Ways to make daggers good?

[RangerWickett]

A friend of mine wants to play a dagger-wielder. We've tried to convince him that, by D&D rules, daggers just aren't that good, but he wants to know what options he has available to him. I know of the invisible blade and the daggerspell mage, but what other things are there?

 

[Simm]

As the rules stand daggers arn't that much worse than any other weapon, especially at high levels. The only differenc between a +1 flaming dagger and a +1 flaming longsword is one rolls a d4 an the other a d8. Having a high strength gives the same damage bonus to any one handed weapon be it dagger or bastard sword.

I suggest the kukri for the additional threat range, it also opens up the black flame zealot. If using normal daggers take a look at the master thrower.

 

[Hypersmurf]

As the rules stand daggers arn't that much worse than any other weapon, especially at high levels. The only differenc between a +1 flaming dagger and a +1 flaming longsword is one rolls a d4 an the other a d8. Having a high strength gives the same damage bonus to any one handed weapon be it dagger or bastard sword.

Although a one-handed weapon can be used with Power Attack, and you always have the option to use it in two hands for extra Str bonus damage.

The difference between a longsword and a bastard sword - or even a longsword and a greatsword - isn't that significant as bonuses overtake the base damage. But the difference between a shortsword and a longsword gets to be noticeable when the longsworder can swing two-handed...

That said, two shortswords remains a popular TWF build, and the difference between a dagger and a shortsword is negligible.

-Hyp.

 

[frankthedm]

Having held 2 very well balanced daggers in my hands, I don't think reducing the -2 / -2 for dual wielding to -1 / -1 would be unreasonable at all. But I'm confident some PRC could break this.

 

[MarkB]

One useful aspect of the dual-dagger-wielder build is ranged attacks. Give him Quick Draw and a bandolier of daggers, and he can throw a dagger and re-arm instantly, and even use iterative ranged attacks.

And there are a few decent thrown-weapon PrCs out there (Master Thrower springs to mind, though I haven't looked at the class in any detail).

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

You must build a character for who has reasonably healthy damage bonuses while not relying on Power Attack. For obvious reasons Sneak Attack dice or Skirmish dice look very appealing. TWF and Rapid Shot are promising as well.

 

[MarkB]

Having held 2 very well balanced daggers in my hands, I don't think reducing the -2 / -2 for dual wielding to -1 / -1 would be unreasonable at all. But I'm confident some PRC could break this.

Actually, that'd make a reasonable feat. Give it TWF as a pre-requisite and call it Undersize Two Weapon Fighting. Benefit: When using two light weapons, your penalties for two weapon fighting are reduced by 1, to a minimum of 0.

 

[Archade]

And since daggers are melee and ranged weapons, weapon focus (dagger) and point blank shot do nice double duty ...

 

[mvincent]

Thrown daggers can be used with both rapid shot and TWF'ing. This can allow for a very large number of attacks, which can be pretty powerful if coupled with things like sneak attack or preferred enemy. Also, the wounding enhancement can be useful to ensure noticeable damage with each hit even at high levels, regardless of your strength.

 

[Storyteller01]

Allow the keen ability to stack with Improved Critical?