New fighting skill tree questions

This document attempts to answer some of the predicted questions regarding the new fighting skill tree.

Why?

Deutha had originally intended Discworld to have a weapon based fighting tree. For a long time I felt that this was unnecessary and overly complex but changed my mind for a number of reasons.

Specialisation differentiation: When we started looking at warriors guild specialisations we found there was little room for differentiation. Every warrior practically had to learn every weapon skill.
Dagger and Spear: Our damage based skill tree just doesn't account for the variance between, for example, a dagger and a large spear. Thus assassins learn the one skill which applies to both.
Sharp/Pierce/Blunt: We have a rather strange situation in that most blunt weapons are typically only blunt whereas your average sword is both sharp and pierce. Thus to be effective with it one has to learn two skills for no obvious reason.
parry.range, parry.melee: Now I know there's the semi-mythic skill of arrow-cutting but seriously, I can't see any reason for the existance of parry.range at all. As for parry.melee surely parrying with a weapon and using a shield should be separate skills?

So after due consideration I came to agree with Deutha (and others) that we ought to move to weapons-based offence rather than damage-based. At the same time it seemed to me to make sense to sort out some of the other areas and make room for some future sensible unarmed.

How is it organised?

The offensive categories have been created after careful consideration by a good number of people. Different weapon types have different skills. However in order to avoid a truly enormous tree they've been grouped.

The grouping is biased somewhat towards the types of weapons most commonly found on Discworld. Thus there are three skills for knife/sword-like weapons but only one for pole weapons. There are, inevitably, many edge-cases and one could argue in favour of combining or splitting certain of the skills. Such discussions could go on ad infinitum, suffice to say, we've given this a fair amoutn of thought and the current choices are a compromise that I think fits well within the Discworld framework.

Range has been split to separate thrown, fired and bows. Defence has been split into parrying, blocking and dodging without reference to ranged or melee.

=======SKILLS=======Level/Bonus============================
fighting............                   | unarmed...........
| melee.............                   | | striking........
| | dagger..........                   | | grappling.......
| | sword...........                   | defence...........
| | heavy-sword.....                   | | parrying........
| | axe.............                   | | blocking........
| | mace............                   | | dodging.........
| | flail...........                   | special...........
| | polearm.........                   | | weapon..........
| | misc............                   | | unarmed.........
| range.............                   | | tactics.........
| | thrown..........                   | | mounted.........
| | bow.............                   | points............
| | fired...........

Why does skill X use stats U, V & W?

The issue of which stats a given skill should depend on is highly subjective. It depends on how you interpret the meaning of each stat, what actions constitute each skill and how you believe people would be successful in performing those actions.

In making the determination we've applied subjective measures based on personal experience of martial combat; discussion among numerous creators, playtesters and players; and many years of experience.

We have also applied many objective measures. That is to say that the proportionate stat dependence of skill trees and guild primaries have been taken into account and balanced in the determination of which stats a given skill uses.

Thus it should be reasonably explainable even if the explanation is not how you would choose to interpret the stats, skills or how one performs those skills. If you personally believe skill X shouldn't use stat V or should use stat J or somesuch, remember that ultimately we've tried to maintain some semblance of realism and balance it all out across all the skill trees and guilds — and that that is no easy feat!

"fighting"                          : ({ "CDDSS" }),
  "fighting.melee"                  : ({ "CDDSS" }),
  "fighting.melee.dagger"           : ({ "DDDDS" }),
  "fighting.melee.sword"            : ({ "DDDSS" }),
  "fighting.melee.heavy-sword"      : ({ "CDSSS" }),
  "fighting.melee.axe"              : ({ "CDSSS" }),
  "fighting.melee.mace"             : ({ "CCDSS" }),
  "fighting.melee.flail"            : ({ "CDDSS" }),
  "fighting.melee.polearm"          : ({ "CCSSS" }),
  "fighting.melee.misc"             : ({ "CDDSS" }),

  "fighting.range"                  : ({ "DDDSS" }),
  "fighting.range.thrown"           : ({ "DDDSS" }),
  "fighting.range.bow"              : ({ "DDSSS" }),
  "fighting.range.fired"            : ({ "DDDDS" }),

  "fighting.unarmed"                : ({ "DDSSW" }),
  "fighting.unarmed.striking"       : ({ "DDSWW" }),
  "fighting.unarmed.grappling"      : ({ "DDSSW" }),

  "fighting.defence"                : ({ "DDSSW" }),
  "fighting.defence.parrying"       : ({ "DDDSW" }),
  "fighting.defence.blocking"       : ({ "DDSSW" }),
  "fighting.defence.dodging"        : ({ "DDDDW" }),

  "fighting.special"                : ({ "CDSII" }),
  "fighting.special.weapon"         : ({ "SDIII" }),
  "fighting.special.unarmed"        : ({ "DDIII" }),
  "fighting.special.tactics"        : ({ "WWIII" }),
  "fighting.special.mounted"        : ({ "CCDDW" }),
  "fighting.points"                 : ({ "DSSCC" }),

Ceres