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There's yet another problem (at least as I see it) with the Weapon Swap feat - does it allow you to carry a Defending weapon in your off hand and just use all of its bonus to add to your AC if you use Weapon Swap, keeping your primary hand weapon's benefits for the price of a -2 penalty to attack with it in your off hand? Does this basically just give two-weapon fighters the benefits of a moderately magical shield (a +4 AC bonus from a shield (+2 heavy shield) would cost 4,000 gp, whereas a +4 Defending weapon would cost 50,000 gp.)
Valeros is a prime candidate for exploiting this loophole. If an 18th level version of our favorite Fighter has a +5 Frost Cold Iron Longsword for his primary and a +4 Defending Short Sword for his off-hand, what reason would he have to not just dump the Defending sword's bonus into AC and swap out for the longsword, factoring in the much higher degree of skill he could likely possess at that level with a longsword, if his past progression trend continued? (I'm assuming Focus, Specialization, Improved Critical, Greater Focus, Greater Specialization, and Weapon Training (Heavy Blades) +4 (net +6 to attack, +8 to damage, and a 17-20 threat range) vs. Focus, Specialization, and Weapon Training (Light Blades) +3 (+4 to attack, +5 to damage, and normal 19-20 threat range.)
The exact wording of the Defending property reads that you allocate the bonus to AC or attack and damage as a free action before the start of your turn, so is there any real reason this wouldn't work, or does it just reek a bit too much of a WotC CharOp board-style scheme?
