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*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Making 2 weapon fighting not suck-o-rama
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<blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 2305451" data-attributes="member: 2011"><p>The THW fighter can have a weapon of adamantine and a weapon of silver, just like the TW fighter.</p><p></p><p>He then uses what he thinks he needs.</p><p></p><p>Any factor that you give the TW fighter can be given to the THW fighter.</p><p></p><p></p><p>If you add other factors into your analysis like Sneak Attack damage, fine. You add those factors to both Fighters to get a fair analysis.</p><p></p><p>Plus, by the time you get significant sneak attack damage of any value, many of your opponents (i.e. many of the non-humanoid ones) are immune to it either directly, or because they cannot lose their Dex bonus, or whatever.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Both fighters can have the exact same abilities. They can have the same type of weapons.</p><p></p><p></p><p>It still becomes a factor of full round attacks only occuring at most 50% (give or take) of the time. Hence, during a single attack (a normal attack or an Attack of Opportunity), the TWF does about 3 + .5 Str (+ Power Attack damage if used) more damage. It matters not a whit what other factors you add in.</p><p></p><p>It only matters for a full round attack. There, low level is the most advantageous for the TW fighter (because at higher levels, one extra attack means less, especially since all of the attacks are at -10% to hit PLUS he has to take feats in order to bump that up). Hence, his damage becomes (assuming a 4.5 average longsword in one hand and a 3.5 average shortsword in the other):</p><p></p><p>2x% * (4 + bonuses) versus (x+10%) * (7 + bonuses + 3 + .5 Str)</p><p></p><p>So yes, if you can get the bonuses to go through the roof, you can catch up. But in order to do that, 2x% * (4 + bonuses) must be greater than (x+10%) * (7 + bonuses + 3 + .5 Str)</p><p></p><p>At low level, the highest chance to hit is generally in the ball park of 50%, hence:</p><p></p><p>4 + bonuses > 4.2 + 0.6 bonuses + 2 + 0.3 Str</p><p></p><p>or bonuses > 5.5 + 0.75 Str</p><p></p><p>Str 10: 5.5</p><p>Str 12: 6.25</p><p>Str 14: 7</p><p>Str 16: 7.75</p><p>Str 18: 8.5</p><p>Str 20: 9.25</p><p></p><p>It's hard at lower levels to get extra bonuses this high. Plus, this example here was with a 50% chance to hit with a -2 thrown in. Your chances to hit most opponents at lower levels will be less than that which gives the THW fighter even more of an edge.</p><p></p><p>So, on single attacks, the TW fighter does significantly less damage, regardless of other factors. On full round attacks, he does less damage as well unless he has really high bonuses for damage.</p><p></p><p></p><p>The problem for the TW fighter is that he always does less damage on a single attack (approximately 2.5 + 0.5 Str + Power Attack if used).</p><p></p><p>Always (if you analysis two combatants with the same basic abilities).</p><p></p><p>So even if he can boost his bonus damage through the roof (which the THW fighter can do as well), the only time he can even come close to the same amount of damage on average is when he does a full round attack.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Btw, criticals are totally irrelevant to the conversation at all if the weapons used have the same critical chances (e.g. 2 handed sword at 19/20 x2 versus a longsword and short sword both at 19/20 x2).</p><p></p><p>The reason is that criticals increase the percentage damage exactly the same. So, increasing the THW average damage by 10% and increasing the TW average damage by 10% still means that if one character does more average damage than the other, he still does more average damage once you factor in criticals.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Bottom line, create and post any combatant type PC you want (i.e. one with at least one level of Ranger, Paladin, Fighter, or Barbarian) at any level you want with any reasonable set of abilities out of the core rules and show us how much damage he can average fighting two weapon (both for single attacks and full round attacks). I will then illustrate how the exact same PC can average more damage for single attacks and as much or nearly as much with full round attacks fighting with a two handed weapon and the only things I will change are replacing his TW feats with other feats, and replacing his two one hand weapons with two two handed weapons (i.e. if you give him two one handed magical weapons, I will replace that with two two handed magical weapons).