Weapon Damage.

[Zink Whistlefly]

Originally posted by Target: ..What are the pros and cons of the following weapons, and what feats (if any) do I need. I would like to have different weapons in different hands. Hand axe, Mace (Regular), Flails, Kukris (although a lot has already been talked about so I have a good idea about these) Kamas, Morningstars, Daggers Any other weapon that you think might be good. Are there any base requirements to get all the feats to improve your two handed fighting? Cheers

Hand axe - requires weapon proficiency simple. Advantages - light weapon (potential off-hand candidate), *3 critical multiplier. Disadvantages - low damage, low critical threat range.

Mace (Regular) - requires weapon proficiency simple. Advantages - deals blunt damage (generally the best damage type). Disadvantages - poor damage, critical multiplier and threat range.

Flail (light) - requires weapon proficiency simple. Advantages - deals good blunt damage. Disadvantages - poor critical multiplier and threat range, cannot be dual wielded.

Kukris - requires weapon proficiency exotic. Advantages - light weapon so good for dual wielding. Excellent critical threat range. Disadvantages - poor damage and critical multiplier, requires extra feat.

Kamas - requires weapon proficiency exotic/monk. Advantages - light weapon, err, that's seriously about it. Disadvantages - poor damage, poor critical multiplier, poor threat range. Unless you're a monk, the sickle is a better choice.

Morningstars - same as light flail.

Daggers - requires weapon proficiency simple. Advantages - light, good threat range. Disadvantages - poor damage and critical multiplier.

So, from this list the best bets are probably hand axe and/or kukri. This gives you the best of both worlds when it comes to critical damage - one of them will be frequently getting critical hits, the other less frequently but hits for more damage (a good chest breaker).

A katana combined with a kukri is my favourite though (although this isn't recommended if you're going for the finesse character since a Katana is a medium weapon!) since the blades are both about the same length and look cool together! A good alternative would therefore be a rapier and kukri.

Base requirements for effective dual wielding is just a 15+ DEX so you can get the ambidexterity feat + improved 2 weapon fighting. Make sure you also take two weapon fighting (obviously).

All the above info is pretty rushed and I haven't looked anything up but I'm fairly sure it's accurate.

[Witchdoctor]

Originally posted by J'aran: The "Monk Gloves" (be they Hin Fist, Long Death or Yellow Rose) do not give a bonus to physical damage, only a to-hit bonus and the elemental damage. Furthermore, some of the feats you listed, namely Weapon Focus, (Improved) Ki Strike and Epic Prowess, don't give any bonuses to damage either. Not sure if you really meant to say that they do, but the way you mention them in relation to damage makes it easy to interpret it that way.

You're correct. I couldn't quite remember on all of those if the bonus was just to attack or to damage as well, but I wasn't where I could look it up easily at the time. I should have been more clear on that.

Still, I have had a monk get some decent damage amounts, in the mid to high 20's, on opponents. It just takes a lot of levels and the right equipment to get there. I do have to admit that a monk will never be able to match a maximized fighter or barbarian in sheer damage though. But with lots of attacks per round and the ability and speed to quickly get in and out of a fight, a monk can make up for that. It's a question of play style and preference ultimately, as to whether you would rather have a fighter or barbarian build with devastating damage per hit or a monk with less (but still decent) damage hitting more often.

[Target]

Interesting...I didn't know you could dual wield flails and morningstars. (was thinking that would look cool, a morningstar in one hand and a hand axe in the other!)

When dual wielding does it make more sense to go the finesse route or to pump up the Str?

[Zink Whistlefly]

Originally posted by Target: Interesting...I didn't know you could dual wield flails and morningstars. (was thinking that would look cool, a morningstar in one hand and a hand axe in the other!) When dual wielding does it make more sense to go the finesse route or to pump up the Str?

I'm pretty sure you can't dual flails - trying to do so prompts a message something like "chained weapons cant be dual wielded". I would therefore assume this is the same for morning stars.

As for the strength vs dexterity question, it really depends what kind of character you're going for. In terms of AC, a high dex character wearing light armour is just as well protected as a low dex character wearing heavy armour, so the only benefit of high dex vs high strengh is that the dex character will get several skill boosts, including parry.

If you go down the route of high strength then this is a better route for a fighter, since it will eventually open up the overwhelming/devastating critical feats (which are excellent with broad threat ranges), as well as being far more damaging. My current character is a rogue though, so it's a no brainer for him to take weapons finesse and leave his STR at a modest 14, with all future points bolstering his dexterity to help his attack bonus and thieving skills.

It's all down to how you want to play the game really. Is your character likely to be using missile weapons often? If so then that's another reason to take the finesse route, but if you just want a plain fighter killing machine, take a couple of keen weapons and crank your strength right up.

[Target]

OK...again that leads me onto another question
From my previous list, which are the best keen weapons?

[robertthebard]

Kukris. Overall, the best critical weapon. If you really want to build a dmg based char, then make a 10 lvl fighter/30 weapon master, with a focus in kukris. Crit threat range, on a keen kukri is 10, in the hands of a weapon master with a mere 10 lvls...If you take one of the kukris with elemental dmg, such as the cutting star, which is my personal favorite, due to the blindness, you'll be dealing out decent physical dmg, with a *3 on crit rolls, and some decent fire dmg, also *3 on crits.
The nice thing about this base build is the potential to go either dex, or str based. My first go round was str, with dev crit. But I was dishing out decent dmg way before I got there.

[Target]

Would adding 4 ranger levels near the beginning help? I'd get the 2 feats to help with 2 weapon fighting, and can get undead as favoured enemy. Would I gain anything else, and would I loose anything compaired going with all fighter levels early on?

[robertthebard]

With the total number of feats you get as a fighter, the ranger would probably hurt the build in the long run. I made a similar mistake building a char once, only I spread her feats too thin, and hurt the overall build. Better to focus on the two classes, you could even take some extra fighter lvls, if you wanted to. The favored enemy bonuses are nothing compared to what you might lose taking those lvls in fighter or weapon master.

[T-D-C]

Plus if you go the ranger way and want to use heavy armour later on you will lose your dual weild feats if wearing anything else but light armour.

[Target]

If you take the dual weild feats normally, do they stpo working if you put on heavy armor, or is that just with Ranger levels?
Cheers