2H weapon after serious arm injury?

[dazzah]

After a session of playing I encountered another problem I had a tough one resolving. (Am I the only one with rule challenging players!)

The player adept in 2H hammer but recieved a serious wound to 1 arm. The arm was disabled. He ask if he could wield it in 1H, at a penalty. Seemed reasonable, as giant could wield 2xhuman 2H weapons due to their increase in strength.

I initially thought of a couple of options

I looked in the book and checked a bastard sword 2H needs STR9 and 1H needs STR13. About a 50% increase. The hammer is STR 11 so would be STR 17 one handed using that house rule. Only a 5% reduction in skill as he is STR 16.
My other thought was to make it a new weapon skill as it is now a 1H use issue. There was some disagreement with that argument that as he was 88% in the 2H skill he wouldn`t go down to base skill level as could apply some knowledge. This also openned up a debate Id wish it hadn`t and that was if was going to be classed as a skill surely he could train in up with experience and dual wield it with another 1H weapon.

What are other peoples thought when a 2H fighter loses use of one arm - does it mean they simply cannot use the weapon and must use unarmed combat? or what penalty are people using.

Thanks!!


Edit - Ive currently applied a rule that a 2H wielded in 1H is used at 50% of his 2H skill and as the weapon isn`t made for 1H use and it would be like using your left/off hand for bowling etc so you would have to be naturally v dexterous therefore the STR and DEX req is 50% increase of listed value and that penalty applies also. It means his skill goes from 88% to 34% which seems sensible. I also stated it would do less damage scaled similarly to other weapons that can be used both 1H and 2H. That seem to resolve the issue here. Do people think thats sensible?

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

Additionally I would possibly also slow the weapon down. A SR penalty, as with wearing armour might be in order.

 

[Loz]

Ive currently applied a rule that a 2H wielded in 1H is used at 50% of his 2H skill and as the weapon isn`t made for 1H use

I'd take a similar approach but place the skill at a mid-point between the 2H skill and Base Level (STR+DEX). So, if he's at 88% in 2H Hammer, and has STR and DEX 30, then its (88-30)=58; 58/2 =29+30 = 59%.

And, as you rightly point out, you can then train this as a discrete skill. However, you should encourage the player to not call the skill 2H Hammer, but give it a funky name and treat it as a Combat Style that covers all 2H weapons used single-handedly - with the proviso that the character exceeds the minimum STR and DEX requirements for the weapon, and suffers a Strike Rank penalty equal to the weapon's ENC.

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

Something like: "Weapon of Last Resort", or "Last, Best Hope"... there again, perhaps "Hammer Falling" or "Arm Breaker"?