How stereotypical is Weapon Specialization at 4th?

[Darklone]

This isn't possible. Both whirlwind and spring attack require a BAB of 4, and spring attack is a prerequisite.

He was going for Whirlwind... didn't take it yet. Sorry for the bad wording.

 

[Limper]

It seldom gets picked in our games and when it does its at a pretty high level (over 12).

There is to much cool stuff to take other than Focus the real sticking point on Specialization

 

[Darklone]

... Even a spiked chain 'tripper' would be able to take it after putting all relevant feats into the trip chain (unless the character is not human).

~Marimmar

Good point about the huge strength dude.

Well, the feat list for the Spiked chain freak (elf) level 1-4 was something like:
- Exo Weapon Prof& Combat Reflexes
- Weapon Finesse (Dex 20)
- Combat Expertise
- Improved Trip

We did play that disarming from 10ft away provokes an AoO.

His next feats in the list at lvl6 were Improved Disarm and Expert Tactician. Weapon Focus and WS came later.

 

[MadScientist]

In our last campaign I had a Dwarf Brb2/Ftr4 who passed on both WF and WS. He was still a stunningly effective fighter. I like feats that increase my options in combat. WF and WS, while certainly effective feats are kind of boring. No where near as fun as quick-draw or cleave IMO.

 

[Marimmar]

Maybe I should explore playing fighters that do not specialize in a weapon. My barbarians did well so far but they compensated for it with rage and being able to use a plethora of different weapons. Nevertheless, I still think a NPC fighter 4 needs the specialization to compete with the PCs in damage output. It would shurely be very 'realistic' to fight an inefficient fighter who plans on becoming level 6 to get an early whirlwind attack, OTOH I do not think his CR would be up to par with a cleaving and specialized fighter.

~Marimmar

 

[haiiro]

I don't think I've ever played a fighter that didn't take WS. Even if I had some offbeat build in mind, I'd probably still try to work it in.

 

[Larcen]

...That +2 points of damage just doesn't seem impressive to my players, I suppose. ...

I thought like this too, until it occurred to me that the +2 applies to every attack a multi-attack fighter gets per round. At high levels, that +2 can easily mean +4 , +6 , +8, or +10 points of extra damage... every round. Like someone else said, it adds up quickly. And I am not even talking about all the other potential extra attacks a round here, like AoOs, Cleaves, and Boots of Speed. And greater weapon speciality? Naaaasty.

 

[Keith]

That does seem like a failing in a char. generator, to me. I would expect a high percentage of such characters to specialize, really.

 

[Darklone]

Another point... in a rather low magic campaign, a friend waited with WF and WS till he found a weapon he deemed worthy of the specialisation. He waited till level 9.

 

[Liolel]

It really depends on how you plan out your fighter. Some players will find great cleave more useful as at this level you still may face a lot of one hit kills. Spring attack is very useful as well and is still useful at higher levels. Weapon focus and specization both suffer from the problem in certain campains of not being able to find good weapons you put feats into. Sure its not a problem to a npc or in a campain where you can just pay a wizard to enchant a weapon, but in other campains it is to item dependent to be useful even more so if you use a exotic weapon. So its use really depends on many factors. It is almost always though a good feat at the point you take it, its in the longterm that the usefulness is put in doubt.