Flanged Mace

Game Stats

• Range: melee
• Base damage: 1d4+1 (crushing)
• Secondary: none
• Concealable: no
• Civilian Carry: no

Description

A mace is essentially a club.  The term can denote any bludgeoning weapon with a haft and a weighted head, although it is usually restricted to those that do not have to be oriented in a particular direction to achieve maximum effect, unlike warhammers.

Use and Characteristics

Many maces have protrusions in the form of studs, spikes, or flanges to concentrate the force of the blow.  This is not to pierce armor (although that does occasionally happen) but to make it harder for armor to diffuse the force of the blow and thus protect the wearer from injury.  Such maces may be constructed from little more than a length of wood and nails or from elaborately wrought steel, so smooth-headed maces are almost never seen in the Circle in the seventeenth century.

Most maces are short weapons, ranging from 18 to 22 inches in total length, and weigh a little over two pounds.  This is about the same weight as an arming sword, but by concentrating most of the weapon's mass at the head of the haft a mace can strike much more powerful concussive blows.  Maces tend to be somewhat heavier than a battle-axe, making them more effective at transmitting concussive force at the expense of recovery time.  They are less devastating than a battle-axe, but also less affected by armor.  Indeed, a mace's primary virtue is its ability to kill or wound a man in heavy armor without ever needing to pierce his protection.

Because they are heavier than warhammers, maces tend to strike slower; because they are somewhat shorter, they tend to recover faster.  This makes the mace the preferred one-handed bludgeon of infantrymen, while cavalry (or those who may fight as cavalry, such as knights) tend to favor the extra reach of a warhammer.  The relative slowness of a mace, combined with its simple, hammering technique, makes it almost useless as a defensive weapon.  Maces are thus usually wielded in conjunction with a shield for defense - all the more prudent as the heavily armored fighters usually facing macemen tend to be heavily armed as well.

Advantages

The mace's principal advantage is its ability to transmit enough force to wound or kill through armor without piercing it.

Disadvantages

A warhammer's principal disadvantage is its slow recovery time and short reach.  A mace must be quite close to an enemy to strike effectively.

Variants

Maces are relatively simple weapons and are made of bronze, high-quality steel (referred to as "steel" colloquially), and low-quality steel (referred to as "iron" colloquially) in a variety of forms.  They have no edges, so they are not produced in either crystal or Dolotai steel.

Party Associations

Rene Dubois used a flanged mace as his primary melee weapon.

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