Half-Orc Two-Weapon Fighter: Is There Any Point?

[Felon]

I've been thinking about making a half-orc 2WF fighter. The thing is, 2WF builds are as feat-intensive as they get. If I played human I'd get a bonus feat, and if I played a dwarf I'd get proficiency with the waraxe--a great 2WF weapon--plus all the other goodies a dwarf gets.

With a half-orc, I'd get +2 Str, which as far as damage goes I could lose on my off-hand attack due to rounding down.

Is there really any way to take advantage of being a half-orc with such a build?

 

[frankthedm]

Good carry capacity, full speed and darkvision.

Carry flasks of water to put out your foes torches.

Being able to one-drop barbarian, therest ranger sounds useful.

 

[Shin Okada]

Basically, TWF is not that much efficient from the beginning.

But at least, unless you go finesse-build, STR modifier is used for hit-rolls of melee attacks, regardless of builds. And half-orcs has the highest str amongst core races.

A Half-Orc TWF fighter has some edge against TWF fighters of other race?
Yes.

A Half-Orc TWF fighter is stronger than other Half-Orc fighters?
I don't know. Maybe not.

I would go for Barbarian x/Fighter x build. Maybe getting Tempest prestige class (Complete Adventurer) later.

Single-class Ranger could be a good choice as you don't need that much high Dex to get (virtual) Improved TWF feat and such.

 

[Felon]

Well, dwarves and humans can multi-class as barbarian/fighters just as easily.

As soon as the half-orc straps on anything other than light armor, he's the same speed as a dwarf.

Encumbrance isn't a major concern in most campaigns.

 

[pawsplay]

Barbarian 3/Fighter X would round out your saves, give you a favorable hit point total, and give you uncanny dodge. It would also give you a chance to warm up your BAB before getting too deep into the two weapon fighting.

As far as advantages, most dual wielding builds involve essentially no Int or Cha, and I can't think of any truly essential skills. Thus, the Str works out to being a free increase. Consider darkvision as being equivalent to a non-focused but still useful feat.

Now, if I were going to do straight up fighter, I would try to play to his strengths. That means Power Attack, and probably Cleave at second level. Definitely use weapons with a good crit range. Basically, try to maximize the number of attacks you are rolling and hope for lucky 20s. Your Str will cushion the cost of Power Attack very favorably. I would definitely focus on offense over defense, and as a corollary to that, I think I would take Two Weapon Defense over Improved Buckler Defense and spend my coin elsewhere, probably energy damage on your weapons as soon as you can get it.

The point, mainly, I think, would be to be hulking and ugly, trade a feat for a little more Strength, and to have darkvision. There is no reason that a TWF build has to be feat intensive; there are definitely diminishing returns. Also, if you went straight fighter, Weapon Specialization is unusually attractive, either using matched weapons or taking the Tempest route.

Half-orc barbarian/fighter/tempest? Oh, yeah.

 

[IndyPendant]

To answer the OP's question as directly as possible: if you're looking at the numbers only, half-orc is teh suk. Take Dwarf (for the abilities) or Human (for the bonus feat) instead. --However, as has already been pointed out, if less bluntly, for anyone except (arguably) the rogue, TWF is also teh suk in 3.5e.

With a *lot* of effort and tweaking, as well as copious amounts of non-core material, you can eventually drag a TWF fighter up to almost--but not quite--the level of a sword-and-board or 2H fighter. The TWF fighter concept will fight you kicking and screaming every step of the way however, and it is *very* easy to end up with a sub-optimal char when going TWF fighter.

Just a word of warning. : )

 

[pawsplay]

I think that's putting it rather strongly. In certain areas, TWF really excels.

 

[moritheil]

Archetypical 2h power attackers begin to really suffer if the DM is in the habit of building NPCs with high AC, elusive target, and/or mighty are fallen.

TWFers definitely suffer the most from DR if they can't penetrate it, though.

 

[Jdvn1]

My first character was a Half-Orc TWFer, and he was really, really powerful. Through the course of the Fighter class, you end up getting plenty feats anyway, so the extra one from being Human isn't as big a deal. TWFing is feat-intensive, true, but mostly only at low levels. Once you get all the 'essential' feats, you'll run out of feats to take.

At least, that's what I did. I did 8 or 10 levels of Fighter with my HOTWFer, ran out of feats to take, and then decided to multiclass. I still ended up taking feats like Track because it was both thematic (I took the Tribal Protector PrC, back in 3.0) and it filled up a feat slot. That PrC also gave me an extra attack, which was nice. When I took Exotic Weapons Master (3.5 came out mid-campaign... though it was a very long campaign), I ended up getting another attack.

Before too long and without too much effort, I ended up with nine attacks (4 iterative attacks, 3 extra from TWFing, 1 from Tribal Protector, 1 from EWM) not counting Haste--I'm sure you could find a way to get more attacks, too. With so many attacks, every point of BAB counts, too, since you want your later attacks to hit as well.

My Fighter was the strongest fighter in the party, which included a very strong sword-and-board fighter, a Paladin with some crazy GM-granted items, and a spiked-chain-wielding Ranger (back when it was possible to TWF it). Mind you, this is my first character, and everyone else had much more experience building characters. I just got lucky by choosing a theme (Half-Orc with Orc Double Axe, outcast but expert warrior from his tribe) and sticking to it. Of course, everyone's experiences are different, but it worked very well for me.

 

[Jdvn1]

TWFers definitely suffer the most from DR if they can't penetrate it, though.

True, though this is alleviated by the Sense Weakness feat from the Draconomicon. Bypass 5 points of all DRs and hardnesses.