bastard swords, dwarf axes and monkeygrip,2 handers and associated damage bonus.

[bigolbear]

There has been a lot of discussion recently on the forums about king khopesh.

Fact is its simply the best 1 hander there is assuming non auto crit scenarios. Firstly id like to say im fine with this, its exotic and needs a feat and should be good, however the other exotic weapons still arent up to par despite the recent changes to glancing blows with bastard sword and dwarf axe.

PART 1:My suggestion is quite a simple one.

Allow these hand and a half weapons to be weilded either 2 handed or 1 handed. If you have the weapon in your main hand and nothing in your off hand then let them count as 2 handed weapons in all respects ( double PA damage, glancing blows, STR*1.5 on damage)

This will give the dwarf axe and bastard sword a versatility that khopesh cant match, and some one who chooses to specialise in these weapons will not have to carry around aditional 2 handers for when they want DPS rather than defence.

PART 2:
In additon to this bring in the feat monkey grip. allowing some one to weild a large weapon (eg greatsowrd) in one hand. Again whether the weapon is being weilded in 1 hand or 2 would simply be determined by whether there is anything in the off hand slot. Further more if the 2 handed weapon is being weilded in 1 hand it will count as a 1 handed weapon for damage purposes (normal PA, and STR *1) however due to the weapon sise you could apply glancing blows just as they are applied for dwarf axe and bastard sword.

The result of these changes would be as follows:
Comparing a bastard sword weilding fighter (lvl5 str 20 feats all spent on tuffness and saves) with a greatsword weilding fighter that has monkey grip
SWORD AND BOARD:
bastard sword - +5 to hit, d10 +10 damage (+5 pa, +5 str) + glancing blows. crit 19-20 *2
greatsword - +3 to hit, 2d6 + 10 damage (+5 pa, +5 str) + glancing blows. crit 19-20 *2
2 HANDED:
bastard sword - +5 to hit, d10 +17 damage (+10 pa, +7 str) + glancing blows. crit 19-20 *2
greatsword - +5 to hit, 2d6 + 17 damage (+10 pa, +7 str) + glancing blows. crit 19-20 *2

I think these changes would bring the traditional hand and a half weapons up to pace with other options. The damage on a hand and a half will be marginaly lower than that of a 2 hander but there is a saving on inventory space and no attack penalty when fighting sword and board. For people who want to go sword and board using smaller weapons (longsword, mace etc) the advantage they would have is that they would not have to consider using any feats on either an exotic weapon or monkey grip or the THF line.

PART3:
all bonus's to damage from class or race enhancements should be doubled for 2 handed weapons, for example dwarfs axe damage bonus should be +2 to 1 handed axes and +4 to great axes, same goes for figher enhancements. There has been a slow trend in this direction with things such as kensai but its not fully there yet.
This should also be applied to feats such as weapon spec. This is currently partly implemented as far as i can tell.

PART4: (im a bit dubios on this as i actualy think this may be what glancing blows are doing, opinions welcome)
This is a 'fix' i applied to a pen and paper game where TWF got a bit out of hand.

All damage bonus's from external sources such as bard song, or temporary personal damage buffs such as smite, divine favour or damage boosts should apply in the folowing manner.
*1 to main hand when 1 handed or sword and board.
*0.5 to off hand (round down)
*1.5 to 2 handed weapons. (again round down)

Thankyou for reading this wall of text,maths and inevitable typos. opinons welcome, lets keep the discusion civil tho please.

[Therigar]

The problem with your suggestion is that no 2-handed attack will out DPS a 2-weapon attack. A player with dwarven axe won't fight 2-handed, they will grab two dwarven axes and use the TWF line.

Even if they were willing to settle for lower DPS they would not choose dwarven axe or bastard sword. The crit ranges and crit multipliers do not out perform the great axe (v dwarven axe) or great sword (v bastard sword). Because both of these true two-handed weapons have higher base damage they will be better -- meaning no reason to choose an exotic weapon over a martial weapon.

Even dwarves, who get the exotic weapon free (dwarven axe), would still do better with a standard great axe.

[Hobgoblin]

also iirc monkey grip doesnt allow you to use a twohander in one hand, but allows you to weapons one size catagory then you would normally be able to.

hob

[Noctus]

also iirc monkey grip doesnt allow you to use a twohander in one hand, but allows you to weapons one size catagory then you would normally be able to.

hob

This.

Monkey Grip would allow you to use a "Large (as in size category) Longsword" in one hand, albeit with an additional -2 malus to your to-hit. - Who´s combat stats would be 2d6 - 19-20/x2.

But they are not the same weapon. You cant just grab up a nicely "Medium Greatsword" you just found coincidentally near that dead body over there and wield it in one hand. You have to get your hands on a Large Longsword somehow, most probably by ordering it at a smithy, or by looting some Large Humanoid-form monsters like Giants most probably.



Click HERE for the rules concerning weapon categories and weapon sizes.

[Angelus_dead]

But they are not the same weapon. You cant just grab up a nicely "Medium Greatsword" you just found coincidentally near that dead body over there and wield it in one hand. You have to get your hands on a Large Longsword somehow, most probably by ordering it at a smithy, or by looting some Large Humanoid-form monsters like Giants most probably.

For over 5,000 years, the standard procedure for magic weapons created on X'endrik has been to enchant them to auto-scale for wielders from Drow to Storm Giant.

[DevilButcher]

Trap monkeys should come with the feat Monkey Grip...