Who chooses Two-Weapon Defense?

[Zzyzx]

I have been looking at different builds for a two-weapon fighter, and it seems that not too many people pick the feat Two-Weapon Defense.

Is a +1 shield bonus to your AC not worth a feat? Do you just assume that a ring or amulet or something else will get you that +1 AC? If I assume that magic is less available, does this feat become more reasonable?

I'm just wondering.

 

[Darklone]

Shield bash is mucho mory powerfully. Excusy.

TWD is often houseruled that you get the upgrades from CW for free if you take ITWF and GTWF. Then it's nice, yet not great. Imp Buckler Defense or shieldfighting is still lots stronger.

TWD is the saddest example how wizards tried to make the TWF fighting style worthwhile by making something pretty feat intensive even more feat intensive ...

 

[Voadam]

Consider getting the shield bash chain instead and you can get a +2 shield AC, same feat investment cost.

 

[Zzyzx]

Pretty good answers right out the gate. Any more?

 

[Patlin]

One of my players had me take a look at the invisible blade from complete warrior, which is a dagger specialist. If for some reason you are playing a character who wants two *specific* weapons, such as daggers, at the same time you might consider TWD instead of Improved Shield Bash.

Even so, it's a relatively weak feat. Unless you're getting oodles of AC or facing an enemy with a feat like power attack, AC isn't particularly helpfull. You'll probably prevent more damage by taking an offensive feat and ending the battle sooner.

 

[mvincent]

+1 AC for a feat isn't too bad. If you:
1) are already a two weapon fighter-type
2) don't wish to use a shield as one of those weapons (possibly because of weapon related feats, and/or character concept)
3) don't wish to use an animated shield (possibly because of character concept, or your DM frowns on them)
4) have an extra feat to spare

... then this can be a good option. I've actually already made 3 optimized, long term characters that used the feat (and I am a chronic optimization and rules lawyer).

 

[Bad Paper]

The fighter/holy liberator in my campaign took TWD. Otherwise, I have no opinion on the matter.

 

[Klaus]

As mentioned, it's pretty weak, when you can take Improved Buckler Defense, suck up the -1 attack with your secondary weapon (from the extra weight of the buckler) and eventually get the buckler magicked up to provide more than +1 to AC.

There are some feats that could be folded into one.

Two-Weapon Defense could provide +1 AC (+2 if you have Improved 2WF,+3 if you have Greater 2WF).
Also, Greater 2WF should just give your secondary weapon the same number of iterative attacks you have with your primary one.
Deflect Arrows could let you negate one attack per round, and if you have the prerequisites, you can snatch the arrow instead and fire it back if you possess the appropriate weapon.
Spell Focus should give +1 to save DC for a school of magic (increase to +2 when your Caster Level is 10th, and to +3 when your Caster Level is 20th).

And so on, and so forth...

 

[Moon-Lancer]

In my opinion, dodge is a better feat. It improves touch ac. something you can never have enuff of. While dodge only effects one target, it is a prereq for many high level feats, while twd is not. dodge stacks with other dodge bonuses though, so magic shield bonuses later on in the game make twd pritty suck. If it comes with the twf tree though, then its really worth it.

as said in another post, improved buckler deffense kicks its butt. Although i was lead to beleave the -1 effected all penalties for twf. It has tricky wording that can go ether way.

 

[phindar]

As a poster mentioned above, if you're going for two specific weapons it's okay. (Not great, just okay.) In my case, I went with a double weapon (orcish double axe) for my focus/specialization, and since I was planning on fighting with that pretty much exclusively, TWD made sense. The main difference between that and going Imp Shield Bash is that I can choose to not TWF and instead use one side of my axe as a two-handed weapon for the round, getting the 2:1 for my Power Attack. That's been my tactic so far, Power Attack charge to start things off, and then either go TWF or two-handed Power Attack, depending on what I'm fighting.

I plan on going Imp TWD at 12th level. 2 feats for +2 AC is pretty steep, but every little bit helps. The only other thing about TWD is fighting with Active or Full Defense gives me another +1 Shield bonus to AC, so I can take a -4 to hit for Active Def, and get back a +4 to AC (+2 def, +2 Shield). Thats as close to Expertise as my half-orc Fighter/Barbarian is ever going to get.