Double Weapons: Popularity?

[Kemrain]

Gyrspike's my favourite double weapon!

-Hyp.

I prefer Swordchucks.

- Kemrain the Blithe

 

[Jon Potter]

The lone advantage I can see is if you frequently wish to switch back and forth from two-weapon to two-handed-weapon styles during the same combat. A double weapon allows you to do that without needing to drop the off hand weapon or spend an action to stow it.

In the campaign I'm in, I play a barbarian/ranger and the ability to switch back and forth is exactly the reason that I burned a feat on the Orcish Double Axe. He's all about Charge + 2-handed Power Attack before switching to TWF on successive rounds (assuming that his opponent's still standing).

Of course, there were some other roleplay reasons to take the weapon. It's the former weapon of an orc chief that he killed early on in his career. He had it reforged into a masterwork weapon. Did I mention that orcs are his favored enemy? Ah, the irony...

 

[houser2112]

The paladin in our last epic campaign used a double sword, and the DM allowed him to add 1.5x Str to all damage rolls, including when TWF. Is that not how it works?

 

[Jdvn1]

No, that's not how it works. It's 1x Str on the primary attack and .5x Str on the secondary when you TWF.

 

[ThirdWizard]

I've never seen a PC use a double weapon. I've had NPCs weild them, however. There's a barbarian orc mercenary in my current campaign who the PCs have grouped with (even though they didn't want to) a few times. Of course, now he's a vampire barbarian orc, but I digress.

 

[Hypersmurf]

No, that's not how it works. It's 1x Str on the primary attack and .5x Str on the secondary when you TWF.

While this certainly seems to be the intention, you can actually find people who'll argue that this is never actually stated in the rules - they'll argue for 1.5x / .5x.

It's stated that an off-hand attack adds .5x Str bonus to damage. However, your primary attack is still an attack with a two-handed weapon - and the statement about double weapons being treated as a combination of one-handed and light weapon is in reference to "the normal attack penalties associated with two-weapon combat". 1x Str bonus is not a normal attack penalty associated with two-weapon combat", and thus, people argue that it's not affected by the ruling.

(The one-handed/light rule also applies to Power Attack, as described in the feat text.)

-Hyp.

 

[Evilhalfling]

I have had an NPC use a rat-staff (Warrens of the Ratmen) because he was a hunter of the above, while many of the Slitherin Ftrs used them. I have had 2 PC monks enquire about using a staff, and TWF adding in monk flurry as well. Neither has actually played that charater.

Other than that nothing, I wrote also wrote up a gnome hookhammer wielder, for PbP but it was for silliness as much as expecting any use from it. That campaign died before I got a chance to play it.

Yeah I vote it gets dropped, the idea is just to costly in terms of a feat, and the increased rarity of trying to find one or having your own enchanted.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Counting quarterstaves I have seen 4 double weapons in my game.

Not counting quarterstaves I have seen 1, the spiked chain. Most double weapons get comments like 'wow, that's kewl', where kewl translates to 'really, really stupid!' Hooked hammers and dire flails get the coveted 'what, were they baked?' award.

The Auld Grump

He was using some funky prestige class, from Scarred Lands, which does treat the silly thing as a double weapon. Then shortly thereafter I stopped running Scarred Lands, the two events were not causualy linked, I got the Iron Kingdoms character primer.... But you are right, that is a class feature, not the weapon - there are also feats (in NBoF) for using halberds as double weapons. Having seen halberds in use I am inclined to agree, though the town guard in my homebrew had the feat none of the characters ever got into a fight with them.

The Auld Grump

 

[Plane Sailing]

quarterstaff - several

other funky double weapons - none.

 

[Hypersmurf]

But you are right, that is a class feature, not the weapon - there are also feats (in NBoF) for using halberds as double weapons.

There's a bizarre Combat Style feat in Complete Warrior, with TWF as a prerequisite. It lets you get an off-hand attack with the butt of the halberd at -5, but you don't actually treat the halberd as a double weapon... so you still get 1.5x Str bonus with the head of the weapon, and take no penalty on your primary attacks. On the downside, since it's not being treated as a double weapon, you can't get extra attacks with the butt for ITWF, GTWF, etc.

-Hyp.