Bastard Sword, ultimate weapon?

[Lance Berg]

So I'm fooling around on a ranger/blackguard, and I'm in a situation;
I'm fighting a construct which has some regeneration capability, and I'm
having a hard time killing him.

Whats happening, of course is that I'm not damaging him as quickly as
he's regenerating, and meanwhile he is damaging me much faster than I'm
regenerating.

I've got on hand:

Longsword
Shortsword +1
Dagger +2

I hit more often with the shortsword, but for less damage. Even more so
with the dagger. Basically, all three weapons seem to be doing damage
at more or less the same rate; enough to gradually whittle him down, but
since I'm forced to stop every now and then to swig a healing potion or
two, he makes up the ground and I'm back in the hole.

I tried shortsword/dagger as a two weapon combo, but I hit less often
this way, and giving up the Tower Shield meant I lost hp faster, so I
had to take even more time out to heal, and still couldn't really get
ahead. (Since I'm a ranger, I have the two weapons feat, but since I'm
not a big fan of two weapon styles, I don't have any of the supporting
feats for it)

Finally I went back to a previous save, walked out of the building and
went shopping. I looked thru all the standard weapons they had on hand,
and ended up buying two; a great axe and a bastard sword. The bastard
sword did the trick, I hit just as often as I did with the longsword,
but for a little more damage; it took a while but I managed to wear down
my opponent with it... and I didn't have to give up the shield. There
were bigger weapons, but they would have cost me the shield slot. And
there were Katanas, which hit as hard as the bastard sword but are
lighter and smaller... but require the exotic weapons feat.

The greataxe I got because it seemed to give the highest max damage for
the least weight; a d12. Why did I bother with this thing, when it cost
me my shield? Because I only need it for one job, its my "lockpick."
Equip it, turn on power attack, and hack away, if there's any chance
I'll be able to get thru the DR of the door/chest its going to be with
this approach.

Thoughts?

Lance

[Kelakhai]

Post by Lance Berg
The greataxe I got because it seemed to give the highest max damage for
the least weight; a d12. Why did I bother with this thing, when it cost
me my shield? Because I only need it for one job, its my "lockpick."
Equip it, turn on power attack, and hack away, if there's any chance
I'll be able to get thru the DR of the door/chest its going to be with
this approach.

The interest in two-handed sword is only the +50% strength bonus damage.
Besides, by myself, I prefer the greatsword, which deals 2D6 meaning
your minimum is 2 and the max is 12 whereas the two-H-axe's minimum is 1
to 12 ... And the critical may be *3 with the axe, think that it's twice
less thant the sword ...

As you say, having a shiel only means you want to avoid damage ... But,
my thought about it is, if you don't want to take damage, kill the
opponent ... A shield only INCREASES AC ... Well ... I mean, that's all,
no more MR or DR, no improved Save Rolls or I don't know ...

Look at the attack rolls of the opponent, if it's +20, try to have a AC
superior by 15 to avoid 75% of the attacks as you know more is not
acceptable, but thinking like this ... Well ... There's "think" in the
sentence ... This is MY problem :-) ... I'd rather kill before being
killed, that's my way. Shield is for low-strength caracters only.

Kelakhai

[Lance Berg]

Post by Kelakhai

Post by Lance Berg
The greataxe I got because it seemed to give the highest max damage
for the least weight; a d12. Why did I bother with this thing, when
it cost me my shield? Because I only need it for one job, its my
"lockpick." Equip it, turn on power attack, and hack away, if there's
any chance I'll be able to get thru the DR of the door/chest its going
to be with this approach.

