Puggins

Hi All! I've just picked up Magic World, and though I like it quite a bit, a couple of things left me scratching my head a bit. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding things- I'd love some corrections or simply comments. I hasten to add that these aren't criticisms- like I said, I'm quite positive towards the game. 1) Is there any real penalty to using a large shield? It seems to me that anyone that can wield one (the strength requirement appears quite lax to me) should do so, at least while they're not riding a horse- the protection against missiles is so much better and the Hit Points make it much harder to destroy. The description makes these sound like the classic shields used by shield bearers that cover archers, but are nearly useless in melee combat due to their sheer unwieldiness. Functionally speaking, these seem more like classic kite shields or shields used by the Roman legions. Is the description just a bit off? 2) Why are the light mace and warhammer so much better than the broadsword? Sure, the broadsword has a slightly higher maximum damage, but it has identical average damage and its base weapon skill is substantially worse. I get the impression- especially after reading the greatsword- that group 2 swords are probably meant to be small/medium length weapons, rather than just medium length- it doesn't make any sense to me that a greatsword can be used at close range but a broadsword or short sword, which are both slashing and thrusting weapons, can't be used close in. 3) Several spells penalize you for having a higher POW. Gift of Earth, for example, dumps a set amount of dirt in an area, but it takes POW rounds to be done. That means a wizard with 20 Power will take 4 rounds longer to dump the earth than a wizard with 16 power. Maybe increase the volume according to power, making the dump a consistent amount every round? Thanks, and looking forward to playing this!