The rules for two weapon fighting are explained in the two weapon fighting feat. If you wield a weapon in your offhand you can get one extra attack per round but you take a -6 penalty to hit with your main hand attack and a -10 to hit with your offhand attack. Compared to the former, you'd miss out on the x1.5 Str mod from two-handing (x2 for the Two-Handed Fighter archetype) on Power Attack. They just need to toss on Cornugon Smash, Dreadful Carnage, and Shatter Defenses, and just Power Attack everything. TWF needs feats to even make it a thing, and off-hand attacks only get 50% off Power Attack. I am playing a two-weapon fighter and according to my character sheet, my fighting stats are as follows: Main hand: +13/+8, 1d6+7 Crit Range 18-20/2 Main w/offhand: +9/+4, 1d6+7 Main w/light off: +11/+6, 1d6+7 Offhand: . Wielding a Weapon Two-Handed: When you deal damage with a weapon that you are wielding two-handed, you add 1-1/2 times your Strength bonus (Strength penalties are not multiplied). You don't get this higher Strength bonus, however, when using a light weapon with two hands. The elemental rage powers let you deal additional energy damage on your attacks. While a standard barbarian with a two-handed weapon won’t have a large number of attacks, these powers do make two-weapon fighting slightly more useful for a barbarian, as this is one of their only sources of bonus damage outside of strength.
- Offhand Dmg Two Weapon Fighting Pathfinder List
- Offhand Dmg Two Weapon Fighting Pathfinder Kingmaker
- Offhand Dmg Two Weapon Fighting Pathfinder 2e
- Weapon Finesse Pathfinder
Hello all!
I have a decent number of character builds out now, and I found myself frequently referencing different fighting styles, and their relative quality. That being the case, I thought it would be a good idea to explain the advantages and disadvantages of different fighting styles, and which choices are generally stronger than others. I will give each one a rating out of four, four stars being excellent, one star being very poor. So without further ado, let’s get started!
Dual-wield: **
Dual-wielding is fun flavour and it can be exciting to roll fistfulls of dice when you make a full attack, but sadly, it is one of the worse fighting styles in the game. The primary issue with dual-wielding is a fundamental problem with its interaction with its main weakness, damage reduction. Attacks with this fighting style do less damage than those of any other fighting style (usually including archery), due to an additional penalty to the damage of off-hand weapons and reduced power attack damage. That means that you make a larger number of attacks, but at lower damage. This is the exact opposite of what you want because of the prevalence of damage reduction in Pathfinder. When weapons are enchanted to a high enough degree (+3 or better), they start breaking through damage reduction, which is a great thing for dual-wielders. Here’s the issue though: you’re spending twice as much on your weapons since you have two of them. Affording two weapons that can break through even the lowest amounts of enemy damage reduction is shockingly expensive, and since you’re not wielding a shield, you need to spend more of your coin on AC boosting items as well. You could buy weapons composed of special materials, but that still only solves your problem for a single type of DR per weapon.
There are a few cases where two weapon fighting can be somewhat effective, most of which involve temporary buffs that add damage to each strike you land. Paladins and Samurai are the best examples, your damage jumping to a daunting amount when smiting or challenging an opponent. Alchemists who dual wield alchemist bombs with Rapid Shot are some of the most explosive (pun intended) damage-dealers in the game, though they do run out of resources extremely quickly. An Alchemist who takes Master Chymist can do decent amounts of damage as a dual wielder of daggers or other light simple weapons, thanks to their Brutality ability. Inquisitors gain access to the Smiting Judgment, which helps them deal with some of the more annoying types of damage reduction. While ninjas are probably better served using a two-handed weapon, a ninja or rogue who focuses on dexterity may want to take weapon finesse and a pair of agile weapons, grabbing the two weapon feint line of feats to ensure easy sneak attacks. Dual-weapon rangers can do well enough against their favored enemies, but will be outclassed by an archer ranger in most cases.
