dual wielding

[Diomeneus]

ok so i've had practically no sleep so excuse any odd bits...

what is the benefit of dual wielding with a ranger? as far as I can tell dual wielding just adds +1 damage... so why have a 1H weapon as an off-hand?

also... there are no rules for gestalt so I kinda just used the same concept as in 3.5 (higher of two, but no stacking) and started making a fighter/ranger for fun.

 

[cmbarona]

How much of a damage increase depends on what you're comparing it to. Going from a d6 (short sword) to a d12 (waraxe), for example, is hardly insignificant. It also helps for flavor purposes and, for some weapons, allows certain enchantments otherwise unattainable (not entirely sure about that, though... I'm not too familiar with double weapons).

I have no idea what gestalt is, so someone else will have to asnwer that question.

 

[daHeadRat]

There are also a number of Ranger Exploits that require the character to be wielding two weapons (or possibly a ranged weapon) like Twin Strike, Dire Wolverine Strike, and Two-Fanged Strike. Some of them also specify two attacks, one with the main weapon and one with the off-hand weapon if melee, and the ability to use a 1H weapon as opposed to just an off-hand weapon is beneficial there (e.g., two longswords vs. a longsword and a shortsword) damagewise.

 

[Kordeth]

ok so i've had practically no sleep so excuse any odd bits...

what is the benefit of dual wielding with a ranger? as far as I can tell dual wielding just adds +1 damage... so why have a 1H weapon as an off-hand?

Err...because rangers have a ton of exploits that allow them to attack with the weapon in their main hand and the weapon in their off-hand? Would you rather be twin striking with a d10 bastard sword and a d6 short sword, or with two d10 bastard swords?

 

[Diomeneus]

alright thanks guys... for some reason I was looking at simply the static gain of dual wielding and forgot entirely about the rangers powers using off hand or requiring two weapons.