Weapons choice

[kelabb]

I have a level 8 (nearly 9) Paladin, currently specced to HOTD who will respec to KOTC around level 14 or 15... when I start finding more evil outsiders than undead.

I currently have several weapons to choose from, and it is help with this that I seek.

1. Carnifex.
2. +2 Keen Falchion of Righteousness (Crit range 15-20)
3. +1 Enfeebling Flaming Falchion of Righteousness (Crit range 18-20, 1d6 off Strength)
4. +1 Crippling Falchion of Righteousness (Crit range 18-20, half speed on crit)
5. T'kortcha Family scimitar (+4 darkwood shield)
6. +1 Inquisitor's Sword (+1, silver, +4 darkwood shield)
7. Muckbane +4 darkwood shield.

Now, the Scimitar and shield is for when I'm hard pressed, the silver vs vampires & werewolves and the muckbane vs oozes and their ilk.

I understand the extended crit range of the Keen Falchion will help when I'm getting other divine bonuses on crits, but that isn't right now.

At this stage, which weapon should I consider my primary, and for what reasons?

Thanks,

[Seelowe]

that also depends on how you have specced your toon. does he have any two weapon fighting feats? or two handed weapon feats?
carniflex is a typical weapon for the levels you get it if you are a two handed fighter for example.
on the other hand, if you find yourself soloing a lot. using a shield and full plate/mithral full plate at lower levels actually gives you a useful AC, that makes you more survivable.

just some food for thought^^

[Gercho]

From what you listed, carnifex is the best for most situations, switch as needed to break dr, and go sword and board when you need the ac, a +5 plain falchion or GA could be nice to have when you notice you are missing a lot.
Knowing your feats would give us more info though.

[Trunk-Monkey]

By looking at the weapon types listed, I'm guessing that you are going THF, and not really geared/spec'd for AC. I did the same thing with my TR Pally, and found the Carniflex to be the best all around 2-hander until lvl10/12. At lvl 12 i am using my +++ Falchion, which is pretty sweet. I will plan to use HolySword at lvl14 for DR weapons. When i am going against the occasional construct or ooze, i will switch to dual mucks or smiters. I havent noticed the TWF penalty as much of an issue.

[MithrilSoul]

Well just as an experiment I ran the numbers on your 2handed choices, using a +9 strength bonus just as a ballpark guesstimate. (And I am presuming the flaming weapon is 1d6 flame damage, I hope that's correct).

PRESUMING you are attacking things you have no problems hitting (i.e. you are only missing when you roll a natural 1), then here are the numbers I got over 20 attacks (one roll each of 1 through 20). Note all of these are assuming "normal" reaction to fire; obviously for fire immune creatures the flaming falchion loses all its appeal:

Against Crittable, Evil Creatures

* 472.5 damage - Carnifex
* 450.0 damage - Keen Falchion
* 396.5 damage - Flaming Falchion

Against Crit Immune, Evil Creatures

* 351.5 damage - Flaming Falchion
* 342.0 damage - Keen Falchion
* 332.5 damage - Carnifex

Against Crittable, Good/Neutral Creatures

* 472.5 damage - Carnifex
* 400.0 damage - Keen Falchion
* 396.5 damage - Flaming Falchion

Against Crit Immune, Good/Neutral Creatures

* 351.5 damage - Flaming Falchion
* 332.5 damage - Carnifex
* 304.0 damage - Keen Falchion


So unless I screwed up the math somewhere, there are your numbers. Against anything crittable, Carnifex wins out. Against anything crit immune (assuming it takes normal fire damage), the Flaming Falchion wins out. If you were to face something immune to both crits and fire (but evil), then the Keen Falchion would win out.

HOWEVER, the one thing not considered here is "to hit" factor. Remember, all of these numbers are assuming that you are hitting on any to hit roll of 2 or higher. Since it is rather uncommon for us to be in that situation, what you might discover is that in your "real life" fighting (assuming you are tackling at-level or higher content), at least against evil creatures, the Keen Falchion ends up being your standard go-to weapon because it will have a total +4 to hit modifier due to the bonus from Righteousness, as compared to Carnifex with only a +2 hit modifier. If the higher hit modifier of the Keen Falchion lets you land 2 more blows per 20 swings than you can land with Carnifex, then actually the total damage-over-time of the Keen Falchion surpasses that of Carnifex. (Again, that's only a factor against evil creatures.)

Also not factored into any of this is the use of Power Attack, Divine Might, Divine Favor, etc. But at that point it just starts getting too complicated to be worthwhile trying to tease out all the numbers.

[Gercho]

Well, you dont need to do the math to know that carnifex sucks against non criticable mobs :P, its just a +2 great axe against those cretures...
The rule of thumb is simple, carnifex against criticable, +5 dr bypassing against dr creatures (maul vs squeleton for example), +5 whatever against non criticable non dr (+4 elemental or pg its better dps usually, if you can get them, and elemental of pg +3 is even better )
(thats to use easy to get weapons without twinking)

[kelabb]

I appreciate all your posts in relation to my quandary. Thanks heaps.

Now all I have to research is critable/not critable mobs... heheheh

[Gercho]

Undead, constructs and slimes/oozes are never criticable, at your level most other creatures are criticable, at higher levels some creatures not on those categories may have heavy fortification, or moderate (crit 50%) but you can use the undead/construct/oozes criteria pretty all the time for your actual weapons.