Without the wpf, I lose a point in powerstrike and a good amount of swing speed. I got outswung a ton with 131 wpf, and on my stf with 172, the difference is night and day. It allows the slower blunt weapons to swing nearly as fast as the cut weapons, with much better earlier hits.
My 15/24 stf is working out so well, I decided I will do 18/27 over 21/24. With 66 body armor and 54 hp, I was tanking more hits (and avoiding even more) than my 76 hp main in 56 body armor.
Let's say each point in athletics + 3 agi allows you to maintain the same speed with 7.5 more weight.
Let's also say a competitive speed to be fast is 7ath with 15 total weight. 9ath will let me wear 15 more weight of armor, especially since a lot of that original 15 weight consisted of weapons/boots/helmets/gloves that won't change the weight that much. That's the difference between tunic over mail and the heaviest of plate. Not to mention the acceleration stays great, and PS past 6 isn't affected by blunt weapons too much.
The massive amount of wpf will keep my damage high. 5 shield is better than 5 IF, so 2h variants may be worse since they just get shot up. 18 strength is also the minimum for all the heaviest armor and gear outside of the great maul.
Strength: 18
Agility: 27
Hit points: 53
Skills to attributes: 8
Power Strike: 6
Shield: 5
Athletics: 9
Weapon Master: 9
One Handed: 185
With a blunt weapon and a sword, consistent damage will be made. It can easily catch archers while running in plate, and deal good amounts of damage with blunt. If there is a knockdown, a held attack+speed bonus can deal multiples of damage of a normal swing. Held attacks are easier to land in general with higher ath. Good armor + speed bonus manipulation helps mitigate damage. Hoplite weapons can be used with 1wpf if sorely needed against cav. Weaknesses are getting hit by blunt weapons or getting knocked down. I learned that I don't need exorbitant amounts of speed, just competitive levels of 6-7ath medium armor is more than fast enough.
185 wpf? Utter insanity, I must do this. Moving faster than infantry with gothic plate with bevor? Priceless.
Not sure if the Gothic Plate or any other heavy armor is worth it with only 53 hit points. I am using 15/27 with 0 Iron Flesh and it hardly makes a difference. Have to test it again for a while, though.
Edit: Ok, changed my opinion. It is great.
Especially versus one handed cut weapons. Really funny to outrun most people while using plate armor.
I am still not 100% confident of your build. It is very nice, but I think that 18/24 could be better.
Level: 36
Stength: 18
Agility: 24
Hit points: 63
Iron Flesh: 5
Power Strike: 6
Shield: 8
Athletics: 8
Weapon Master: 8
One Handed: 177
3 Agility and 1 less Athletics means that you can use 7.5 less weight compared to 18/27 while maintaining the same movement speed. You will also lose 1 Weapon Master.
Therefor you get 5 Iron Flesh (10 hit points) and 3 more Shield.
With 5 Shield you will most likely use one of the heavy shields (7.7 weight or more). Most other shields with less weight just break too fast with only 5 Shield. 8 Shield allows you to use the Steel Buckler instead. It only has 3.5 weight. So the "weight difference" between both builds is only between 3.8 (Plate Covered Round Shields) and 1 (Heavy Board Shield). Even if you use Knightly Kite/Heater Shield it is "only" 5 weight and those are clearly inferior compared to Steel Buckler with 8 Shield.
So you are only slightly slower, get 10 extra hit points (which make a huge difference if you use heavy armor), a much better shield and you have more options regarding the slot system.
I have tested this build on a STF with 16/24, 0 Iron Flesh, 0 Weapon Master. My equipment was: +3 Winged Mace, +3 Steel Buckler, +3 Hourglass Gauntlets, +3 Cased Greaves, +0 Gothic Plate with Bevor and +0 Sallet with Visor.
It was awesome, even with those items. With +12 Hit points, +1 Power Strike, +8 Weapon Master, +8 body armor, +10 head armor and perhaps a better weapon (Spathovaklion or Warhammer) it will be just brutal.
