Monk GTWF last attack chain TERRIBLE imo...

[EinarMal]

But yes, that would certainly improve things for the THF folk,

Except it is fine the way it is despite what you might read on the forums. If you twitch with THF you end up with already just as high or higher DPS on a single target as TWF. Nobody does the math they just assume it is higher (I used to make the same mistake because people say it so often you actually believe it). In two days THF will be fine, and if you twitch with the proper build you will have the highest DPS in the game (non sneak attack based).

[Xionanx]

Yeah they really need to come up with 4 animations for each style, and make all the attacks of each animation (of the same style) take the same amount of time (also the same as moving attacks).

Make BAB add to your attack bonus and give a speed increase as you increase in BAB (like Tempest etc...) but it would of course stack with everything and be an inherent speed for that BAB.

It would be a much better system. They could also easily balance styles by varying the time it takes for each style's base animations.

So maybe you have the following progressions

Unarmed and One Weapon - Fastest base animation
THF - Middle base animation
TWF - Slowest base animation

So, unarmed/one weapon my take 2.4s to compete 4 attacks, THF might take 2.6s to complete 4 attacks, and TWF might take 2.8s to make 8 attacks (GTWF).

So attacks per minute would look something like:

Unarmed/One Weapon = 100 attacks per minute (200 w/ GTWF and unarmed)
THF = 92 attacks per minute
TWF = 171 attacks per minute

Or something like that...

Now as BAB increases you increase each of the attacks per minute, but keep the ratio the same between the styles to balance DPS output a bit.

I actually posted something similar in another thread

However I like the idea of combining what I posted there with Borroro's idea of Giving the full attack chain at level 1 then simply giving incremental attack speed increases.

A level 1 character would then have a 3 second swing combo of 4 swings, resulting in 80 swings per minute at level 1 regardless of fighting style. This would require some coding and animation changes to normalize the attack speed of all the styles, but is within what I would consider reason. As a character's BAB increases, the swings per minute would increase at a rate of +1 per BAB for a total of 100 swings per minute at level 20; or simply a 1.25% increase in attack speed per BAB for a total of 25% increase at BAB 20. This "%" increase could be considered "inherent" and therefore could stack with other attack speed increases.

As a result ALL weapon styles would have an equalized attack rate and follow a linear speed progression that could be modified "on the fly" to accomodate. For example:

A one handed weapon user is getting 80 attacks per minute at level 1. That person decides to pick up a second weapon and become a two weapon fighter. This would instantly grant a 25% increase in attack speed to accomodate the 1 extra swing per "round" a TWF is supposed to get. Resulting in exactly 100 swings per minute, or effectively 5 swings in a 3 second "round".

This person then aquires the ITWF feat, granting an additional 25% attack speed increase for a total of 50% increase which results in 120 swings per minute. Once picking up GTWF the total increase raises to 75% for 140 swings per minute. Combined with leveling a person would recieve at BAB 20 a total of 160 swings per minute.

Effectively this gives a "Base" for all the speed increases available of 80.

Base Swings per Minute 80
Haste Speed Increase 25% = 20 Additional Swings per minute
Insight Bonus of 10% = 8 Additional Swings per minute
TWF bonus of 25% = 20 additional swings
ITWF bonus of 25% = 20 additional swings
GTWF bonus of 25% = 20 additional swings
BAB 20 bonus of 25% = 20 addional swings

Resulting in a total of 188 Swings per minutes for a GTWF Hasted Tempest character at BAB 20. Which I might add is actually LESS then the projected 209 Swings per minute for the same character under the current system.

But why slow down the TWF tempest beast? Because it would make the game more balanced by:

1. Increasing the overall attack speed of other weapon styles.
2. Decreasing the currently overpowered TWF style (it would still be the fastest attack style)
3. Make a level 1 character feel more heroic with a 4 swing chain
4. Even out the attack speed increase granted by leveling

I would also suggest under this proposed change to re-visit ranged combat, allowing for an "equal" number of attacks as melee as long as the character is NOT moving. Moving would result in the reduced rate of fire currently present. Of course this would also entail recoding "Rapid shot" and "Many Shot" to be always on feats that simply grant a % attack speed increase rather then thier current function.