some of that muscle mass in order to gain the speed an flexibility required to perform certain techniques effectively.
It does make more sense when we're talking about weapons though, especially large, unwieldy and heavier weapons like the Greatsword or Halberd. Basically I think we can say the point of hitting someone hard with a melee weapon is you want to infuse the part of the weapon that does the hitting with lots of kinetic energy. Thing is, the halberd and greatsword are long weapons, meaning the point of Impact will be a long distance from the source of that kinetic energy. This means the weapon is not just relatively heavy, but rather that it's unwieldy. The weapon has to feel to you basically like a light weapon to be able to swing it with all the force - infuse it with all the kinetic energy - that it needs to hit hard enough on impact to justify its use over using a lighter weapon.
A good hit from a two handed weapon will fuck the other guy up because of leverage and momentum. And the best thing about greatswords and polearms in general wasn't the weight or damage potential, but the reach advantage. Something that almost never happens in RPGs, but is quite fundamental in melee combat. The halberd is actually a fricking swiss army knife of available techiques, letting you use it as a quarterstaff, spear, axe and a hook all in one.
Point is, these weapons wouldn't be unwieldy, because unwieldy weapons do not perform their function. You may want to look up these two videos to get an idea what it was like to fight with these things, it's not really bashing at stuff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mziWUgzt9I4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbNL_At0IVw
So yeah, guns seem deceptively easier to work with.
In any case, what I am saying is there is a limit to where raw strength can take you. Medieval warfare kinda agrees with this notion, because no matter how buff you are, you're not going to stand against a guy on horseback, in full gallop,
transferring all that kinetic energy at the point of the lance.
As far as swords not penetrating armor "no matter how strong you are", I kind of doubt that. And we can't accept some out of shape middle-aged re-enactment dudes hitting each other in mock combat as evidence here.
(...)
However, as far as penetrating the surface of whatever you're hitting with the sharpest point (the very outer rim of the blade) goes, yes, the force of the swing definitely does make a difference here. Swords aren't fundamentally different in this regard from axes or spear type weapons.
I... need a moment here, where do we start.
From the very beginning - I know a bunch of HEMA guys, the ones actually sparring and competing are far from being out of shape. If that's sufficient for you to dismiss the entire notion, we don't really have a lot to talk about here,
but these are the closest thing we have to people actually using the stuff fot its intended purpose. So if you're not willing to listen to them, not sure where you want to learn from.
If you're trying to cut through armor with a sword edge, you're doing it wrong, it's as simple as that. That's evidenced by historical sources, such as preserved fighting manuals which detailed techniques for armored combat.
Sure, if we're talking about a fantasy setting, it might be possible to cut open plate armor with a two handed sword... ruining it in the process, which is not something you if you unless you have an unlimited sword budget.
You can attempt to defeat armor by using certain techniques such as the mordhau, where you strike with the cross guard, turning it into a pick, or by half-swording, where you use two hands for a more powerful and accurate piercing action like with a spear.
Most of the sword damage done by its edge is not just on contact, in order to cut through stuff, you need to draw on the cut, and that's not happening versus any kind of proper armor.
Now, if you want to stab through armor, that's also not optimal unless you hit the weak spot or a joint. If you hit the plate dead on, the blow most likely glance off, because it was shaped to do so.
For actually penetrating the plate, you want stuff like a hammer or a pick - the kinetic energy needs to be transferred to a small area to do its work, and you want more energy than a stab would deliver.
Let's get factual: I'm hitting you with a solid metal object. I try to hit you as hard as I can, to achieve maximum force on impact. Because we're talking weapons, either the hitting side of the head of that weapon is relatively large, passing lots of energy onto the object hit; as in a blunt weapon. Or it's been honed to the maximum sharpness we could achieve; in that case, the blade sinks deeper than it would if swung with less force. An axe doesn't sink deep enough into a piece of wood to get lodged just by being sharp; you have to swing that shit hard to do that. We can expect some severely diminishing returns here; even a very strong man can't bury an axe head all the way in a piece of wood in one swing
As a guy who's been chopping lots of firewood in his formative years - you can hit it as hard as you want with as sharp as a blade as you can hone, won't do jack shit if going against the grain. Sure you can mock me for not being buff enough, or not having a magical enchanted ax that goes right through it. Though why would you need any of this for splitting fucking firewood? Point is, when applying tools, proper technique always comes before brute force. It's obviously best if you have both.
They contain nothing but bullets and magix. Ofc by the same "logic" you could generally say your world doesn't need any launchers… just missiles. Any magick person can just throw an arrow and then magically accelerate and/ or guide it via magix. Whenever you introduce magic the question is only how far you want to go down the rabbit hole vs. what players will find acceptable.
It's actually a pretty nice thought if the boring old fireball would be something closer to a mortar or a cruise missle. The druid spots targets while in animal form, the mage brings down fire and brimstone. Would be cool if someone transplanted modern warfare tactics into fantasy worlds. Wonder if it's been done in a satisfactory fashion in an actual game or system or work of fiction? Though I don't think it would ever go down well with the target audience.
