dire mace

Stilgar · Post by **Stilgar** » Wed Jul 03, 2002 7:16 am

I have a total dejavu, 2years ago i was asking all these questions about baldur's gate II, and now about neverwinter nights. cause i'm not the hardcore pnp-dungeons and dragons fan. Whe usually go for the story, and make our own rules as whe go allong a dungeons and dragons night.

now my question:
i have a dire mace, and it dous 1d8/1d8 damage, what dous this mean?
dous it cound a a dualwielding weapon? or do you first damge with the left side and then with the other?

I think there should be someoen who can answer this

Yshania · Post by **Yshania** » Wed Jul 03, 2002 8:20 am

From page 130 of the manual "Using a double weapon is the same as using two weapons (consider the off-hand as wielding a light weapon)"

The Dire Mace is a double weapon, as is the Two Bladed Sword and the Double Axe.

Stilgar · Post by **Stilgar** » Wed Jul 03, 2002 9:14 am

When i have no dualweapon skills,
what do you suggest, a greatsword, or a diremace+1?

Mathurin · Post by **Mathurin** » Wed Jul 03, 2002 9:17 am

Greatsword. Unless you have the feats, using double weapons is almost useless.

Biljac · Post by **Biljac** » Wed Jul 03, 2002 12:36 pm

You know funny thing is, and I don't know if this was introduced with new patch, but when using a 2 bladed sword and you have 2 weapon skill , the character sheet shows offhand not used. Anyone else seen this??

Mathurin · Post by **Mathurin** » Wed Jul 03, 2002 12:42 pm

Yeah a lot of people have noticed it. You are in actuality still getting the extra attack. Easiest way to tell is to fight and watch the screen at the bottom. It will show off hand attack rolls if you watch. Another easy way is to go into parry mode and count the number of parries he gets in a round. If he parries twice hes getting the extra attack.

DaringCommander11 · Post by **DaringCommander11** » Wed Jul 03, 2002 8:47 pm

Can you use a Dire Mace with only one head like in the PnP. I remember in pnp one game I found a +3 Two-Handed Sword that kick everything elses but but I didn't have the feats so I only used one head.

Mathurin · Post by **Mathurin** » Fri Jul 05, 2002 10:07 am

I don't think so. I think regardless if you pick up a 2 handed weapon it simply gives you the extra attack and the penalties. Would be too much scripting for the creators otherwise.

Kameleon · Post by **Kameleon** » Fri Jul 05, 2002 12:04 pm

I've also noticed that along with an off-hand attack not being displayed, the attack bonuses are what I would expect with a regular weapon, without the -2 modifier that comes with dual-wielding. Is this a display bug too, or is a double weapon actually better than two separate weapons? (I would say that it was anyhow, because the off-hand attack is generally 1d6 for two seperate weapons, but on a two-bladed sword you get 1d8)

Mathurin · Post by **Mathurin** » Fri Jul 05, 2002 12:07 pm

Havent noticed the reduced penalties. The drawback to the double weapons is the feat you have to spend for them, the bonus is that the off-hand tends to do more damage than a light weapon would in the same hand and you have to spend less feats to make your useage of the weapon better, such as weapon focus and weapon specialization for one weapon rather than 2.

Kameleon · Post by **Kameleon** » Fri Jul 05, 2002 12:11 pm

Originally posted by Mathurin
[snip]...The drawback to the double weapons is the feat you have to spend for them...[snip]

What feat do you need extra to use double weapons instead of dual-wielding two weapons? In the context it doesn't seem like you're comparing with normal/two-handed weapons...

Mathurin · Post by **Mathurin** » Fri Jul 05, 2002 12:37 pm

You have to have exotic weapon proficiency to use double weapons. Without it they won't even let you equip double weapons in NWN.

Kameleon · Post by **Kameleon** » Fri Jul 05, 2002 12:39 pm

Oh, that...I get exotic right at the start so I can use Katanas and Bastard Swords...

Mathurin · Post by **Mathurin** » Fri Jul 05, 2002 12:57 pm

That was one of the biggest surprises I got when I started NWN. The proficiency feats apply to everything. In D&D the only feat that applies to all weapons of its group is simple weapon proficiency. As a warrior you are proficient with all simple and martial weapons but to become proficient with an exotic weapon you take the feat for it and thats it, its the only exotic weapon you know. Which makes much more sense to me. If you take training in a dire mace why should you automatically know how to wield a katana. Thats really the only thing they did in NWN that I disliked was the oversimplification of some of the stuff.

Kameleon · Post by **Kameleon** » Fri Jul 05, 2002 1:07 pm

I think what happens is that they want players to be able to try out every weapon that they've made - if you had to have a separate feat for each exotic weapon you wanted to use, there wouldn't be enough feats for anything else. So they could give even more feats, but this would probably result in gamers picking one weapon and spending all the extra feats on things like Weapon and Skill Focus, or getting every Improved feat before level 6, etc. I thihk they've balanced it the best way they know how. Sure, they could have kept it like BG2, but that wouldn't have been in keeping with the 3rd Ed rules. My only problem is that when I'm using a particular weapon configuration, I always forget that if I find another really great weapon, I can switch out without penalties. My dual-wielder can become a competent archer or two-hander with only the loss of Imp Crit and Weapon Focus...

Mathurin · Post by **Mathurin** » Fri Jul 05, 2002 1:47 pm

Kinda my point. You arent supposed to be good at everything. You only have so many feats, thus they are to be used wisely, meaning if you wanna be a master of one weapon you have to sacrifice in other areas. For instance the bow feats. All that is required to be good with a bow in NWN is Point Blank Shot and Rapid Shot, and Weapon Focus if you feel like it. In D&D the benefits of Point Blank Shot are actually 2 feats, Point Blank and Precise Shot, not to mention the myriad other feats related to a bow. I prefer the degree of specialization that you can get with tabletop rather than the simplification that the game brings. I still love the game a lot though.