Two handed vs two bladed

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Which is a more effective way of fighting. Two handed or with a two bladed weapon. It seems that two handed might be better. What is the most deadly weapon combination?

 

I find two-handed weapons much better then the two-bladed. Simply because they do much more damage.
With a Greatsword, I can do up to 36 damage on a critical hit with a level 1 character, while I hardly come over 16 with a two-bladed sword. Pretty big difference.

As for the combination, I dont think one weapon combination is better then all other. A powerful combination, though, would be a slashing and a bludgeoning weapon, like a Longsword and a Warhammer.

 

The Two handed weapon works out to be a bit better in terms of average damage over time until you get to Improved Two Weapon Fighting. This is particularly true if you have a very high strength bonus. Once you get Improved Two weapon fighting, though, the advantage moves to dual wielding.

Its not that simple, though. Unless you are a ranger, you are giving up three feats to get that dual wielding ability so you have to consider the effects of whatever feats you could have instead.

Dual wielding also lets you have two sets of magical bonuses instead of just the one. Not a big deal if your bonuses are pure damage adders, but if they are non damage effects (regen, skill bonuses, etc), its pretty nice.

 

Gladiator, let me remind you greatswords do 1-12+[str bonus]. Two-bladed does 1-8+[str bonus] per blade. Greatswords require one to five rolls, while two-bladed swords get two to seven or so rolls per turn.

For me, I would gladly chose two-bladed word over two-handed sword.

 

POWERGAMER

 

Belisarius, no kidding. I can't believe NWN let me powergame. Doing the final battle at level 16 is a *big* mistake NWN let me make.

 

A double sword comes out a bit better against a great axe than an ordinary dual wield situation (again, only if not adding in the extra feats the great axe wielder has). The offhand weapon of the double sword is better than any other light weapon out there. However, that constitutes yet another feat added to the dual wielder's account.

An 8th lvl fighter with an 18 str would have an attacks of +12/+7 for 1d12+6 (13.5 avg) dmg with the great axe. The same fighter dual wielding would have attacks of +10/+5 for 1d8+4 (8.5 avg) and +10 for 1d8+2 (6.5 avg).

Fighting an immobile practice dummy, you'd average 29.7hp/rnd with the great axe and 25.75hp/rnd with the double sword.

But lets say you are fighting trolls (AC 18), a more reasonable situation. Then you get 18.675hp/rnd with the axe and 14.465hp/rnd with the double swords. Even if you added the extra attack from ITWF, you'd only bring the average up to 17.325hp/rnd.

A weaker fighter would fare a bit better in such a comparison because the strength advantage in the two handed weapon would be diluted more.

At high levels (15+) the double weapon probably takes the advantage because the third and fourth attacks of the main hand have such low to hit chances against top foes and the dual wielder has caught up in terms of having all the power combat feats on top of the four feats needed to use the double sword. Though no feats are factored into the above except for the Ambi, TWF, and Exotic WP for the double sword user.

If both characters had Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, and Improved Critical, it would slightly benefit the dual wielder's relative numbers. However, at 8th level the dual wielder could not possibly have Cleave and Knockdown on top of all that, while the axe wielder could (with feats to spare).

[ August 15, 2002, 11:41: Message edited by: Vormaerin ]

 

Vormaerin ... get a life (just joking)

Seriously ...

... for me its about the character feel. I had a good time with the +1 Double Bladed Sword, but found the +1 Greatsword much more "in character" for my paladin.

Recently I found a Dire Mace with some specail bonuses against goblinoids ... I haven't used it yet, but its in my bag of holding for times when I feel like bashing skulls.

I'm not criticising powergamers...but for me this is a retreat *away* from number crunching and hard logic.

My saying, "If it feels good ... kill with it!!!!"

 

Of course. This isn't Diablo, where some weapons are just too ineffective to be used. My NWN fighter used morningstar and sickle for most of the campaign.

I just got annoyed because these threads keep appearing and keep being full of misinformation.

 

Hmmmmmm... Just HOW many times has this been done so far ???

A message to anyone who plans to ask this sort of question: look over old topics, if its a question on NWN, also look in the 2nd/3rd ed. form, its done all the time over there too...



So to answer the question initially asked: I prefer the two-bladed, just 'cus I think they look cool...

 

I was finally attacked by skeletons last night and got to use my nifty dire mace. I like the way the ends glow...but it didn't "fit" me well, nor did I hit with it enough.

Oh well, at least I looked good while they hit me