Choose to use STR when attacking with Precise weapons?

Question

The Precise tag has an ambiguous description in the book:

"​Precise: You can use DEX instead of STR when using this weapon."

(1st edition, p396. Emphasis added)

To me that sounds like the player can choose to use DEX or STR, presumably based on how they are using the weapon.

The SRD wiki uses a different, more concrete wording:

"Precise: It rewards careful strikes. You use DEX to hack and slash with this weapon, not STR."

Which is the latest version? Is there official word on this somewhere?

Edit: There's actually a place in the book (p323) that uses the second description as well. Maybe the reference in the tag glossary is just outdated?

Answer 1

You're looking at the Appendix, which disagrees with the Equipment chapter. Page 323 (1st printing) lists Precise with the same wording as the online version. So, you use DEX with Precise weapons. There are a few other errors in the later chapters of the early print editions; where they disagree with the main section on a topic, the main text should probably be taken as canonical, just as a quick rule of thumb.

For a more precise answer in cases of disagreement between different parts of the text, the current version of the rules are always available as XML files in the Dungeon World GitHub repository. Note that the Tag Reference appendix (which is unnumbered) doesn't appear in the canonical rules — it appears to have been a couple of pages added only during layout, and isn't maintained in the repository.