The interest in two-handed sword is only the +50% strength bonus damage.
Besides, by myself, I prefer the greatsword, which deals 2D6 meaning
your minimum is 2 and the max is 12 whereas the two-H-axe's minimum is 1
to 12 ... And the critical may be *3 with the axe, think that it's twice
less thant the sword ...
As you say, having a shiel only means you want to avoid damage ... But,
my thought about it is, if you don't want to take damage, kill the
opponent ... A shield only INCREASES AC ... Well ... I mean, that's all,
no more MR or DR, no improved Save Rolls or I don't know ...
Look at the attack rolls of the opponent, if it's +20, try to have a AC
superior by 15 to avoid 75% of the attacks as you know more is not
acceptable, but thinking like this ... Well ... There's "think" in the
sentence ... This is MY problem :-) ... I'd rather kill before being
killed, that's my way. Shield is for low-strength caracters only.
Kelakhai

I need to think about this some more too, but here's my first blush
thought; if a shield means getting hit half as much, while going from a
two hander down to a one hander only drops my average damage by a
quarter, then I'm going to live long enough to make that kill twice as
often with the sword and shield combo.

Oh, and I suspect that the shield is far more useful for the high str
guy (who doesn't lose nearly as much by switching weapon types) than to
the low str guy. See the new thread I started on Thinking about weaponry.

Lance

[a***@yahoo.com]

Post by Lance Berg
The bastard
sword did the trick, I hit just as often as I did with the longsword,
but for a little more damage; it took a while but I managed to wear down
my opponent with it... and I didn't have to give up the shield. There
were bigger weapons, but they would have cost me the shield slot. And
there were Katanas, which hit as hard as the bastard sword but are
lighter and smaller... but require the exotic weapons feat.

Er - but in NWN, you also need the exotic weapons feat to use a bastard
sword, no?

In PnP D&D, you can use a bastard sword two handed and can only use it
one-handed without penalt if you have the exotice weapon feat.

In NWN, the didn't geet implementation quite right - bastard sword can
only be used one handed and requires the exotic weapon proficiency.

Unless Ive gone daft, which is possible :)

[Lance Berg]

Post by a***@yahoo.com

Post by Lance Berg
The bastard
sword did the trick, I hit just as often as I did with the longsword,
but for a little more damage; it took a while but I managed to wear down
my opponent with it... and I didn't have to give up the shield. There
were bigger weapons, but they would have cost me the shield slot. And
there were Katanas, which hit as hard as the bastard sword but are
lighter and smaller... but require the exotic weapons feat.

Er - but in NWN, you also need the exotic weapons feat to use a bastard
sword, no?

Yep, you are right, I had forgotten that I'd taken the exotic weapons
feat on that character when I picked up that bastard sword.

I'm thinking now that Katanas are therefore the ultimate weapon, rather
than Bastard Swords.

Post by a***@yahoo.com
In PnP D&D, you can use a bastard sword two handed and can only use it
one-handed without penalt if you have the exotice weapon feat.

That would be really nice, give me two handed use if I don't have
anything in the offhand, and one handed if I have a shield or second
weapon... or if I want for some obscure reason to force one handed use,
I could always put a torch or something in the offhand.

Lance

[a***@yahoo.com]

Post by Lance Berg

Post by a***@yahoo.com
Er - but in NWN, you also need the exotic weapons feat to use a bastard
sword, no?

Yep, you are right, I had forgotten that I'd taken the exotic weapons
feat on that character when I picked up that bastard sword.
I'm thinking now that Katanas are therefore the ultimate weapon, rather
than Bastard Swords.

Certainly true for normal weapons, but magic Katanas are almost never
found as treasure (there is only one instance that I recall, a bandit
cave in SoU has a Katana of North Wind or something like that).
Although nowhere as common as longswords or great swords, you do find
magic bastard swords. There's no comparison between Katana of North
Wind and the Calanthium Canthrix (bastard sword from HotU, iirc +8 to
hit, +2d6 cold damage, possibly more)

Post by Lance Berg

Post by a***@yahoo.com
In PnP D&D, you can use a bastard sword two handed and can only use it
one-handed without penalt if you have the exotice weapon feat.

That would be really nice, give me two handed use if I don't have
anything in the offhand, and one handed if I have a shield or second
weapon... or if I want for some obscure reason to force one handed use,
I could always put a torch or something in the offhand.

I agree, plus if you don't have the exotic weapons feat, you could
still use the bastard sword two handed. In NWN, withoug the feat, you
can't use it at all.