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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Storm Raven" data-source="post: 1007536" data-attributes="member: 307">Wrong. Most monsters of CR 5 or higher don't have energy protection against every particular type of energy. As the wielder of an energy enhanced weapon, you only have to worry about creatures with immunity to the energy type of your weapon, a very small fraction of the creatures you face.Yes there are. And they have to choose the specific energy type you use. Thus, if you have a shocking weapon, the fact that a fire giant has fire resistance is irrelevant.Provided (a) your opponent or his ally prepared that spell; (b) your opponent chose the type of energy you use, and (c) decided to cast it in time.Umm, have you ever read the elemental bloodline feat? Did you even pay attention when you read through materials like Races of Faerun?Sure.Except that this only applies to (a) opponents who are spellcasters, (b) who have prepared the spell ahead of time, (c) who chose the right energy type to resist.Right. So? This is an attribute of the rogue class, not the attributes of the weapons. The rapier is the only medium sized martial weapon on the rogue proficiency list. The fact that it is a better weapon than other rogue choices is not going to change. Martial weapons are flat-out better than simple weapons, that's a fact of life.But the rapier is no more or less effective as a weapon than a longsword.They take keen because it seems cool. The simple fact of the matter is that just about every other +1 base enhancement (including just a straight +1 enhancement) is generally a better buy than keen.If he has feats to spare. But he's generally better off taking a number of other feats. Improved Critical is pretty far down the list of useful feats to take. After the rogue/fighter takes Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, Expertise, and probably Dodge, Mobility, and Spring Attack, then he may want to take Improved Critical, but that's a long list to go through. And that doesn't even begin to consider whether he would want to take anything from Song & Silence or something like that.The only problem with this analysis is that the rapier is no better at critical hits than any other medium martial weapon. You take a flail for a disarm fighter because it is better for disarming than other weapons. You take a guisarme for a trip fighter because you can make trip attacks with it (unlike a glaive, or halberd, which cannot be used to trip).In terms of dealing out critical hit damage a rapier is identical to a longsword, which is identical to a battlexe, which is identical to a scimitar. The problems you seem to think are a big deal all revolve around the nature of the rogue class, and have nothing to do with the nature of the rapier, the nature of Improved Critical, or the nature of the keen enhancement.In short, your analysis (and Mike's analysis to the extent that he asserts that taking a rapier is a no-brainer for a critical hit focused fighter) simply doesn't hold water.</blockquote>

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