I really don't think 1h stab is strong enough; you can only attack forwards with it, it's weaker than a nuclear bomb (slightly), it's got less range than a pike, and it doesn't make a cool 'Bing!' noise when you kill people with it. Therefore i propose a number of changes:
'Bing' Sound When You Kill Enemies - This is a must, it'd simply add to the realism (IRL 1h stab was the only attack really trained in medieval armies; swinging was considered cowardly - The practice of stabbing in medieval armies was called 'Binging', therefore every time a soldier in medieval times (be he English, Norman, Spanish, it really didn't matter), killed someone with a stab he would say 'Bing'.
Cleave - Only being able to kill one enemy with a stab is frankly BS. I was playing dynasty warriors with a spear (Zhou Yun baby), and I was killing at least ~~ 8 enemies with a stab, therefore I move that we implement being able to hit more than one enemy with a stab, it would increase the realism of cRPG more in line with dynasty warriors (one of the most realistic games i've ever had the grace to play)
Always 1 Shot Kill - I think this is a must, I mean look how muscular the guys thrusting are in cRPG (I know it gets me wet), do you think some piffling 2 inch (that's like smaller than a penis, therefore pretty weak) of milanese plate would REALLY stop a thrust from these muscular guys ?! ... I mean, come on ... Even so, the sword is made out of METAL ... metal always kills people in one shot, just look at bullets, they're metal and they kill people all the time ... please implement this change.
Knockdown - It's really not fair that only blunt weapons have knockdown; do you think that a guy getting STABBED by these (previously mentioned very well muscled, just look at those pecs, ohh yeah) men would REALLY be able to keep his feet after an impact like that ?! I think it's total BS, they should be knocked down, for at LEAST 4 seconds (the 1h swords are longer than the maces, therefore obviously heavier, therefore should have more knockdown time. Logic.)
Crushthrough - I think we can all agree at this point that downblocking is OP. It just stops hard working 1h stab players getting kills, it's a stupid broken mechanic, and i move that either we remove downblocking altogether, or simply give 1h stabs as a work-around to this failed game mechanic.
Increased Range - Why do pikes have longer range than 1h swords ?! It's retarded, a pike is made of WOOD, a 1h sword is made of METAL; metal is OBVIOUSLY better than wood or they wouldn't have made all their weapons and armours out of metal, duh, how many wooden armoured guys do you see walking around in medieval armours, and, case and point, why is the 1h wooden sword so weak. Therefore it's pretty obvious that, with the superiority of metal weaponry, they would definitely, in a medieval setting, have greater range than wooden ones (imagine wooden bullets, they'd get no where...). We should make the range of 1h stabs at LEAST 350, and possibly nerf the range of all non-metal polearms as well.
I really hope you take these points into consideration when choosing how to re-balance the 1h stab,
Regards,
Corsair
EDIT: Upon reading some of the comments it has occurred to me that these changes may not go far enough, therefore I move that we also implement
Ranged Capabilities - It's frankly BS that sometimes when I am trying to 1h stab people, someone SHOOTS me from the other side of the map, which is blatantly overpowered because I can't die him if he's shooting me and i have a melee weapon. Therefore, as suggested by the poster, 1h swords should have a 'boomerang' effect (similar to darth vadar's lightsaber in star wars), where you can 'switch modes' on your 1h too a sort of throwing weapon, throw it (with the same ranged and accuracy of bows (balance reasons)), and have it return to your hand (killing any enemies it meets along the way (but dodging friendlies).
