Command suggestion: /c twohand attack

[ScottyB]

I'm wondering if there's any interest in a command to grant a damage bonus to characters attacking with nothing but a one-handed weapon, by using two hands to make an attack.

In PnP, when a character does this, they get 1.5 times their STR bonus (instead of 1 times their STR bonus). This makes wielding nothing but a longsword or a bastard sword (without a shield or off-hand weapon) a viable choice for combat. I'm not suggesting this because it's a PnP rule, but because it's a low-impact rule that I like and allows more build options to become competent questers.

Some things:

• For management purposes, this would be activated, not toggled.
• Any form of weapon/shield swapping will cancel the bonus.
• Negative STR does not get multiplied (thus, useless).
• The bonus damage would always be rounded down.
• This would not apply to weapons that are always wielded with two-hands, as they already get a 1.5xSTR bonus...
• nor to weapons that can be finessed.
• This would not stack with whetstones or similar items that add physical damage bonuses to weapons.
• A two-round (or longer) cooldown can be added, if desired. Otherwise, I'd just do a one-round cooldown. See the notes for the spoiler block on an alternate suggestion.
• Prerequisite feats could be required to activate this command, such as Power Attack or Two-weapon Fighting, or both, if such a restriction would be desired.

Comparisons of damage output when used by a 14 STR character:
[INDENT]Longsword
[INDENT]Normal: 1d8 + 2 = 3 to 10 damage
Two-handed: 1d8 + 2 + 1 = 4 to 11 damage[/INDENT]
Bastard Sword
[INDENT]Normal: 1d10 + 2 = 3 to 12 damage
Two-handed: 1d10 + 2 + 1 = 4 to 13 damage[/INDENT]
Greatsword
[INDENT]2d6 + 3 = 5 to 15 damage[/INDENT][/INDENT]
Note: the +1 comes from 2 * 1.5 = 3 and 3 - 2 = 1.

A greatsword will still be the best, but the average damage of the one-handed weapons improves. And in case anyone's curious...

[hide="Comparisons with a 20 STR character"]
[INDENT]Longsword
[INDENT]Normal: 1d8 + 5 = 6 to 13 damage
Two-handed: 1d8 + 5 + 2 = 8 to 15 damage[/INDENT]
Bastard Sword
[INDENT]Normal: 1d10 + 5 = 6 to 15 damage
Two-handed: 1d10 + 5 + 2 = 8 to 17 damage[/INDENT]
Greatsword
[INDENT]2d6 + 7 = 9 to 19 damage[/INDENT][/INDENT]
Note: the +2 comes from 5 * 1.5 = 7.5 and 7 - 5 = 2.

In this case, a 20 STR character can wield a bastard sword with the same maximum damage as a greatsword, and with better average damage. This may be a reason to go with a two-round cooldown, or perhaps a cool-down of rounds equal to your STR bonus (or STR bonus x 1.5), as well as prerequisite feats.
I just discovered that two-handed weapons always get a 1.5 x STR bonus from the engine. Weaker weapons will never be able to "catch up."[/hide]

This is mechanically similar to a number of other ideas I've had floating around that I've scripted for personal use in my private development modules, so it's feasible. Now I just need to know if there'd be anyone who wants to use this, and if there's any reason this would be a Bad Idea.

[Sternhund]

I am all for this.

[Thomas_Not_very_wise]

I am against this on the reason it is awesome, and therefore immoral to the standard's set by all standard's of EFU:A

[Wern8]

This is an awesome idea, I say.

[Vlaid]

In your comparison of the bastard sword vs the great sword vs the longsword with 20 str, shouldn't it actually be:

Great Sword: 9-19 (2d6+(5*1.5))

Still making the greatsword superior in damage for two handed purposes (even if only by a little).

 I support this idea though. It gives the bastard sword back that feeling it had in PnP as the "hand and a half" weapon.

[Thomas_Not_very_wise]

*WISHES NwN HAD WEAPON ANIMATIONS FOR WIELDING ONE Longswords with two hands.*

[ScottyB]

In your comparison of the bastard sword vs the great sword vs the longsword with 20 str, shouldn't it actually be:

Great Sword: 9-19 (2d6+(5*1.5))

Two-handed weapons do not get a two-handed weapon bonus (x1.5) in vanilla 3rd Edition that NWN in based on. NWN2 applies this bonus because it's based on 3.5E (and had the luxury of being developed after the rules for D&D were printed.)

And before anyone suggests enabling this for two-handed weapons so that they "get" their "deserved" bonus, I'm not looking to raise the damage output server-wide, just provide an option for people to sacrifice off-hand use for making a cooler (but smaller) weapon than the greatsword do competitive damage. Addendum: People should choose the greatsword because it's the weapon they want to wield, not because it's the weapon that does the best damage; while it still will do the best damage (at least, without having to activate anything) it will not be so much better as to overshadow other weapons.

[Vlaid]

Wierd, I always thought you did get the Str *1.5 damage bonus on two handed weapons in NWN. That is odd! Learn something new all the time.

[Vlaid]

I guess I would have another question then (in light of your clarification on how two handed strength damage bonus's work in NWN).

When small races wield a one handed weapon two handed, do they currently get str*1.5 damge bonus?

And if they don't, would they get it with this change?

[ScottyB]

Currently, no, they don't.

I hadn't thought about small races. Technically, the way I was going to script this would have allowed them to make two-handed attacks, since I'd have to specifically be checking if their race would already be wielding the weapon two-handed or not.

A better question is, should they get it? Technically, they're supposed to have trouble wielding medium-sized weapons. Also, being biased against halflings and gnomes, I don't know if I should be the one answering this. Without a directive from another DM, I would probably exclude those small races from being able to use two-handed attacks with their already-two-handed weapon.

[Vlaid]

I thought small races have no more trouble wielding medium sized weapons two-handed as medium sized races wield large weapons two handed?

I suppose if it's not mechanically desirable to give medium size races the str*1.5 damage bonus to Large two handed weapons, it wouldn't really be fair to give small races the same str*1.5 to medium sized weapons.

[Pup]

Vlaid is correct.  Two-handed weapons get 1.5X Str bonus.  One-handed gets 1X Str bonus.  Off-hand gets .5X Str bonus.

Technical stuff aside, I like the idea.

[core]

Definitely 100% for this.

[ScottyB]

Vlaid is correct.  Two-handed weapons get 1.5X Str bonus.  One-handed gets 1X Str bonus.  Off-hand gets .5X Str bonus.

Technical stuff aside, I like the idea.

Well, shit. I'd heard that NWN1 didn't do this, and the NWN Wiki folks had no idea, but it does, at least for medium-sized creatures. I didn't test with a halfling, though, but now I would assume it's the same.

A STR-based cooldown seems a bit harsh, now, actually.

[VanillaPudding]

A Halfling with a rapier with swing it as a two hander already, so leaving them out of the scripts would not change anything for them.