Archery vs. TWF

[jasin]

I haven't looked through all the ranger powers, so I might be wrong, but it seems like TWF is at a distinct disadvantage compared to archery.

There are a lot of powers which require either a ranged weapon or two melee weapons and allow two attacks. This means that a TWF ranger will have to spend double the money on magic weapons to have the same attack and damage bonuses as the archery ranger. And that's on top of the obvious common sense benefit of archery, which is that you're not standing within the reach of the ettin's club.

Are TWF-only powers good enough to compensate for this?

 

[hong]

From what people have been saying, you don't actually get extra attacks from a second weapon. You just get a damage bonus. So, technically, you could have one super-magicked-up weapon and a rusty dagger, and you would reap all the benefits of TWF.

But I could be wrong.

 

[Ten]

From what people have been saying, you don't actually get extra attacks from a second weapon. You just get a damage bonus. So, technically, you could have one super-magicked-up weapon and a rusty dagger, and you would reap all the benefits of TWF.

But I could be wrong.

You are.

NORMALLY you gain nothing from having 2 weapons, only the option to use either of them. If you purchase 2 Weapon Fighting as a feat, you get bonus damage when holding 2 weapons.

Rangers have the ability to weild one handed weapons as if they were off-handed weapons and nothing else, but they also have a LOT of powers which say "If dual wielding, make an attack with each weapon, if using a bow shoot twice".

 

[Darth Cyric]

Are TWF-only powers good enough to compensate for this?

Two words: Blade Cascade

 

[hong]

You are.

NORMALLY you gain nothing from having 2 weapons, only the option to use either of them. If you purchase 2 Weapon Fighting as a feat, you get bonus damage when holding 2 weapons.

Rangers have the ability to weild one handed weapons as if they were off-handed weapons and nothing else, but they also have a LOT of powers which say "If dual wielding, make an attack with each weapon, if using a bow shoot twice".

Man, everybody's a critic.

 

[Sitara]

Hmm, don't you add your STR to damage when using melee weapons anymore? If so, that would be a benefit over archery, as its always been in 3e.

 

[Darth Cyric]

Hmm, don't you add your STR to damage when using melee weapons anymore? If so, that would be a benefit over archery, as its always been in 3e.

Yes, you add your STR to melee damage. It's actually archery that got bumped up, as you get to add DEX to archery damage, something you didn't do in the past.

 

[FadedC]

You add your dex to damage when using a bow, so that makes up for strength on melee. I guess 2 magic weapons means more magic weapon powers which can be nice, though there is a limit to how many daily item powers you can use in a day.

Other then that, melee definitely should be stronger then ranged, but I haven't studied it enough to have an opinion yet.

 

[Ian O'Rourke]

What I want to know is how individual the two streams are?

For example if I go the bow-fu route do I have virtually zero ability with the TWF?

Or, are a lot of the powers applicable to both? I'm probably going to go the Bow-fu route out of interest.

 

[Ten]

Man, everybody's a critic.

It's a conspiracy against you Hong