Fans of Dungeons & Dragons often wonder how realistic the attacks of non-magical classes actually are. A longsword expert has now taken a detailed look at the question.
How does he answer the question? Reddit user Vverial approaches the question in his thread of whether it is possible to make 8 attacks in 6 seconds in the “real world”. From his perspective, it is entirely possible. He himself is a martial arts practitioner and successfully practiced Kung Fu in his youth and now teaches German longsword.
He has often observed how content creators have addressed this and similar questions but found it unfortunate how superficial their approaches usually were. Therefore, he wanted to tackle the question himself. He considered the following situation:
He took a level 20 fighter who can normally make 4 attacks per action, which means 6 seconds. With the fighter’s class feature “Action Surge,” a fighter can take a second action once per rest in their round. This allows a level 20 fighter to make about 8 attacks in 6 seconds.
He explains in detail in his thread why and how this is also possible for people in our world. He believes “the only reason this is even a question is that the people asking have never participated in a sword fight before.”
“I personally had no doubts”
How is it possible to make 8 attacks in 6 seconds? To elaborate on his answer to the question, Vverial first explains that attacks with longswords often follow a 3-step pattern that involves short movements. If each of these steps is taken as a separate attack, it is possible to achieve this in a very short time.
Assuming that an action takes 4 seconds (since a bonus action is also possible within the 6-second round), a skilled fighter in our world could easily make 6 attacks within that time. If the theoretical class feature “Action Surge” is considered, the time could be halved. He believes this is still possible – harder, but feasible for someone skilled (which a max-level 20 fighter certainly is).
“You would be amazed at how fast some of these guys move at high levels of play and how many actions they can perform in a very short time frame,” he writes, as he transitions to applying this to multiple targets. This is also possible if a more realistic approach is taken.
You can see how that looks in this video from the historical fencing school Sexau e.V:
If you don’t count each attack as a targeted sword stroke but also consider the movements during and sweeping sword strokes that hit multiple targets as individual attacks, this is also within the realm of possibility.
He even goes so far as to say that very skilled fighters might well execute 5 such “sword actions” per second if one frees oneself from the notion that every attack must be a sweeping movement. Still, he emphasizes that he has a few important points to make:
In the strictest tests, the results lie on the edge, but I have seen people perform incredibly impressive feats in terms of speed, agility, and athleticism, so I tend to believe this is also achievable for someone who does not possess the same values and abilities as a level 20 fighter in the real world. There are very few examples of people who achieve this in real life, but it is possible. However, what about the rest WITHOUT Action Surge? 6 sword actions in 4 seconds? That is not only achievable but also corresponds quite closely to the normal pace of a real sword fight between two players at a competitive level.
I personally had no doubts. I was convinced that the question is only asked because the people who ask it have never participated in a sword fight. I have participated in many sword fights. Believe me. The best fighters can often hit you in a very short time frame.
With a longsword as a weapon, 8 sword actions per round are indeed possible in the real world, although not without difficulty and requiring a lot of skill.
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