Dual wielding may be a fun concept, but in practice, it fails to shine against anything but lightly armored enemies without any kind of damage reduction. If you felt like trying to “fix” two weapon fighting, consider allowing Clustered Shots to work with this fighting style as a houserule. “Clustered Strikes” would go a long way towards fixing this issue.
Advantages:
- Lots of attacks per round
- Quite effective against lightly armored enemies who lack DR
- Benefits greatly from extra damage per hit
Disadvantages:
- Low damage per hit
- Very high number of feats required
- Crippling weakness to DR
- Less effective Power Attack
Recommended Classes:
- Alchemist*
- Inquisitor
- Ninja / Rogue
- Paladin
- Samurai
One-hander (Einhander):* (Magus / Duelist ***)
One might say that there’s no reason to leave an off-hand open when you could be using it to good effect with a shield, second melee weapon, or for extra damage with a two-hander. Generally that’s true, but there are a few exceptions to that. A magus must have an open off-hand for example, and a few rogues or ninjas may decide that their attack bonus suffers too much when they dual-wield. In both of these cases, scimitars and the Dervish Dance feat can give your character the unique ability to use your Dexterity for both attack and damage, something which the sneaks and the magi can both benefit greatly from having in spades.
One other possible viable einhander is the Aldori dueling sword, which combined with the Aldori Dueling Mastery feat can give you some modest bonuses to Armor Class and Initiative.
The last, and I mean very last reason to use a single one-handed weapon is if you’re playing a duelist. Duelists in particular benefit greatly from the Aldori Dueling Mastery feat.
Keep in mind that I am in no way recommending that people choose this fighting style when they have other, better options. It is far and away the weakest fighting style available for all but niche characters.
Advantages:
- With scimitars, can use Dexterity for attack and damage
- Aldori Dueling Sword feats
Disadvantages:
- Your off-hand is relatively useless
- Strictly worse than other fighting styles except in niche cases
Recommended Classes:
- Magus
- Duelist
Ranged, Composite Longbow / Shortbow: ****
Ranged combat with a composite bow is one of the strongest fighting styles in the game. It is by far the best supported fighting style with respect to feats, and gives you the added advantage of being able to pick enemies off from a huge distance away. To give you an idea of the number of feats that are strong for archers, you have Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot, Deadly Aim, Manyshot, Improved Snap Shot and Clustered Shots, not to mention all of the other standard weapon-specific feats and fighter only feats. While this can make it hard to keep up with the required feats on some classes, feats like Rapid Shot and Manyshot are so strong that it’s really hard to do much complaining.
The trickiest thing about playing an archer is balancing all of your important ability scores. You need strength for your damage and dexterity for your attack bonus, not to mention all of the other ability scores that your class might require (paladin archers are particularly bad for this).
Advantages:
Offhand Dmg Two Weapon Fighting Pathfinder List
- Attack from a range
- Stellar feat support
- Best style for dealing with DR (Clustered Shots)
Disadvantages:
- Demands a large number of feats
- Requires both Strength and Dexterity
- Enemies with reach can ruin your day if they get close to you
Recommended Classes:
- Alchemist
- Barbarian*
- Cavalier*
- Cleric / Oracle
- Fighter
- Inquisitor
- Monk*
- Paladin
- Ranger
Ranged, Other: *** (Gunslinger ****)
Generally, you’re better off with some sort of bow than with other ranged weapons, but there are exceptions, the most notable being the Gunslinger. Allowing you to use Dexterity for both your attack and damage, while often targeting touch attack AC is shockingly strong. Combined with some of their more powerful Deeds and the Snap Shot feat line, Gunslingers are a force to be reckoned with. You should ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS carry cartridges and use the Rapid Reload feat, so you can make your full number of attacks each round with Rapid Shot and Haste. I particularly recommend the Pistolero and Musketeer archetypes, but all Gunslingers are fairly strong. Keep in mind that as a Gunslinger, one unique disadvantage is that your cartridges cost a lot of money; the cheapest ones you can make will cost you a gold piece per shot, so be prepared to be poor early on in your career.
