Way to grant longsword "off-hand" property

[MasterGarrow05]

I could swear I heard of some way to give the longsword or some other heavy blade the "offhand" property. Was it a magic weapon? I know it can be USED in the off hand with the ranger ability or the ranger mutliclass feat, but if it gets the off-hand PROPERTY, it is more effective in the hands of a tempest technique fighter.

Anyone have any clues how to do this? I searched adventurer's vault for an item, and the compendium for feats. No luck. An eladrin tempest fighter with two longswords is what I'm going for, but it sucks to give up that +1 attack just because the longsword can't get the off hand property.

 

[Anguirus]

Nope. Can't have your cake and eat it too, I'm afraid.

However, I have a dirty little secret. If you take the "one-hand" style, you get that +1 to both hands. Then you just have to make sure you take Two-Blade Warrior at first level and voila. Then just take "tempest" type powers.

 

[Danceofmasks]

Not that I want to dredge up an old argument, but you can't wield two longswords since it doesn't have the off-hand property.

AFAIK, the only way to wield 2 longswords is to be a ranger.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

a feat in martial power called fey blades...

 

[ghearus]

Nope, sorry... the closest you get is the feat "Two-Blade Warrior", a Ranger multi-class feat that grants:

You gain training in one skill from the ranger’s class skill list.
You can wield a one-handed weapon in your off hand as though it were an off-hand weapon.

Unfortunately, this does not benefit a Tempest Warrior very much as it doesn't grant them the off-hand property, it simply allows them to be dual-wielded.

 

[ghearus]

a feat in martial power called fey blades...

Fey Blades grants a +1 damage bonus to Eladrin wielding any combination of two heavy or light blades.

 

[bganon]

If you're set on being an Eladrin Tempest Fighter, take the proficiency feat and dual-wield katars. Just pretend they're unusually made longswords. You won't notice the d8->d6 change much: the damage bonuses from Tempest Technique, Fey Blades, and Weapon Focus will all stack! That's +4 damage on top of Str and enhancement and you can get it by 4th level.

If you insist on two longswords you need Two-Blade Warrior, and have to lose +1 to attack. But then you can pick up Eladrin Soldier in addition to Fey Blades, so you're still at +4 damage.

I'd go for the katars, though. You don't need multiclassing to do it, which means you can pick up Ranger or Rogue striker damage once per encounter later if you want.

 

[Anguirus]

If you insist on two longswords you need Two-Blade Warrior, and have to lose +1 to attack. But then you can pick up Eladrin Soldier in addition to Fey Blades, so you're still at +4 damage.

Or, as I suggested, be a one-handed fighter instead of a Tempest. The ONLY thing you lose is the ability to take Fey Blades, which is a mere +1 to damage. (It's just a stackable TWF, so it's worthless unless you took Weapon Focus and TWF anyway. There are better feats.) Getting a +1 to both your attacks, just like a Tempest, is clarly the way to go.

 

[MasterGarrow05]

Thanks all, for your input. Well, I can't believe I didn't think of Guardian Fighter for +1 to hit with both longswords.

The end goal, I think, is to become a blade banshee (ranger paragon, martial power). It has absolutely no ranger flavor whatsoever, and is strictly for eladrin. The imagery of thunder-bursting blades, and the wis bonus to damage for every attack, is quite inticing. The paragon requires a longsword.

I just am married to the concept of eladrin wielding at least one longsword. I will be out some damage in the beginning because of the feats I can't use and no tempest technique, but in the end I think the blade banshee damage will make up for it. I was just hoping for that extra push into optimization nirvana. Ah well, thanks anyway.

By the way, once you get to 16th level with the build, you are really kicking out some damage for a defender. You should have enough dex that your reflex is good, your initiative is good, you can take feats to improve your scale mail use and your heavy blade use, and thanks to martial power there are a lot of fighter powers that grant you dex to damage when you wield a heavy blade or have combat advantage, and some of those are two-blade powers. Wisdom comes above dex though, at least it should. At 30th you could be getting +6 to every attack made with your longswords, in addition to strength +7, other +6 magic weapon, other modifiers, and occasionally dex of +4. Focusing on wis also makes you still good at defender-ing, great combat superiority for instance. AC won't be bad with specialized scale mail and 2 weapon defense. And for flair, I like some of the charging powers and the charging feats available to eladrin in martial power.

 

[Danceofmasks]

Looks reasonably solid.
Just be sure to remember that close attacks do not count as melee attacks.