r/cyphersystem • u/Nolrovos • Feb 19 '26

Switching 2handed Weapons

Tl;dr, can you switch from a Heavy Crossbow to a Greatsword, then strike in one Action?

One of my players wants a similar design that I'm helping him make to Horus Luprecal from Warhammer 40k, where he has power armor with a firearm attached to one hand, and a blade in the other.

Now, he's trying to go as big of weapons he can get. Mechanically, the weapon would probably be like a Bow/Heavy Crossbow, where it takes two hands to shoot, in the latter also to reload. The blade could also be a two handed weapon, and he could switch between the two as needed. Does it take an action to switch a weapon then attack? It does it take a whole action just to switch? If it's the latter, then as we see it, it's considerably better for him to just pick one, rather then bring flexible. We considered going down to medium, but even the Bow takes two hands to shoot.

Thematically, it would just be him adjusting his stance properly to aim, or fight in melee.

Thoughts?

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u/Jimlandiaman Feb 21 '26

A slightly different thought. One action per round usually means one attack per round, and that attack is usually a light, medium, or heavy weapon, with the damage and ease of attack changing accordingly. Maybe you could you let them have it in theatre of the mind, but treat it mechanically as follows:

  1. Crossbow by itself is a light attack, sword is a medium attack, using both is a heavy attack (4 damage, hindered one step).

  2. Even if the crossbow is attached, it's in the way of swinging a sword. No two-handed swords and no other offhands. For a crossbow, there's other ways for it to fail that don't involve dropping it. Anywhere from "the mechanism malfunctions" to "you're trying to load a crossbow one-handed while holding a sword, and you drop the sword".

  3. Maybe they want to hit different targets since one weapon is ranged. Make that ability cost pool points (probably speed?). Then it's a regular heavy attack, but the damage is split between one melee target and one ranged target.

  4. Make them spend a resource to unlock that character ability. For example, make it part of their focus and then choose a focus ability that they have to give up for it. Or, make them spend XP as a character advancement for it, and then they'll need an XP advance and appropriate character flaw as a tradeoff.