</p><p></p><p>It seems that the only way to prove to you how much more potent THW fighting is will be to allow you to stack the deck in favor of the TW fighter and then illustrate that the exact same fighter still does more damage fighting THW.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="KarinsDad, post: 2305451, member: 2011"] The THW fighter can have a weapon of adamantine and a weapon of silver, just like the TW fighter. He then uses what he thinks he needs. Any factor that you give the TW fighter can be given to the THW fighter. If you add other factors into your analysis like Sneak Attack damage, fine. You add those factors to both Fighters to get a fair analysis. Plus, by the time you get significant sneak attack damage of any value, many of your opponents (i.e. many of the non-humanoid ones) are immune to it either directly, or because they cannot lose their Dex bonus, or whatever. Both fighters can have the exact same abilities. They can have the same type of weapons. It still becomes a factor of full round attacks only occuring at most 50% (give or take) of the time. Hence, during a single attack (a normal attack or an Attack of Opportunity), the TWF does about 3 + .5 Str (+ Power Attack damage if used) more damage. It matters not a whit what other factors you add in. It only matters for a full round attack. There, low level is the most advantageous for the TW fighter (because at higher levels, one extra attack means less, especially since all of the attacks are at -10% to hit PLUS he has to take feats in order to bump that up). Hence, his damage becomes (assuming a 4.5 average longsword in one hand and a 3.5 average shortsword in the other): 2x% * (4 + bonuses) versus (x+10%) * (7 + bonuses + 3 + .5 Str) So yes, if you can get the bonuses to go through the roof, you can catch up. But in order to do that, 2x% * (4 + bonuses) must be greater than (x+10%) * (7 + bonuses + 3 + .5 Str) At low level, the highest chance to hit is generally in the ball park of 50%, hence: 4 + bonuses > 4.2 + 0.6 bonuses + 2 + 0.3 Str or bonuses > 5.5 + 0.75 Str Str 10: 5.5 Str 12: 6.25 Str 14: 7 Str 16: 7.75 Str 18: 8.5 Str 20: 9.25 It's hard at lower levels to get extra bonuses this high. Plus, this example here was with a 50% chance to hit with a -2 thrown in. Your chances to hit most opponents at lower levels will be less than that which gives the THW fighter even more of an edge. So, on single attacks, the TW fighter does significantly less damage, regardless of other factors. On full round attacks, he does less damage as well unless he has really high bonuses for damage. The problem for the TW fighter is that he always does less damage on a single attack (approximately 2.5 + 0.5 Str + Power Attack if used). Always (if you analysis two combatants with the same basic abilities). So even if he can boost his bonus damage through the roof (which the THW fighter can do as well), the only time he can even come close to the same amount of damage on average is when he does a full round attack. Btw, criticals are totally irrelevant to the conversation at all if the weapons used have the same critical chances (e.g. 2 handed sword at 19/20 x2 versus a longsword and short sword both at 19/20 x2). The reason is that criticals increase the percentage damage exactly the same. So, increasing the THW average damage by 10% and increasing the TW average damage by 10% still means that if one character does more average damage than the other, he still does more average damage once you factor in criticals. Bottom line, create and post any combatant type PC you want (i.e. one with at least one level of Ranger, Paladin, Fighter, or Barbarian) at any level you want with any reasonable set of abilities out of the core rules and show us how much damage he can average fighting two weapon (both for single attacks and full round attacks). I will then illustrate how the exact same PC can average more damage for single attacks and as much or nearly as much with full round attacks fighting with a two handed weapon and the only things I will change are replacing his TW feats with other feats, and replacing his two one hand weapons with two two handed weapons (i.e. if you give him two one handed magical weapons, I will replace that with two two handed magical weapons). It seems that the only way to prove to you how much more potent THW fighting is will be to allow you to stack the deck in favor of the TW fighter and then illustrate that the exact same fighter still does more damage fighting THW. [/QUOTE]
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