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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cbas10" data-source="post: 1280557" data-attributes="member: 6459">I think things are perfectly okay as they are.  Sure, the two-weapon fighter might have a better AC after blowing all sorts of feats.  However (using fighters as an example), the Sword-n-shield guy can have an AC 2 points better than the 2WF guy WITHOUT spending any feats.  If he wants to take a -2 penalty to hit, he can use a tower shield for another +2 to AC...still without using any feats.  The 2WF guy must spend at least two feats in order to equal the AC bonus...PLUS he'll probably be taking some sort of additional penalty AND he must have a 15 Dexterity to even think about this (again...using fighters as an example).If we compare a fighter with a shield and a ranger doing 2WF, the ranger is sacrificing a hit point or two AND cannot use the Combat Style while in Medium or Heavy armor.In my experience, the best defense a two-weapon fighter has is an Active one.  Using their extra attacks for Disarming, Tripping, and other such things is far more advantageous than just whacking away at something, hoping you don't get hit.  Parrying (something WotC seems to have missed quite a bit) is virtually essential to the survival of lightly armored dual-swordsmen.  This, too, is far more reliable than that AC stat on your sheet.  By the way, gaining the benefit of a Buckler while using two weapons requires the use of yet ANOTHER feat.Way down the line, once you hit 20th level or something insanely powerful, the 2WF characters significantly fall behind in combat, given equally distributed magic, hp/die, etc.  They might have 3 more attacks than the sword-n-shield fighter, but you must consider the class features and/or feats involved in getting there.  Spending all those resources is a complete waste if you do not correctly use the tactics that go along with it.As for the two-hand weapon fighters...they are giving up additional AC for larger weapons, more damage, and a better defense against disarming.No matter what "build" or character concept one goes with, each of them will have varying strengths and weaknesses.  Why have a variety of classes and feats if all of them were meant to have the same capabilities in different situations?  Sure, you can blow several levels' worth of class features and feats to have 54 attacks and an AC that approaches infinity.  That would be one character's strength: being a Near-Untouchable Blender.  The sword-n-board fighter might devote his resources elsewhere; having more knowledge about his enemies so that he could have a better strategy for defeating his enemies with a much smaller risk of actually entering life-threatening situations.</blockquote>

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