| II. BECOMING
A WARRIOR MAGE F. COMBAT WITH WEAPONS AND MAGIC Edged weapons are undoubtedly the most common to Warrior Mages. This is to be expected, as edged weapons are a good all around weapon to train... but there is much more to perfecting the use of edged weapons than is readily apparent to the beginning Warrior Mage. The maneuvers that are best for balance are parry and jab. Both will increase your balance to the point where you will end up incredibly balanced and overwhelming your opponent. The jabbing attack is a weak one, and will not initially do much damage, but it is fast. Feinting is another weak attack, but in the right situation can be a valuable addition to your arsenal of maneuvers. Drawing, slicing, thrusting, and sweeping are maneuvers that will do more damage, but they tend to be unbalancing, so each should be done only after a parry maneuver. This will help to maintain your balance. They are also slower attacks than jabs. It is important to remember, though, that certain weapons lend themselves more to a thrusting attack and some more to a slicing attack. This will be determined by what you do when you draw. A drawing attack with an edged weapon will include either a jab or a slice. If it is a jab, your weapon is more suited to a thrusting attack than a slicing one. If it is a slice, your weapon is better suited to a slicing attack than a thrusting one. Two other attacks are appropriate for edged weapons... chopping and lunging. Chopping is the extreme version of a slicing attack, while lunging is the extreme version of a thrusting attack. While the most damaging of all the attacks, these are also the slowest and most unbalancing, and are recommended only for finishing off a lone opponent. Now we add magic into the mix. When using a targeted spell, the beginning Warrior Mage may prepare their spell as the creature advances past pole range, but they should wait until their opponent has reached melee range before beginning to target it. This will allow the spell to gain full targeting potential before the cast. |