Weapon Specialization

[trentonjoe]

This used to be THE way to go back in 2E. No fighter was worth a grain of salt w/o it. We used to have characters with so many specializations that we made a bunch of rules limiting it but now....


I look at all the thread saying, "Need help making a nth level fighter" (I do this to sometimes I suppose I am a culprit) and no one really mentions it. "Take improved this, or Greater that, or some obscure feat in some book by some company I don't know" that's what I see.

AM I missing something? Is weapon specializtion not good anymore? Is it implied but I am not getting it?

Rant over.

 

[drowdude]

Back in the day if you were specialized you got a bonus to hit... a bonus to damage... and to top it off... you got extra attacks...

But in 3e it's broken down into 2 feats, each of which (IMO) are of less value than numerous other feats you could have taken in their stead.

Now, that said, I still have characters take weapon focus and weapon specialization on occasion, but that is usually just because the idea of what those feats are *supposed* to represent appeals to me. Never have I taken them due to their great effectiveness...

In my house rules I have added the Signature Weapon feat from Pulp Heroes as an exclusive option at 8th level for fighters only. This helps a bit, but not much.

Ive been thinking that a good fix for Weapon Focus would be to allow it to add +1 to your BAB when weilding the favored weapon. Then it would be a really kewl feat that benefited any character of any level. Rather than being a miniscule bonus that gets lost in the shuffle after a few levels.

And having the bonus to damage from Specialization scale with your BAB in some way. I dunno...

Rambling over...

 

[Christian]

[crusty old fart]Back in my day, we didn't have all of these so-called 'feats'. We had weapon proficiencies. And we liked them! But once you had proficiency in the two or three weapons you used every day, and maybe a backup or two, there wasn't a whole lot of point in getting any more-fighters only had a -2 'to hit' penalty for non-proficiency anyway. And since fighters got four proficiencies at first level, they hit 'the wall' pretty durn fast, let me tell you! So 'specialization' was added in Unearthed Aracana (against Col. Pladoh's stated position in a Dragon Magazine article way back when-or was it in The Strategic Review? But I digress ...) to give fighters something useful to do with one of those excess weapon proficiencies. And later, it was extended to let paladins and rangers and such use it. And then along came Second Edition and the Complete Fighter's Handbook, and all sorts of other neat things to do with your weapon proficiencies, but none of them were really quite as good as weapon specialization. And we liked it!

Oh, and we walked five miles to the dungeon every day, sometimes in snow and ice. Uphill, of course.

 

[Crothian]

I like weapon Focus and Weapon specialization. No, they are not the best feats for a min maxer, but for some characters they make sense. Any character I have that is trying to become the best at a certain weapon, I'll take these feats. To me they show a certain amount of dedication to a single weapon, that is not gained through other feats. No, it's not as powerful as in first or second edition (And yes, I rember those days all too well). But it still serves a purpose and I like them.

 

[Mal Malenkirk]

I find this surprising.

Most fighters, in fact all the fighters I've ever seen in my campaigns, used WF and WS. These are very powerful feats.

Most of the other "cool" warrior-type feats can be used only under specific circumstances. But if you take WS and WF on your main weapon, you'll be using these feats every fight, every strike. Same goes for improved critical.

They really are a no brainer. Take them as early as you can if you play a fighter.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Weapon focus and weapon specialization are both very useful feats. On the other hand, there are a lot of good feats available to characters so they're not "every fighter must have these or he's useless" abilities like specialization was in 2e.

I have found that weapon focus is very useful in several situations:
1. You're a bad guy. Really. As a DM, I've found that a lot of the feats that are useful to players aren't useful to bad guys.
-Power Attack? Sometimes.
-Cleave? Not too useful for the bad guys really. If he's taking down a lot of PCs he'll probably kill the party with it. If he's a scrub, he won't be taking down PCs so it won't do him any good.
-Sunder? This is a great bad guy feat. Before 3rd level, it's a lot easier for a player to get healed than for the player to fix his masterwork weapon. After that, it's impossible to restore the enchantment on a broken weapon. This will scare players.
-Improved Sunder? Even better.
-Weapon focus and weapon specialization fit into the sunder category of incredible feats for bad guys. They let your bad guys hit and do damage without damaging suspension of disbelief ("So, every one of these mercenaries has an 18 strength?") or forcing you to use higher level bad guys ("So, all of these bad guys are 6th level fighters?")

