RE: mauls

[Lyle H Janney <lhjanney@adpc.purdue.edu>]

First off, let me say that I can probably deal with a maul doing a d8, but
I gotta tell you, Wright, I love your last statement; "Hince [Hence?] why
the maul never saw any battlefield use out side of the movie Braveheart."
What kind of statement is that?  Do you have _any_ supporting evidence
for that or are you expecting us to just take your word as the God of
Historical Weapons Usage?  Please, you've been reasonably credible
enough; don't destroy that with an obvious falsehood in an effort to simply
support your argument.  To support my observation of your falsehood:

1)  (From Webster's online dictionary)

Main Entry: 1 maul
Pronunciation: 'mol
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English malle mace, maul, from Old French mail, from Latin
    malleus; akin to Old Church Slavonic mlatu hammer, Latin molere to
grind -- more at MEAL
Date: 13th century
: a heavy often wooden-headed hammer used especially for driving wedges;
    also : a tool like a sledgehammer with one wedge-shaped end that is used to
    split wood

NOTE - That says often wooded-headed, so it may actually have sometimes
been iron-shod; I'm certain the wedge-shape didn't appear until long after the
head of the maul was purely metal.

2)  Farmers who took to the field of battle were known to use any 'tool' they could
get their hands onto; sometimes the bigger was viewed as the better.  Period
representations of peasant skirmishes showed the peasants armed with a wide
array of farm implements: sticks (clubs), scythes, mauls, rakes, plow blades, etc.

Now, despite the ease with which I can refute your obviously silly claim, if you
wish to define the maul in AQ as a not quite so large block of wood at the end
of a pole (say, oh, 6' or so in length) and have it do a d8 damage, fine with me.
But we aren't talking about a block of wood that is all that large in this case.

Lyle

-----Original Message-----
From:	Wright Frazier [SMTP:khelek@ns1.cioe.com]

regardless of what DP is, a block of wood on a stick is not going to
do near the damage as a block of metal on a stick, esspecially one
that has a convex head with a slight pointing so that it will increasingly
nulify the effects of armor.  the 'block of wood' just won't do that.
Further, as I stated before, a maul is a tool, not a weapon.  Tool's
make horribly in effective weapons when compared to things truely 
designed to kill.  A maul will not have the combat effectiveness of
a long sword, bastard sword, battle axe, greatsword, etc...
It cannot strike blows as quickly nor as lethally as a any of these weapons.
Hince why the maul never saw any battlefield use out side of the movie
Braveheart.

Wright