As for other classes, shuriken-wielding Ninjas who take the Flurry of Stars Ninja Trick can fire off a mountain of sneak attacks in a single round, when they catch an enemy flat-footed. Alchemist bombs are an obvious weapon choice for Alchemists, and can come with excellent (and hard to resist) debuffs as well. Halfling sling fighters can be somewhat interesting as characters go, combined with the Warslinger alternate racial trait; it’s still painful to miss out on Manyshot though.
With the exception of the shuriken Ninja and bomb Alchemist, avoid thrown weapons; enchanting ammunition costs more than it’s generally worth since it’s one attack per use, and attaching the Returning weapon property to one weapon per attack you have is beyond ludicrously costly, not to mention that you would have to remain relatively stationary all the time.
Though generally worse than wielding a bow, the combination of feats like Clustered Shots, Deadly Aim and Rapid Shot still make just about any ranged weapon (with the exception of crossbows) quite effective.
Advantages:
- Attack from a range
- Stellar feat support
- Best style for dealing with DR (Clustered Shots)
Disadvantages:
- Demands a large number of feats
- Enemies with reach can ruin your day if they get close to you
Recommended Classes:
- Alchemist*
- Fighter*
- Gunslinger
- Ninja*
Sword and Board: ***
The weapon and shield combination is a classic that has appeared in many fantasy films and books. It can be fairly effective in Pathfinder, if you want to go for a more defensive focus. There isn’t as much feat support for shields as there is for bows or two weapon combat, but there are more than for a two-hander. If you’re feeling particularly ambitious, you can even combine the two weapon fighting feats with shield combat via Shield Master, using a shield bash as an off-hand weapon. This requires so many feats that I wouldn’t even entertain the idea on anything but a fighter.
On a sword and board character, your AC can get truly daunting. The only real problem with this strategy is that it does nothing to help you with saving throws; in my experience, failed Fortitude and Will saves indirectly result in more PC deaths than actual physical damage does. Your damage will also be truly underwhelming; less even than a dual-wielder. That being said, this character can stand toe-to-toe with enemies several levels (or CR) higher than themselves without getting their faces punched into the dirt.
All in all, this is a serviceable fighting style. However, in Pathfinder, as in many other games, he who strikes first and strikes hardest is usually going to be the one who wins, so I generally lean more towards the other fighting styles.
Advantages:
- Massive AC
- Can use shield bash as an off-hand weapon
Disadvantages:
- Least damaging fighting style
Recommended Classes:
- Cleric / Oracle
- Fighter
- Paladin
Two-handed Melee: ****
Two-handed characters are some of the strongest melee characters in the game. With power attack and a high strength score, their damage can get shockingly high, and they’ll have a solid amount of flexibility as well, since it’s the least demanding fighting style when it comes to required feats.
The feats you really need to have on a two-handed character are Power Attack, Furious Focus and Weapon Focus. Outside of those, there are a number of interesting options, including class-specific feats, the Cleave tree, or miscellaneous feats like Dodge, Lunge, or Improved Initiative. Cleave, Cleaving Finish and Great Cleave can all be quite useful on a two-handed character, but their uses are somewhat situational; all of them are dependent on you having multiple enemies within reach, which gets difficult at higher levels when you’re consistently fighting large or larger enemies.
When building a two-handed character, try to get your strength as high as you can at first level, preferably 18 or better, though no less than 16. You’ll probably need to wear heavy armor, though some more generous point-buys may allow you to bump up your dexterity enough to effectively use medium or even light armor. Constitution shouldn’t be lower than 12, or your lackluster AC may lead you to an early grave. The best weapon choices are usually weapons with a high threat range and a x2 critical multiplier; a nodachi, falchion, fauchard, elven curve blade, or even a katana wielded in two hands (for Ninjas and Samurai). The reason you want a higher threat range is that your damage will be so high, a x3 or x4 multiplier will probably result in a massive amount of overkill. You’re far better off with more frequent, less damaging critical hits. The math also supports this being the superior choice, when calculating damage per round.
