Let’s talk about anthropomorphic animal combat.
Societies tend to place a pretty strong emphasis on preventing people from murdering each other, or doing other things that strike at the very social cohesion that keeps a city working. We have, of course, created lots of ways to bypass this as a species, and just as many ways to try and enforce the dictates.
Most of my characters have some level of natural weapons present. Winds of Change normalizes it most of all of them, but birds of prey have brutal talons on their feet and anthros would have the same on their hands. Not to mention teeth full of muzzles for mammals, ripping beaks, or just pure strength.
My shapeshifters, well, they just have to deal with it. A lot of them came into such status late, whereas Nathan’s world is still figuring out how that all works, overall.
But what about the Thordani? Kawheek, Thenyr, Aikine? How do they operate in regards to this? When even a very brief moment of anger at another and a swipe of the hand like a slap across the face could turn deadly?
Without belaboring it, due to a continuity snarl, the now non-canon Star Wars expanded universe explained that the reason Wookies, who have tree-climbing claws, don’t use them in combat is because of a cultural taboo. And this idea seems like it may work for the Thordani. I don’t think it should be as strong as they have it, but definitely attacking in anger with talons would be at best a social faux pas. Aside from the social aspect, I figure that given their beastlike appearance to other races, they may also reinforce this themselves. People are great at seeing the ‘otherness’ of other races, and even if as a show of restraint, tearing things apart with meathook talons will probably not endear them to anyone.
Further, the Thordani live in an area where the most organized enemy they face is fire giants. And melee with a creature twice your size just isn’t a good idea. Now, in D&D, flight is de-emphasized as a strategy as most PCs don’t have it (at least before about 8th level), but from the Thordani’s perspective, if they’re in war, they’ve no need to take turns, engage on a two dimensional plane, or otherwise ‘fight fair’. So they’d focus on using their flight and the operational mobility that grants them to work against others. I particularly seem them liking cavalry-style shortbows. They can dart in, shoot arrows down, and fly back out of range. Using this, and airdropped kinetic darts, and other strategies to just wear your force down. Absolutely abysmal to fight against.
Beyond that, with the wings, melee could be dangerous. I’ve long felt that Thordani armor would have less of a ‘plate’ on the back, and more just a shaped piece of metal to act as a counterweight. If anything gets on your six on the ground, the holes the wings slip through make a backstab easy, armor or not, or you can just attack the wings directly. So they focus on weapons that give them the ability to stay out of retaliation, or allow them to keep the enemy at a bit of a distance, if forced to be groundbound. Pikes, spears, halberds. Phalanx formations to fight back to back.
-Arrow