Darklone said:
Here we go... if you find a mistake, tell me, there may be more than one.
I didn't take critical hits into account yet.
Just change the red fields, e.g. higher or lower strength, average weapon damage (e.g. add 7 to both if you want to see how +2d6 sneak attack works).
with str +4 and +5 weapon enhancement, the daggers still lose. Add only +2d6, either from sneak attack or energy enhancements, and they are pretty equal.
It does not look so bad until you take into account that a guy with greatsword here merely does 1.5 times as much damage as someone with a dagger who still has one hand free.
The iterative attacks may be fine for low magic campaigns... otherwise they only bring back the thousands of doublewielding daggerfighters of 2nd edition where only the stylish warriors used a greatsword.
Damage does result in some interesting results, and it does necessitate changing/acknowledging that weapon damage needs to be accounted for, thankfully most of them aredone for ya with the EQRPG
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EQRPG does acknowledge the problem of the light weapon duel wielders resulting in changes to at least the dagger damage (1d3 in EQrpg). The 'strongest hitting' Simple Quick weapon sits at 1d4(Subdual) for a large unarmed strike... Melee weapon types result in the the best being a rapier at 1d4 /18-20/x2 at quick, which would actually serve as a nice point of comparison for the greatsword point (2d6 /19-20/x2, Slow). Especially since they are both 'martial' weapons, clawed handwrap would make for a nice off-hand comparison given that it is martial with 1d4/x2/quick, so it remains light.
[ Further clarification / commentary ]
Also, Scimitar may be a nice comparison, at 1d6 /18-20/x2... I'm not quite sure why I skimmed over it before, but possibly because of weapon finesse option... Another interesting note is that EQRPG uses weapon class/grouping proficencies. However, the 1h-slash and 2h-slash groups both fit under the warrior/fighter type, so it isn't too significant or meaningful in this conversation.
I'd be interested in seeing that excel worksheet with more options for changing the rate of iteratives (for instance, I'd like to see how the comparison fairs when you introduce EQ haste effects + double hit + Speed quality).
Also, the 5 Iterative attack cap may be 'too much' in a 20-level base field (EQRPG uses a 30-level baseline). And yes, I am being an excusist
, I do like the excel sheet though
, now if I can figure out how to change the iterative rates.
[ Add Also, D-11 and N-11 use a nice fixed variable of 20 in them, just curious as to the basis for that) -- Figured out, it answered my earlier problem too
]
[ Second Add ]
Interesting...
I went and changed both weapons back to 5 iterative attack, base 20, and the dagger still tends to "match performance" roughly around AC 40. Of course, this is a bit falty too, as D&D caps out at 4 iterative attacks.
It is more immediately noticable when the speeds diverge (even with the adjusted weapon damage for the dagger). It does exagerate the balance problem between two weapons and how enhancement bonuses are a linear benefit.
One thing I learned from the spreadsheet though, I now realize why EQ critters typically have alot higher AC
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--> Another add
In general, it looks like the EQRPG was designed rather heavily to add additional benefits to the Big Sword Warrior through the 'taunt' mechanism and the warrior disciplines and in part how it's more likly for EQ 2h wielders to have an 'overloaded' weapon (ie, because they don't have to worry about a shield or secondary weapon, they can load more bonuses onto their single weapon of choice).
A *grin*
