Balancing Two-Weapon fighting

[airwalkrr]

Rangers actually have at least one saving grace. Whenever they are fighting their favored enemies they get that bonus damage to each attack, which, while not quite as substantial as sneak attack, is definitely worth considering. But I've found most players who understand the game well seem to favor rangers taking the archery path. There is also one big difference between a ranger choosing TWF and a fighter choosing TWF: a fighter has many other choices besides TWF. A ranger gets only two. And if the player has no interested in being specialized in ranged attacks, then having TWF is better than having no TWF. Finally, rangers have a principle advantage over fighters in the TWF department. They don't have to invest any points in Dex to get the feats. So a ranger can put his highest scores into Str and Con while a fighter might have to put his highest or second-highest score into Dex and maybe even spend some ability points on it just to qualify for the prereqs.

I don't see TWF as being the main reason to become a ranger though. It's a side-benefit to keep you marginally competitive in damage output with classes like the fighter or barbarian. A ranger is a class that fills multiple roles. They can fight almost as well as a fighter, sneak about as good as any other character, move quickly through the wilderness, and cast a small number of spells. In other words, I don't agree with your assessment that the game is saying the TWF chain is okay for classes without large amounts of bonus damage (outside of favored enemies that is). The game is merely giving them a little bit of a combat boost in the form of bonus feats. Could there be a better use for those feats? Sure. But if you want flexibility in choosing your bonus combat feats, play a fighter.

 

[Dandu]

Samurai, then.

Also, I find it interesting that you mention archery, as archery is, again, much better if you have a source of bonus damage, like sneak attack, but unlike Favored Enemy, which doesn't provide enough of a bonus to damage against Favored Enemies, and as you noticed, does not work at all against other creatures. Which strikes me as a problem if you fight a diverse set of encounters.

And if the player has no interested in being specialized in ranged attacks, then having TWF is better than having no TWF.

Disagreed. If you end up lowering your DPS by TWFing, then it's actually worse than not having the feat in the first place.

Finally, rangers have a principle advantage over fighters in the TWF department. They don't have to invest any points in Dex to get the feats. So a ranger can put his highest scores into Str and Con while a fighter might have to put his highest or second-highest score into Dex and maybe even spend some ability points on it just to qualify for the prereqs.

On the flip side, Rangers don't have Heavy Armor Proficiency, so you're still looking at investing points in Dex to avoid being hit. And Int for skills, and Wis for spellcasting.