Shattered Kingdoms

Staffs are completely useless.

How might we find a way to buff them?

Discuss.

LOL . . .I thought this title was about flaming the D and co., at first. LOL

Back on topic, you are right they do suck. They need to make some with reach.

I assume your talking about the weapon type.

Speed them up or improve chance of parry. Both of these options do not make them useful to people who can not make use of other better sub types.
Seeing as those people do not get lots of attacks and do not get the parry skill. That or introduce armor bonus negatives against blunt attacks like a staff.

Other options are add an addition thing to weapons to make some weapons better at doing things than others. A staff might give a better chance tripping ,a club bashing, a whip disarm. Giving them other advantages more than just their pure damage per round bonus.

Introduce a balanced weapon fighting skill - where balanced weapons can get an extra attack in or two.

Give staffs reach! They're long, right?

Attach guns to the staff. That should surely even up the odds.

Here's what I think staves should be, though I'm not entirely certain this can be translated to the game's system.

Staffs deal little damage. I mean, sure. IRL a staff can blow your skull to tiny bits if you use it right, but a flaming vorpal sword hurts more. This is a fantasy realm. A staff won't deal as much damage as most other weapons.

Staves reach? No. They're long, but they are not effectively used in a distance. The way to use a staff correctly is to grab both sides, swing it left, swing it right, keeping its center in front of your torso. Its balance, counter weight and momentum carries the hit. You can't just hold it from the edge and bat someone on the head with the far end.

What staves should do: They should deal little damage, but they should also be one of the best weapons for disarming. Striking a sword with a staff will knock it out of any hand, twirling the shaft arround a polearm while at the same time pushing your body forward will force your opponent to drop his pole or have his wrist broken, etc. Staves should also make great weapons to parry blows. (as should all center balanced polearms. Spears for example. Halberds and such bear a heavier weight to the end side and cannot be manuevered as fast. They don't have a very big counterweight at the other end as the force strain of blows would break the wooden shaft. Also a halberd with a full iron shaft would shatter the wielder's fingers, and would be far too heavy to use efficiently)

Staves should also be fast.

You basically just called for them to be faster and much more accurate. Accuracy should take care of your disarming and parrying needs.

I've seen jet li do it and if jet li can do it then I can do it.

You and your acting like you know stuff.

Staffs rule, get a bladed staff and pound some skull in, but to actually do something, make staffs with cool dmg effects, like sonic wrath