Do your PCs use Staves in combat?

[Egon the Monkey]

Quite some time back, CrazyNut came up with a clever way to override the Quarterstaff to be a double weapon with a 1d6 19-20 crit end and a 1d3 19-20 crit end. Unfortunately, it seems to be that nobody seriously uses the weapon any more, since it's a non-finesseable low damage weapon that needs either Ranger or dual wield feats to make use of. It's an exotic weapon in all but name due to the high feat requirement, rather than a commoner's weapon.

I'd like to ask other EfU players if this has made staves less useful to them too, rather than jump straight in with a suggestion to revert it. For example, my PCs often carried staves as a lightweight weapon that was capable of doing good damage to Nightrisers, or as a way for a mage to do a decent amount of damage to low AC mobs due to the 1.5x STR multiplier.

[Nightshadow]

I'd say it should be reverted. It's a very interesting change and makes the staff what it should be in PnP terms, but unfortunately all it should be. If only it were possible to make it so that the double-weapon part of it was optional.

[The Old Hack]

Well, I tried to use one on my mage Aurelia because it gave useful skill pluses and she was no good in melee combat anyway. I mostly noticed trouble when she was alone and fighting weak creatures; then using a dagger instead helped. When alone against strong creatures, running away was my preferred tactic.

One way to make such staffs of more use could be to create some more like the monk staff with built in dual wield feats, at least for mages and sorcerers who often have to rely on staffs for their skill and spell bonuses. Of course that might be going overboard; I don't know. :/

[Egon the Monkey]

The problem is that a mage dual wielding lowers their AB so much proportionally (2 AB out of 5-6 is nasty) that it's gimped. in PNP you have the choice to use it either as a 2 hander or a double weapon, each round. Sadly it is non optional in EFU, it's all or nothing for a server-side change liek this, I asked when it was implemented. I have no idea if it could be reverted and a perk or other override be scripted that makes your PC always use it as a dual weapon if you have it, but the default would be two-hander.

It's not only a subpar weapon, but one that eats up your feats that PCs using a weak weapon tend to use to compensate.

[Drakill Tannan]

Personally i like the change, but i'd give all quarterstaffs ambidexterity and two weapon fighting for free. After all it's supposed to be a simple weapon to use.

[petey512]

Have any of you guys tried to seriously use a staff in combat?

It's fucking hard.

I'm not saying it shouldn't have those feats for free, because I would very much like that- but it is difficult to use a quarterstaff effectively. I know because I tried. Because I'm a nerd.

[Seanzie]

I had a player, Olaf johnson, and for the longest time I used a quarterstaff and had no idea the thing needed dual wield and ambidexterity. But I am sure I would have done much better with it. So a change would be extremely nice.

[Disco]

IMO staffs should have the DUAL WIELD feat, or whatever its called. its silly that you need to use 2 feats to use the simplest weapon in the book.

[Egon the Monkey]

There is one with Ambidexterity and 2 weapon fighting, but it is a Monk Only one, and it's still better by a gigantic amount to use fists and Flurry of Blows, as you lose your Monk AB Progression with a stave.
There's also a druid/cleric only one with just two weapon fighting, and bonus spellslots. It's the new Mage Daggers.

[Winston Martin]

I like that the wizard class no longer starts off with a 1.5 str damage weapon. Use a club or dagger or take a weapon proficiency feat.

[Diz-e]

I use the one with the two-weapon fighting feat, all the time. It doesn't do uber damage a lot (though it also has a masscrit addition), but I think its awesome like it is against weaker enemies. If you want a low-weight bludgeoning weapon with full AB, use a club, it weighs one pound less. Maybe there should be a few other staffs given this feat, but other than that, I believe its great the way it stands. If you are a mage and you wield a staff, I mean, come on, unless you're a battle mage or sorcerer, you're not supposed to be doing melee anyway, you're not gonna be able to hit the high AC monster, and this gives you 2 opportunities to get a critical hit instead of one with your crappy AB.

[Underbard]

Anyone besides me old enough to remember the movie   "Walking tall"?
  Used correctly, a staff has a lot of reach and is good for defense.  Two equal warriors, one trained with a staff and the other with a bastard sword.... Fella with the staff should knock the other poor sod out before he ever feels wind off the blade.
  Technically, it should be able to be used as a two handed weapon or a dual wield.  Unfortunately, I doubt that is possible so we just have to make the best of what we have.

[The Crimson Magician]

A nice plausible scripting option could be to just have the override coded into the server turned into an optional override for players, so that players who want to dual-wield can download it, and those who don't can just use it vanilla-style.

[GoblinSapper]

Considering it's off hand strike is half that off it's primary strike, equating a small and tiny weapon respectivly (actually it's 1d3, so it's like having a small weapon and throwing a shuriken), I think it should at least have two weapon fighting, ambidextry, or both on it. Or add such a weapon to the loot tables.
 
Next up man, Quarterstaff Ranger. Little John anyone?

[Dustiferous]

It seems like the Monk Staff that has ambidexterity/TWF actually causes you to attack at unarmed strike damage (d8 at the level I was at) with the offhand.  It may be that the d3 for all staffs is default unarmed damage for medium creatures?  It's barely a reduction from Flurry, and the only reason my monk doesn't use it in combat is that I worry she can't hit anything at all even without -2/-2 (I don't use Flurry very often for the same reason).  At level 6 you're losing one free attack compared to the bizarre monk unarmed schedule, but I don't know that she should plan on being 6+ (or alive at all) for very long.

I like how viable staff is as a weapon for an appropriate concept and build.  Roleplay should come before rules, but when cool or stylish options are also mechanically effective, you'll see them used more often, and in general I hope to see more staves in TWF hands.

I'm a fan of spears, but in NWN there's no reach, so it ends up as a sort of  sorceror/bard weapon (simple prof, no-shield characters), but I'd make a fighter to use one anyway if I had a good idea (or a bad idea).

I haven't been playing EFU very long, but I think I've seen itemization give good bonuses to less-than-optimal gear (simple weapons, medium armor, etc.), which I really appreciate and enjoy as a way of evening out the default differences in weapons.