Two hand weapons vs 2 weapon debate

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Now the patch 1.21 is out, does it make the double axe worth it? And are there any good double axes in game???

P.s Does i pay of to specialize in more than 1 wep, like the great axe and the double axe??? Plz help me

 

IMO the coice of your weapon depends mainly on what class you play and what kind of armor or AC you intend to have and what your char is able to wield.

When you want to go for heavy armor this will inflict penalties on skills like parry and on two-weapon fighting. When you choose a light armor such as scale mail for example the penalties will be less severe and you can bring in much more dex to beef up your AC - your parry skill will be usable the too.

When you want to go for heavy armor and want to deal out max damage - choose two-handed weapons.

 

Heavy armor doesn't put any penalties on dual wielding weapons unless you are relying on the ranger feat to do it. If you get the real feats, you can fight just as well in Full Plate as in anything else.

Prior to Improved Two Weapon Fighting, its pretty much a wash or a slight edge to the two handed weapon (especially if you are very strong).

The double axe is a good weapon, but I personally think that using two weapons is better because you get twice the enchantments. I haven't found any 'unique' double axes, but I think you can enchant one at the smith.

As for specializing in more than one weapon, I don't think its that good an idea. *IF* you are going to be dual wielding two weapons consistently, then there is some point to specializing in both. However, specializing isn't *that* great a bonus so you need to look very carefully at what you are giving up. There are a lot of feats and you may well value some of them more than +2 damage on a weapon you may or may not be using at any given time.

 

I will now add my opinion to this massive pile of other opinions...

TWO WEAPONS ARE COOL .

I like them mainly for role-play reasons, they can help to make a pretty dull character more interesting and exotic, even if two handed weapons are in some ways better.

Edit: I just thought of an arguement for two weapons... If you have taken specialization and therefore focus twice, then you will also recieve the benefits more often. Also, say you were dual-wielding two of the same weapons, then you would also get to add in focus and specialization more often. This would also go nicely with a two-bladed sword, dire mace or double axe...

[This message has been edited by void (edited July 27, 2002).]

 

Dual wielding two weapons with the proper feats gives too much of an advantage over a two-handed weapon like the greatsword or greataxe imo. This is mainly because (most) people think dual wielding is cool so naturally WOTC gives a second attack to the off-hand to please the customers.
I blame it all on Drizzt

 

yep blame Drizzt! he made duel wielding fashinable

 

Invoker, I don't think you have actually done the math. Until you have Improved Two Weapon Fighting, the average damage per round slightly favors a two handed weapon (by about 1/2 pt per round). With Improved Two weapon, the shift does move in favor of dual weilding, but not decisively. The main advantage of dual wielding (aside from having two enchantable objects istead of one) is that you are more likely to do *some* damage in any given round. Dual wielding is relatively more advantaged the lower the character's strength (short of going into negative bonuses!), because of how the multipliers work.

However, that dual wielding costs you THREE proficiences to achieve, so it should have an advantage over pure great axe user.

But is it better than a great axe user with knockdown, cleave, and power attack? That's what you need to ask yourself.

 

Well, I don't think 3 feats really mean much to a fighter. Rangers have it free. It'd be a tough choice for a paladin or a rogue perhaps.

The -2 to both hands doesn't really mean much. At early levels, you get twice the number of attacks so it's definitely worth it, and at higher levels you can hit with that -2 anyway and you get 2 more attacks.

The pure damage math would be somewhat close. But two different enchanted weapons, more attacks (therefore more hits) is more important imo. Especially if you have weapons with "on hit" effects like extra elemental type damage or wounding weapons or vorpal blades etc.

My rogue/fighter dual wields rapiers, one of which is keen and deals 1d6 acid damage. So I have 4 attacks that have a crit range of 12-20 and 2 more with a crit range of 15-20. And the other one stuns on hit.

Edit: Heh just saw the discussion on the DnD forum on finessed keen rapier wielding elves lol. Guess my char is a powergamer

Another thing to note is that if you're matched against a moderately challenging monster, then out of your 4 base attacks, the last 2 are not likely to hit. (they're at -10 and -15 penalties repectively). However, the extra 2 attacks by the off hand are made at the best two attack boni, which practically makes the dual wielders hit/round ratio almost twice as much as the two handed weapon fighter.

PS: Wow.. no portraits/avatars/gems! this is great! I wonder how long it'll last

[This message has been edited by Invoker (edited July 27, 2002).]

 

Three feats isn't that big a deal for a fighter, but it is still three feats not spent somewhere else. Even in NWN's truncated feat list, there are plenty of feats to take instead.

Once you get Improved Two Weapon fighting, dual weilding is better than a two handed weapon (at least without factoring in feat effects). Until then its basically a wash in most circumstances, though in a few cases one is better or worse than the other. Dual wielding is always better against swarms of low hp foes (since great cleave isn't in the game), but great axes are better against foes with damage reduction.

The monty haul nature of magic item availability in CRPGs also affects the balance. In NWN, you can guarantee that you have good magic weapons in both hands, which is not true in many PnP games. Varg (now a fighter/ranger), for example, doesn't have any one handed weapons that are of the same quality as his great axe.

 

True about damage resistant foes. And also true about the monty haulness However, in 3rd Ed DnD it's relatively very easy for wizards to craft magical items/weapons/armor/wands etc.. I'm sure Juhn will craft a very nice weapon or two for Varg in about 2 years from now (when we're around level 9 or so )

 

Actually, Craft Magical Weapons and Armor only has a 5th level caster requisite. So maybe it'll only be next year before Juhn starts getting pressured to burn all his exp on the rest of us!

Aloha
Vormaerin