Good tip about that bearded war axe, but too late for that now, I´ve already begun to build on a new fighter. Now I´d really like to know: Is there any sword weapon existing that´s equippable for his secondary slot? Or is that the reason why people recommended a hammer as 2nd weapon?

Difficult to train all those four fields (Close combat, sword, hammer and dual) at the same time ... should I learn three and leave one behind for the moment, or rather distribute the nine points equally?

@ Pyrates - Thank you for your defense of the my old fighter´s axe [img]smile.gif[/img] ... regarding the roleplaying aspect you´re certainly right. But I have a love both for multi-attacks and for magical weapons, and I don´t think the old lizard would have made me happy with his one swing per turn, seeing the other guys grab all the good swords ;) .

only offhand swords are wakizashi and enchanted wak (both samurai/ninja). There are many offhand staffs and daggers (mostly used for effects rather than damage). offhand maces are hammer, nunchaku(ninja/monk) and diamond eyes , only axe is bearded war axe.

It's too late now, but I wouldn't have dumped the non-dual fighter. There is at least one extremely useful two-handed sword out there, and dualling isn't that useful, esp. in a 6-person party. offhand damage is pitiful, and you get less primary attacks & swings, so it really takes a while just to do the same damage as a non-dual, and we haven't started talking about advantages like 2-handed items or shields.

Concerning training, I'd say that sword/hammer raises faster by training than close combat or dual, so out of these 4 i'd put only a third into the weapons skills. oth, the weapons skills do you more good than the academic skills, so doing some training (fighting with bad weapons etc.) might be useful too.

Another point would be the usefulness of ranged/extended combat, always having to be in close range can be troublesome later on.

Yeah, all my fighters used either a two-hand weapon or sword and shield. You find more better swords overall than any other type in the game. I had a dual-wielding lord a couple of times, but overall wasn't impressed with his performance.

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The dual-wielding lord failed to impress me too.. I've grown more and more inclined towards two-handers, especially polearm

Thank you for the advice ... you suggest I should use a 2-H sword later, won´t I have the same problem then that I had with the axe fighter? Low initiative resulting in fewer attacks?
Btw, my new guy has gained the Iron Skin skill. Is that one worth investing points in?

I also have another very silly question:
Where is Lord Braffit? I cannot find him ... I know he´s supposed to be in the temple, but I walked through all the corridors and could not see him anywhere there. Even broke through a door and spanked some Higardi Spirits (hope that won´t have any bad consequences for me later) ...

Duale Wielding might not be so great for a lord, but if you consider classes like Ninja or Samurai, who have the Critical Hit ability, it makes sense. You don't make considerably more damage, but more hits -> more crits IS valid and does not depend on the damage...

Cheers
Philipp

marmot:

To get to Lord Braffit you have to go to the slightly elevated part of the tample, still being outside, then go in a doorway through which the monks are patrolling, go down some stairs and you should be there.

There's also a Ninjato for Ninja only; either-handed, 3-7, forgot the +'s, Kill 5%.

Lords are actually made for Dual Wield--they have a Skill Bonus in it! You gotta start at the very beginning, and by the time you get 3X3 with your primary, you'll be gatting 3X2 with your secondary, and have NO penalty to your primary, and only 25% penalty to your secondary. That's six extra swings at nearly full power and accuracy. Nothing to sneeze your nose at!!!

Marmot: It's true that 2h swords have less initiative, and thus maybe a swing less, but they _do_ output some fierce damage ;) Remember that swings can't be counted on, only attacks can. and 2.5 swings with 50 or 1.75 swings with 75 damage each amount to roughly the same.

Scatter: Ninjato is 3-9 +1 hit, +2 initiative, but it's a dagger. Sai has the same with 3-11, so that one's better. In most cases canezou will be better still, since that carries benefits for the primary (+5dex, +10closecombat, 5%hex 1%kill).
(Serpents Tooth, sprites dagger and thieves dagger should get an honorable mention here too, likewise winterwand and wand of sprites)

But even a Sai, with maybe 4.5 attacks á 10 Damage isn't really damage output. When you're at 125 dual you're prolly making that much damage with each primary swing, and if you just lose two swings (after all, you never get 3x3 swings all the time) you're already trailing.

I'd say only reason is status effects, so Lords with stiletto as secondary could be worthwhile due to 10%kill, but i'm far from convinced that _every_ fighter should dual to maximize damage.

I found that my solo faerie ninja/bishop that I'm currently running was much more effective with just a faerie stick rather than a faerie stick primary and a shillelah (sp) secondary. Even if your secondary slot is empty, i.e. no shield or anything, just using a one-handed weapon is much better IMO.