Lostpleb
Learned
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2016
- Messages
- 380
I'm not sure I understand what you mean by 'a level of abstraction that has to be respected'. The short sword is a direct descendant of the dagger, so it could be that the story of Dragon Age is happening right in the middle of that transition when the blades were still being elongated. Or, it could simply be that the devs meant for daggers and short swords to be part of the same fighting style, much like certain weapon proficiencies were arbitrarily grouped together in the Infinity Engine games.1. Games have a certain level of abstraction that you kinda have to respect. Even if the daggers in this game look like short swords, the game treats them as daggers, so from a role-playing/game lore perspective, it would be difficult for me to treat them otherwise.
Having your swing blocked by a wall is one of the most embarrassing fails that can happen for sure.2. While Ancient Romans were devastating with their use of the Gladius (which was essentially a short sword), you have to remember, they fought in tight mass formations, in a very disciplined way, as one unit. Under those circumstances, a shorter sword is actually preferrable to longer ones, because in tight mass formations, there is no room to swing larger swords, and it's easier and more effective to get a small stabbing weapon in between gaps in shields/armor/etc. But in solo/small group situations, which would be much more common for adventurers/RPG characters, it would be a completely different story, with longer swords being much more effective (unless you were stuck in a small hallway or something).
As for the viability of using a long sword with a shield, that was actually a lot less practical than many of the RPGs that we play would have us believe. Most of the documentation that we have about medieval combat points us to three commonly used long sword styles;
-Half-sword, which was one hand on the hilt and one hand gripping the blade (or even two hands gripping the blade so that the pommel could be used to kill!)
-Two-handed, which was what most long swords were designed for, since the main difference between a short and a long sword was the length of the hilt.
-Fencing, which left one hand free for grappling techniques.
Moreover, one-handed long swords were only really superior to short swords when it came to performing a slicing or cutting attack. Those were no longer effective once the plate armor was introduced to the fray, so thrusting became the only way to inflict any kind of lasting damage on your opponent during combat. Against a creature with thick skin or decent armor, the short sword would still be the better option for as long as your other arm is used to hold up a shield, since you will want to rely on quick lightweight thrusts that don't leave you too open for a counter-attack. Your companions are depending on you to hold the line.