To Dual-Wield or not to Dual-Wield

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I was considering adding a dual-wielding character to my party, as I've never had one before. I was wondering formost if they're any good. Second, would it be better to have a ranger with the innate dual wield abilities when wearing light armour, or a fighter who just gets them as feats? I already have a fighter/thief who needs good light armour, which makes me lean towards a fighter or perhaps barbarian. I would still need quite good dexterity, but I thought there might be a decent set of medium armour that would allow me to take advantage of the dexterity armour bonus. Also, I was probably going to squat this character, so he/she wouldn't be able to take full advantage of either spellcasting or racial enemy.

Any thoughts? Should I just go for a big meaty halberd-wieling tank?

 

Dual wielding can be good, if you can get your armour class right and you find two suitable weapons that provide the right bonus for your character. Often, the Ranger route is the cheaper than getting the feats, but if you have plenty of Fighter levels this might not be a problem.

I guess it depends on who else is in your party. Level squatting is boring and I would never recommend it. You miss out on all the fun of levelling up with level squat. Enjoy the journey.

 

Do you get sneak attack damage for each weapon if Dual-Weilding?

It's definitely worth it if you do.

 

I dual-wield plenty of time, just because it's cool. And I had absolutely no problems doing it.

 

Dual-wielding is fun. You won't cause as much damage as a 2-handed weapon wielder, but that is not always the issue (e.g. "fun").

There are three reasons for level-squatting:
1) More XP per kill
2) Avoid multi-classing XP penalties
3) Do you really want that low INT, non-human to waste a skill point in Intimidate for each fighter level? (apply to different classes/skills)
In each case, it is a matter of choice.

I personally level squat for the third reason only. Jump 2 fighter levels and get a cross-class skill point in something more useful.

 

i usually go for a dexer when dual wielding. i mean, take a ranger and use it as a sniper. secondary combat style is dual wielding, with finesse and some finessable weapons. not a lot of damage, but thats not the point. they do more attacks per round, so they compensate (except vs damage reduction, but you should already have a 2 handed weapon tank for that).

 

I don't like dualwielding.
Rapid shot has the same effect and you can even wear a shield while using it.
Against the big enemies with damage reduction you'll wish to wield a 2-handed weapon to be able to do enough damage to surpass the damage reduction.
But a dualwielder for roleplaying reasons is playable.
Since you want to use this character as mule to make the others level faster, it's not that important what you take, a deep gnome barbarian fits best to this role.

 

I thought dual weilding was just fine with specific builds -- I like the dex based ranger/rogue build. Use weapon finesse to really make the dual effective (there are some very cool weapons that seem to be specifically made for this build).

For any build which focuses on strength I think two handed weapons are much better.