In general, people in medieval-tech societies are smaller than modern folks. You also may see the effects of childhood malnutrition on some people--I imagine that rickets is pretty epidemic in the alienages.
Archers in general are going to have pretty spectacular upper-body development--arms, hands, shoulders, upper back muscles. (And they tend to injure joints, especially shoulders and elbows.) It's a pretty physically demanding profession. Crossbowmen, depending on the type of crossbow, may not need to have all of that upper-body strength, since the point of the crossbow is to replace much of the force that the archer applies to their bow with mechanical force.
Heavy armor, if it's reasonably well-made, isn't nearly as heavy as it looks. Heavy armor is comparable in weight to a modern full combat kit, about 20-40 pounds. The massive armor we see in DA:O may be a bit more, probably topping out at 50-60 pounds. Not inconsiderable, but doable without looking like a linebacker. (And I'm going to venture to guess that dragonbone armor is probably quite light and reasonably comfortable to wear.)
Probably what determines just how muscular a swordfighter is going to be is their fighting style. Sword and board will tend to emphasize endurance rather than brute strength, while people wielding two-handers and hammers likely tend to look like blacksmiths, because a lot of their effectiveness is going to come from their ability to get through armor.
(Even enormous swords aren't *that* heavy, but those hammers are probably 10-20 pounds. So someone who prefers a hammer might have heavier muscle development in their arms and shoulders.)
Folks who double-wield (ignoring the COMPLETE impracticality of wielding two longswords, no matter what game mechanics say) are going to rely more on quickness and flexibility to keep them out of the way of enemy blades. (And I never noticed before I played on the PC that dual-wielders use their off-hand blade to deflect arrows and crossbow bolts! That is awesome.) They may look more like acrobats rather than weightlifters, but that's probably less to do with how they fight and train and more to do with the kind of person who would gravitate towards double-wielding.
Mages are probably going to vary greatly in body type--but Circle mages who've been there since childhood are going to have nice calves and thighs from all of the stair-climbing they do. :)
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In general, people in medieval-tech societies are smaller than modern folks. You also may see the effects of childhood malnutrition on some people--I imagine that rickets is pretty epidemic in the alienages.
Archers in general are going to have pretty spectacular upper-body development--arms, hands, shoulders, upper back muscles. (And they tend to injure joints, especially shoulders and elbows.) It's a pretty physically demanding profession. Crossbowmen, depending on the type of crossbow, may not need to have all of that upper-body strength, since the point of the crossbow is to replace much of the force that the archer applies to their bow with mechanical force.
Heavy armor, if it's reasonably well-made, isn't nearly as heavy as it looks. Heavy armor is comparable in weight to a modern full combat kit, about 20-40 pounds. The massive armor we see in DA:O may be a bit more, probably topping out at 50-60 pounds. Not inconsiderable, but doable without looking like a linebacker. (And I'm going to venture to guess that dragonbone armor is probably quite light and reasonably comfortable to wear.)
Probably what determines just how muscular a swordfighter is going to be is their fighting style. Sword and board will tend to emphasize endurance rather than brute strength, while people wielding two-handers and hammers likely tend to look like blacksmiths, because a lot of their effectiveness is going to come from their ability to get through armor.
(Even enormous swords aren't *that* heavy, but those hammers are probably 10-20 pounds. So someone who prefers a hammer might have heavier muscle development in their arms and shoulders.)
Folks who double-wield (ignoring the COMPLETE impracticality of wielding two longswords, no matter what game mechanics say) are going to rely more on quickness and flexibility to keep them out of the way of enemy blades. (And I never noticed before I played on the PC that dual-wielders use their off-hand blade to deflect arrows and crossbow bolts! That is awesome.) They may look more like acrobats rather than weightlifters, but that's probably less to do with how they fight and train and more to do with the kind of person who would gravitate towards double-wielding.
Mages are probably going to vary greatly in body type--but Circle mages who've been there since childhood are going to have nice calves and thighs from all of the stair-climbing they do. :)
Okay, I'm rambling, and I should stop.