Mouse-controlled Melee

[Smeagol3]

I'm working on a gladiator combat game and I need to implement a system where the sword follows the mouse, ala Die By The Sword. How would I go about implementing this?

Thanks,
Smeagol

[Reedbeta]

Google for "inverse kinematics". Basically, you have a skinned model (presumably), you map the mouse location into the location in space of a point on the sword (simple linear transformation, probably), and then use IK to solve for the bone position of the model that will bring the sword where you want it.