Other than that, do your best to maximize the number of attacks you make in a round. Consider dipping a couple of levels into Ninja for the ki pool, and try to persuade the party Wizard to cast Haste at the beginning of every combat. This combat style particularly shines for characters who can get their strength up to monstrous levels (Alchemists / Barbarians), on characters who have a lot of strong feats available to them and need to be choosy (Inquisitors / Samurai / Monks), on characters who have ways to generate more attacks for themselves (Ninja / Monk), and on characters with few feats available to them in general (pretty much all the other classes listed below except for Fighters).
Lastly, a note about monks… It is true that monks cannot add 1.5 x their strength modifier on damage rolls when using Flurry of Blows, and yes, I do take this into account when making my recommendations. Power Attack does not carry the same restriction as Flurry does, and as such the extra 1.5 x Power Attack damage sets you above most other monks in terms of damage per hit. A quarterstaff or seven branched sword are probably your best options here, though a temple sword wielded two-handed is also viable.
Advantages:
- Extremely high damage per hit
- Very little feat investment required
- Greatly benefits from attack generation
Disadvantages:
Offhand Dmg Two Weapon Fighting Pathfinder Kingmaker
- Low-ish AC
Recommended Classes:
- Alchemist
- Barbarian
- Cleric / Oracle
- Fighter
- Inquisitor
- Monk
- Ninja
- Paladin
- Samurai
Unarmed: ****
Something that has consistently surprised me is the amount of hate out there for unarmed monks. I have frequently read many posts claiming that monks are a terrible and underpowered class. I can assure you, if you think monks are underpowered (particularly unarmed monks), you haven’t been paying close enough attention to the new feats that have surfaced.
The first step when making a strong unarmed character is taking style feats. Dragon Style and Dragon Ferocity are by far the most powerful and least feat-intensive, allowing a strength-based monk to deal truly shocking amounts of damage. The Crane Style feat line is monstrous defensively, and in my home game, there have been several fights in which our DM has simply proclaimed victory for us without rolling dice thanks to Crane Wing and some clever positioning. Snake Style is quite good as well, having some solid defensive options and the rather strong Snake Fang feat, though Snake Sidewind is somewhat unimpressive.
Offhand Dmg Two Weapon Fighting Pathfinder 2e
If you go with Dragon Style (which is my primary recommendation), keep your starting strength somewhere between 16 and 18, and increase it at every available opportunity. Power Attack helps bump your damage up further, leaving most characters in the dust when comparing DPR.
All unarmed characters without exception should dip at least one or two levels in Monk. Between the free feats that you will definitely care about, Flurry of Blows, better unarmed damage, and +2 to all saving throws, you really have nothing to complain about here. Four levels gets you a ki pool, a larger damage die, better saves, slow fall, and better AC when unarmored. One thing to keep in mind is that Flurry of Blows, the best thing about dipping Monk, is not lost when wearing armor. That means your Paladin can dip a level or two of monk and still rock out in her full plate, punching the daylights out of people.
Now that the Martial Artist Monk archetype exists, multiclass monks are no longer restricted to being lawful, opening up a wide range of interesting possibilities. Do not underestimate unarmed characters; they can be exceptionally powerful.
Weapon Finesse Pathfinder
Advantages:
- Lots of room to customize with Style Feats
- Dragon Style and Dragon Ferocity results in staggering amounts of damage
- Crane Style can turn characters into monstrous tanks
- Many attack per round thanks to Ki Pool and / or Flurry of Blows
Disadvantages:
- Levels in Monk are practically required
- Can be feat-intensive
- Amulets of Mighty Fists are twice as expensive as an equivalent weapon
Recommended Classes:
- Monk
- Monk multiclass dip