Is there a 'best' off-hand weapon?


Advice


So, I have this idea in my head of a tengu dual-wielding an aldori dueling sword and a sawtooth sabre...that seems neat, but the sabre can't benefit from Weapon Finesse, which I would kinda want, what with a big Dex investment to pull off TWF!

Are there any weapons that give you a bonus for wielding it in the off-hand, or if you happen to be using Combat Expertise or fighting defensively or what have you? A light weapon would be best, and something esoteric that happens to be sword-like or dagger-like would be even better.

Some kind of parrying dagger or main gauche?


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If you have any weapon specific feats, then it is best to have your off-hand weapon be the same kind as your primary. Kukri has the best crit range, but you can throw a dagger.


A one level dip in Swashbuckler would let you Finesse both of them, though dual wielding isn't the best for a pure Swashbuckler.

Wazikashi is a decent offhand, since it's basically a short sword with a higher crit range.


You can use the new Slashing Grace feat with dual Sawtooth Sabres. Until they errata that feat to use Light weapons, it's the only real choice for an off-hand weapon usable with that feat.

In most cases, the "best off-hand" is simply "the same weapon that's in your main hand". Weapon Focus (a prerequisite for Slashing Grace) and other feats and effects specific to a single weapon would then apply to both weapons.

You could TWF with a Light Shield with a spike on it, but this requires an even higher investment in feats and wealth, and as a Piercing weapon, Slashing Grace does not apply to a Shield Spike.


I knew I saw this somewhere and my search-fu has for once suceeded:

just make sure to use the right version of sawtooth sabre and pfft it is a finessable weapon.

if you use two aldori dueling swords you are effectively -2 to hit versus a dueling sword & a light weapon but this isn't such a terrible thing because you only need weapon focus (dueling sword) to get +1 to both weapons.


DethBySquirl wrote:

A one level dip in Swashbuckler would let you Finesse both of them, though dual wielding isn't the best for a pure Swashbuckler.

Wazikashi is a decent offhand, since it's basically a short sword with a higher crit range.

Oh, I see. Use Slashing Grace to make sawtooth sabres count as piercing, and then Swashbuckler Finesse lets you use Weapon Finesse with them.

That other way to Weapon Finesse sawtooth sabres, man, I could cut tomatoes with the rules sliced like that (or something).

wakizashi is good, yeah.

While it's not defensive, a sica woulld be good for my concept (+1 to hit dudes with shields...it's situational, but I'll still take it).

The reason I'm going with TWF with a dueling sword in the main hand is for Improved Two-Weapon Feint and Dueling Cloak Adept: basically, a dueling sword is the best weapon to feint with. If there was such a thing as a 'double dueling sword' I'd use that. But, there isn't.

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