Off Hand Parry vs. Two Weapon Defense

[Celtavian]

Except that'd be a direct change of the rules as published (obviously you're free to doso, but ...).



Each defending weapon provides a bonus that stacks with all OTHER bonusses. If you go TWF, and have two defending weapons, ISTM the spirit of the rules is, you can suck the enhancement bonus form attack/damage to defense from both of them, and the two will stack with each other.

hmmm. That could be exceedingly nasty.

 

[Li Shenron]

I actually wanted to comment your first subject, in case someone is still interested...

It apprears that Two Weapon Defense is replacing Off-Hand Parry in 3.5. Frankly I think Two Weapon Defense is pretty pathetic, especially in light of my buying a +2 buckler to help up my AC while fighting & the Shield bonus to AC won't stack with the buckler. I haven't taken IWF or GWF yet so I wasn't giving up too much by parrying. Also, since it's a Shield bonus and not Dodge it no longer helps against touch attacks.

Was OHP so powerful that they had to tone it down? And that badly?

Although they seem to represent the same thing = using the second weapon to help your defense instead of your offense, the two feats seem to work very differently. They stack by the rule, but I would not argue if my DM over-ruled they wouldn't.

2WDefense looks good to me. If you fight with 2 weapons or a double weapon, the only shield you can use is a Buckler. Most importantly, you WILL NOT get the buckler's shield bonus to AC in each round you are using the second weapon (or the second "end"). Every round you choose whether you want the AC bonus or the extra attack(s). I think there's a feat (Shield Expert?) that lets you keep the AC bonus from it.

With 2WD you benefit of a +1 AC in any case, which is what you want usually, since you have spent other feats for the extra attacks. For a 2WFighter is better than Dodge (as a Shield bonus, doesn't work with Touch attacks, but you keep it when flat-footed).

Once you can afford a magic Buckler, it can give much better than +1 (actually, I don't know how far you can enchant aq Buckler for extra AC), but only in those rounds where you are just using 1 weapon. In the other rounds, it still gives nothing (unless obviously if it has another kind of enchantment, like deflection, which would stack with this feat).

OHP looks to me less useful. You spent 2 (3.0) feats for 2WFighting and now you give up the extra attack(s) for a +2AC. Ok, it stacks with Expertise and Shield, but you still have to give up something to get the bonus, not as with 2WD.

 

[Lareit]

An insectile creature has 6 arms, though they are not able to use them to attack. There are no additional game mechanics relating to the extra arms.

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The offical ruiling is i was correct they can't wield extra weapons.
I will also state, my thought they only had 6 limbs was a misread of the rules, i wasn't actually going by the picture. However i assume the sight of the 6 legged ogre played a part in my reading of the text.

 

[DMauricio]

An insectile creature has 6 arms, though they are not able to use them to attack. There are no additional game mechanics relating to the extra arms.

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The offical ruiling is i was correct they can't wield extra weapons.
I will also state, my thought they only had 6 limbs was a misread of the rules, i wasn't actually going by the picture. However i assume the sight of the 6 legged ogre played a part in my reading of the text.

Actually, by that official ruling (as I read it anyway) the insectile creature *cannot* use any of its arms to attack (thereby losing any attacks that its normal arms/feats/bab provide).
But as that seems non-sensical, I think I'll allow players who decide to use the insectile template to have the normal attacks that their BAB and feats allow.



Dom

 

[Pax]

Wizards of the Coast - Customer Service

Ah yes, the same people who at first insisted the Halfling Outrider was SUPPOSED to not have any BAB progression. I'm sure they are EVER so much "on the ball" with rulings, indeed, yes thay are ... ROFLMAO

The offical ruiling is i was correct they can't wield extra weapons.

As is noted above, by that "official" (non-)ruling, insectile creatures cannot attack with ANY of their arms ... not even the original two of the base creature.

BTW -- so much for bowing out, eh?

 

[Power_Munchkin]

hm

quote
It's an unnamed bonus.
/quote
The book says it's a "special" bonus to AC. Which is only a little less arguable than the "stacks with all others" bit.

See, that's where I'd draw the line.

I thought we were talking about rules, not rule preferences?