Two Hands vs Two Weapons

[shawnvw]

I have a dwarf fighter 5/ranger 2, which means that he has Two-Weapon Fighting for free. He specializes in axes, and has a large collection of dwarven axes, plus two fairly nice greataxes.

How do I decide which path to pursue: Two-handed fighting, or Two-weapon fighting (especially Oversize two-weapon fighting)?

[ManinBlaq]

Two Handed is ultimately less feats and lower requirements.

You have TWF for free as a ranger 2 -- but do you have a natural dex of 17? How about 14? If not, then unless you take 4 more levels of ranger -- you'll never be able to build upon - let alone maximize your TWF chain.


Two Handed style is best 1 vs Many, while TWF is perferrably 1 vs 1.

[Angelus_dead]

How do I decide which path to pursue: Two-handed fighting, or Two-weapon fighting (especially Oversize two-weapon fighting)?
First you make a note that TWF does more damage than THF.
Then you ask if you can afford to get TWF, which means:
1. Either 17 base dexterity, or many more ranger levels.
2. Double the inventory space spent carrying weapons.
3. Double (or more) the effort spent getting weapons.

In addition, note that TWF really needs to get all three feats to be good, while THF works well with 0-3 feats. That's all you need to know, really.