Bastard Sword

[SvikC]

I am new to this game and enjoying my Vanguard Fighter (for I love Sword and Board playstyle). I love it being in middle ground- having decent DPS as well as tankiness. Also I love CC of this class.
However, I was deciding to take exotic weapon proficiency next, and I am in a dilemma. People say everywhere Khopesh is best, but I love to see my elf (yeah, I am rolling elf warrior, not human or dwarf, coz it looks cool :P and I am not planning to invest in racial anyway) wielding a shield and a big sword. However, is it really not wise to take Bastard sword proficiency instead of Khopesh proficiency? I don't want to get scolded after joining a party for wielding BS instead of Khopesh because it's probably trash compared to Khopesh.

Edit:

When I think of Khopesh, I imagine Khopesh and Tower Shield wielding Warrior with light Armor, and Big sword small shield wielding warrior in heavy Armor

[Krelar]

I don't think anyone has said khopeshes are best for at least a few months now.

Longs swords with the knights training feat are just as good and gives you some other weapon options as well.

Bastard sword is good if you also take the two-handed fighting feats, they give strikethrough with bastard swords and dwarven axes as long as you are not dual wielding.

So basically it's one feat to do better damage against a single enemy, or several feats to do decent damage to multiple enemies.

[SvikC]

I don't think anyone has said khopeshes are best for at least a few months now.

Longs swords with the knights training feat are just as good and gives you some other weapon options as well.

Bastard sword is good if you also take the two-handed fighting feats, they give strikethrough with bastard swords and dwarven axes as long as you are not dual wielding.

So basically it's one feat to do better damage against a single enemy, or several feats to do decent damage to multiple enemies.

Oh! I see. I was going through old discussions and most of them discussed how Khopesh is the best exotic weapon to go for, followed by Dwarven Waraxe if u r dwarf. So I was a bit worried if people get angry to see me with Bastard Sword instead of Khopesh!

[unbongwah]

Six months ago, SSG buffed the Two Handed Fighting (THF) feats with Strikethrough and higher damage modifier bonus. While these changes mostly benefited 2H weapons, they also improved S&B builds which use bastard swords or dwarven waraxes (the so-called "hand-and-a-half" exotic weapons). As such, the khopesh-wielding tank is obsolete IMO. [It's probably been obsolete since the Knight's Training feat came out, but that's a moot point now.]

As for which weapon is better...it's complicated. Dwarves should use waraxes to benefit from the free proficiency and extra Strikethrough in their racial tree. For other races it's a toss-up but there's probably more / better named options for b.swords than d.axes.

Also one upside to an elf fighter would be grabbing the Dragonmark feat and investing in the racial enhancements to grab Displacement for 12 APs. You're still a newbie so 50% concealment is a huge advantage on a class which otherwise doesn't get any defensive buff spells.

[Buddha5440]

Now if they could just be a favored weapon for Eberron Paladins...

I miss the strikethrough on my Pally (KotC/SacDef) but the extra to-hit/damage and the up to +45 melee power(with favored weapons) are too much to pass up, especially with the numerous AoE attacks in KotC.