No weakling would stand a chance of penetrating heavy armour with a pointy weapon, no matter how pointy, even weapons designed for that purpose rely on a great amount of strength from the user.
And as for the knockdown, can you imagine in all honesty any blunt weapon strong enough to knock a tall, hardened, plate-covered knight over if only used in one hand? I can imagine a 2-handed hammer-blow to the chest or higher would send someone down, but a 1-handed strike? Maybe if you had Mjollnir, but we all know only Thor can lift that and we aren't Thor. 1handed knockdown makes little sense to me, i can't imagine it having the weight to knock anyone down even in light armour, it'd crack bones and kill you sure, but not send you flying. Just picture very carefully in your mind what it would be like to get hit by a workshop hammer, are you going flying? If you hit the ground it's only cos of the trauma, not dissimilar to if someone lodge a sword in your head. I had a golf club to the face once (i'd classify that as a 2hander), and even then it wasn't the momentum that dropped me lol, imagine if i'd been in plate and it had been a shitty 1handed swing instead.
First off, I never said anything about heavy armor penetration. I was responding to this:
Also, this is the only medieval game where you don't need strength for damage.
You dont need strenght to deal great ammount of damage, you only need it to get through armor (and sometimes not even that, if you know how to strike). Anyone who is strong enough wield and use weapon like rapier or estoc can be deadly killer if he knows how to strike.
Second, all weapons I have mentioned (wooden mallet, big stick, baseball bat) are all two handed weapons (sorry if that was not clear enough).
Ofc one handed mallet will probably not be enough to send someone in a good helmet on their back, but weapon like baseball bat or a two handed wooden mallet for sure will.
I had a golf club to the face once
Golf club hit is nothing compared to baseball hit. And that must have either been pussy hit, or a joke hit. If someone hit you with full force, you would easily fall into unconsciousness and probably into a coma.
Yeah a 1h blunt weapon would likely not knock you down (not from the force of impact anyways, maybe because you got fucked up). It could likely cause damage to you, but it wouldn't likely knock you down. 1h knockdown could very easily be removed, the only issue is that it would basically make blunt/pierce redundant weapon damage types for 1h. 1h blunt vs pierce damages on weapons would have to be rebalanced.
That depends on the circumstances. Remember that the weight of armor works against you, the heavier the armor the greater danger of you falling.