What are some ways to increase melee damage?

Question

I've got a character who needs more melee weapon damage. What kind of things can you buy with character points, besides ST, to increase the damage?

Answer 1

It's difficult to tell from your question, but you may be looking at the problem too narrowly. 'Increasing melee damage' on its own is only useful if you are attacking walls. If you are attacking monsters with very high Hit Points, you might want a called blow to a vital spot (the reason predators often go for the throat), as in valadil's answer. If your enemies are in plate armour, you want an impaling or two-handed weapon; historically, a pike or halberd. If you are breaking down an inanimate object, think about the engineering; a stone wall needs some pickaxe work at the mortar before the sledgehammer goes in, while it is easier to cut the latch or hinges out of a door than to break it in pieces. GURPS, as I see it, is designed to reward real-world solutions rather than gaming the system.

Answer 2

Weapon Master adds quite a lot. Check if it is appropriate for your campaign style.

Also, with character points wou can buy wealth, with which you can buy finer weapons, magic, etc.

Answer 3

Using bigger weapons helps, but has drawbacks of encumbrance, not being able to use a shield, and so on. Using better-quality weapons helps too.

The Weapon Master advantage is good, if your campaign style allows it.

Using All-Out Attack also allows you to increase damage, but the drawback is that you lose your Active Defences. The way to manage that is to work in a team.

Are you playing 3e or 4e? 4e has the Striking Strength advantage, which allows you to buy Strength only for the purposes of striking with weapons, which saves on point costs. Strength is also cheaper in 4e than 3e, for ST 14 and up.

Answer 4

I can't find the name of it right now, but I believe there's an advantage you can take that'll reduce the cost of attacking a hit location. That won't increase your base damage, but it should help with your overall output.