2. If you're built around the use of one weapon.
If your character is an archer, for example, you're probably focussed on using the composite longbow. You have point blank shot, precise shot, and rapid shot. Weapon Focus and Specialization will add a whole lot to such a character.

Similarly, if you spend a feat to learn to use a bastard sword or spiked chain, weapon focus and specialization make a lot of sense.

3. If you use weapon finesse.
You obviously don't have too high of a strength or you wouldn't use weapon finesse. Weapon specialization is one of the ways to deal significant amounts of damage.

For other characters, it may not be a good idea.
I have a fighter/wizard character who uses a glaive and then switches to a light flail and shield for close up work. He has a very limited number of feats and switches weapons quite often depending on the situation (glaive, light flail, composite longbow, and wand of magic missiles). He could take weapon focus in one of his weapons (probably glaive), but he'd probably only get to use it 1/3 of the time he's in combat.

Right now, he has:
Power Attack
Cleave
Dodge
Combat Reflexes
Quickdraw
(next level he'll pick up expertise)

All of these feats contribute to his effectiveness in just about every fight.

(On the other hand, a friend of mine plays a fighter who uses a longsword. Since he uses that just about every fight, weapon focus and specialization are excellent feats for him).

 

[Dr. Zoom]

I think these feats are very useful for a fighter. They might seem low-powered, but like others have said, they can be used in almost every round of combat. Not so for many other feats. Dodge is like this, too.

With that said, I don't have any single classed fighters in my current playing group. It consists of a barbarian, paladin, monk, ranger/rogue/fighter (2/2/1), cleric, and wizard. The cleric has war for one of his domains and thus has weapon focus with the warhammer (dwarf). The ranger is a would-be arcane archer, but he does not have weapon focus yet. Power attack, cleave, improved initiative, dodge, and point blank shot are the most popular feats in the group so far. The monk took improved grapple in place of deflect arrows and does well with that feat. The cleric and wizard have a few magic item creation feats.

 

[Ranger REG]

Heh.

Weapon Focus reminded me of the old 2nd edition Player's Option: Combat and Tactics rules, only it was called Weapon Expertise. This allow nonfighters to take this half-benefit of the Weapon Specialization since WS is only allowed to fighters.

In any case ... if you want, just give WS feat the same benefits as if it were Weapon Specialization of the old rules: +1 to hit and +2 to damage. If you want to keep Weapon Focus as prerequisite then stack the bonuses for a total of +2 to hit and +2 to damage.

The Signature Weapon feat is cool, although I go by a different name: Weapon Mastery (a throwback to the old rules).

 

[Tyrion]

WF/WS are incredible feats. Think of them as being a permanent +4 to Strength (with 1 less to hit). Improved Critical is like a permanent Keen enchantment on a weapon, which is made even better by the fact that it can stack with Keen.

Most of the melee-types in my campaigns take 4 levels of fighter for these feats alone...don't underestimate them.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

It all depends.
If you don`t want to spend a 13 on Dex or Intelligence, you will not be able to get some of the interesting feat chains. So you will have to concentrate on damage and hits - Weapon Focus & Specialisation are great feats then.
If you want to have some variety in your combat style (switchting weapons and so on), you will prefer getting other feats.
My Ranger/Fighter as an example was especially designed to get the maximum benefit of his Virtual Ambidexterity and use of his Improved Disarm/Trip Feat. He has the Exotic Weapon Profiency (Spiked Chain), and he has the Shield Expert feat (along with enchanted Shield Spikes or a shield of bashing). There was no room for Weapon Focus/Specialisation. Perhaps at level 15+ it might be usable, but before I will have to get the Dodge Feat Chain...