Help with feats (math needed) Imp. Crit/GTWF/OTWF

[monch9]

Hi,

I'm a Barbarian 2/Ranger 9/Fighter 6. With the following fighting feats :
Two Weapon Fighting
Improved TWF
Weapon Focus (scimitar)
Weapon Specialization (scimitar)

I'm now supposed to choose another fighting feat and I'm not sure which one to take :

Oversized Two-Weapon Fighting (From Complete Adventurer - which effectively makes the scimitar a light weapon when used 2 weaponed)
Greater Two-Weapon Fighting
Improved Critical (scimitar)

Scimitars are 1d6 18-20/x2

Which of the 3 would you choose?

Assume that I won't continue the Ranger track to get GTWF and I have a STR of 14.

Monch

 

[Scion]

assuming that you are right about the oversized weapon then to me it looks like the choices are the following:

+2 to each attack roll (taking away a -2 penalty in actuality)
gain an extra attack on a full attack action at a -10 penalty
double the threat range of scimitars


Personally, I would go for the first one. Having that extra +2 on each of my attacks, to me, is worth more than an extra attack at a -10 penalty.


Depending on the game the third option could be pretty good, but it is 'heavily' campaign dependent. I'd suggest getting a couple of 'keen scabbard's and moving on with your life

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

If you want a good answer to your question, you'll have to provide some more info.

Are you scimiatars magic? Do they have the flaming, etc., qualities? Anything special that triggers on a critical, etc.?

I'm working up a spreadsheet that will give you the mathematical answer to your question.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

OK, so here's what I did. I assumed that the information you gave above is accurate and complete (even though it likely isn't).

I computer your average expected damage on a Full Attack action against all ACs from 1 to 50, inclusive, against foes succeptible to critical hits.

Based on that, the feat that will help you most is actually Greater Two Weapon Fighting. This is followed very closely by Improved Critical, and by a slightly farther margin by Oversized Two-Weapon Fighting.

 

[Scion]

Personally I'd love to see the numbers and equations for that

If an effective +2 to hit for each of the 6 attacks is worse than a single extra attack at -10 something seems kindof odd to me.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Sure. Here you go.

EDIT:

Alternatively, in graphical format, you can see where the crossovers are:

 

[molonel]

Alternatively, in graphical format, you can see where the crossovers are:

That brought a tear to this geek's eye. Absolutely beautiful.

 

[Scion]

It looks like from your graph and table that for all AC's above 19 or so Oversized two weapon fighting is superior.

This number would of course be pushed down with any sort of party buffs and for greater starting stats.


To me this proves my initial feelings. Overall oversized twf is a better choice, especially if you have other feats which you can play off of the extra bonus to hit (such as combat expertise, you can have the same to hit as you did before but have a 2 point higher AC) or higher stats than 14 str or have party members which will help you out and give you buffs such as haste.

Unless of course you only run against opponents with fairly low AC and you have no ability to use your extra to hit bonuses for other things that are useful

 

[Scion]

Really nice job on the table and graph though

 

[Bastoche]

I agree with scion. GTWF will allow you to deal more damage on weak opponents than OTWF. However, At high AC, it's the opposite. furthermore, OTWF gets "better" quite quickly. In other words, the integral over all ACs makes the OTWF better. So with OTWF, you're more consistent and you're better against "better" opponents. I would personnally go with OTWF according to this graph with NO second thoughts.