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I am creating my first Pathfinder character. I am a first level Rogue, I have taken Two Weapon Fighting. I have a Short sword (primary) and a Rapier (offhand). I want to make sure I am calculating it correctly that I have a -2 (ignoring anything else) to my attack roll for each weapon, correct?
I think this because a Rogue has Simple Weapon Proficiency plus a few other weapons including the Rapier. Otherwise it would be -4.
Thanks.
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I am creating my first Pathfinder character. I am a first level Rogue, I have taken Two Weapon Fighting. I have a Short sword (primary) and a Rapier (offhand). I want to make sure I am calculating it correctly that I have a -2 (ignoring anything else) to my attack roll for each weapon, correct?
I think this because a Rogue has Simple Weapon Proficiency plus a few other weapons including the Rapier. Otherwise it would be -4.
It's -4 to each hand, because you have the Two-Weapon Fighting feat and your off-hand attack is not a light weapon. I don't see why you are doing it that way. If the shortsword was your off-hand weapon, penalties would be -2 to each.
Rogues are proficient with shortswords and rapiers as you say. That doesn't enter in to it, apart from avoiding a further -4 for using a weapon with which he or she is not proficient.
I am creating my first Pathfinder character. I am a first level Rogue, I have taken Two Weapon Fighting. I have a Short sword (primary) and a Rapier (offhand). I want to make sure I am calculating it correctly that I have a -2 (ignoring anything else) to my attack roll for each weapon, correct?
I think this because a Rogue has Simple Weapon Proficiency plus a few other weapons including the Rapier. Otherwise it would be -4.
Thanks.
It breaks down like this:
Starting penalties: -6 Primary -10 Off-hand
With TWF Feat: -4 Primary -4 Off-hand
Using a light weapon in off-hand: -2 Primary -2 Off-hand
Note that, if you don't have proficiency in a weapon the -4 for using it is an additional penalty.
Also note that a rapier isn't a light weapon, so you should use the shortsword in your off-hand.
And remember, without the Double Slice feat you only add half of your Str bonus to damage with the off-hand weapon.
For a character with a +0 BAB two weapon fighting is mainly an opportunity to miss twice. At first level weapon focus with one weapon is probably a better bet.
Actually, for a Rogue, Weapon Finesse might be a better deal (... since most rogues have Dex scores considerable better then their Str scores).
For a character with a +0 BAB two weapon fighting is mainly an opportunity to miss twice. At first level weapon focus with one weapon is probably a better bet.Actually, for a Rogue, Weapon Finesse might be a better deal (... since most rogues have Dex scores considerable better then their Str scores).
Also the fact that weapon focus requires BAB +1.
But yes human TWF rogues usually start with TWF and weapon finesse.
For a character with a +0 BAB two weapon fighting is mainly an opportunity to miss twice. At first level weapon focus with one weapon is probably a better bet.Actually, for a Rogue, Weapon Finesse might be a better deal (... since most rogues have Dex scores considerable better then their Str scores).Also the fact that weapon focus requires BAB +1.
But yes human TWF rogues usually start with TWF and weapon finesse.
I don't believe so. Pathfinder RPG Core Rule Book page 136 does not list any prerequists with the Weapon Finesse feat.
Has there been an errata that I don't know about?
OP: Depending on what you have in mind for future levels/feats, you might want to consider a set up like short swords in both hands in the longer run. That way, you can pick a feat like Weapon Focus (for example) and have it help both hands hit. Typically you want to be much more concerned about hitting than damage because you'll have sneak attack, situationally, to help with damage but not much in the way of class features to help you hit with your 3/4 BAB.
Alternately, a decent double weapon or something like sawtooth sabres, but all of those require an exotic weapon proficiency (basically, ther are a couple angles) that may or may not be worth it to you.
OP: Depending on what you have in mind for future levels/feats, you might want to consider a set up like short swords in both hands in the longer run. That way, you can pick a feat like Weapon Focus (for example) and have it help both hands hit. Typically you want to be much more concerned about hitting than damage because you'll have sneak attack, situationally, to help with damage but not much in the way of class features to help you hit with your 3/4 BAB.
Alternately, a decent double weapon or something like sawtooth sabres, but all of those require an exotic weapon proficiency (basically, ther are a couple angles) that may or may not be worth it to you.
I second this. When two-weapon fighting, you really want to use the same weapon in both hands so that both hand benefit from feats like weapon focus that only work for a specific weapon. Since you want your offhand weapon to be light for the minimum penalties, you need to pick 2 light weapons.
Daggers are good because you can also use them as throwing weapon in a pinch.
Shortsword is good for slightly more damage.
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OP: Depending on what you have in mind for future levels/feats, you might want to consider a set up like short swords in both hands in the longer run. That way, you can pick a feat like Weapon Focus (for example) and have it help both hands hit. Typically you want to be much more concerned about hitting than damage because you'll have sneak attack, situationally, to help with damage but not much in the way of class features to help you hit with your 3/4 BAB.
Alternately, a decent double weapon or something like sawtooth sabres, but all of those require an exotic weapon proficiency (basically, ther are a couple angles) that may or may not be worth it to you.
I second this. When two-weapon fighting, you really want to use the same weapon in both hands so that both hand benefit from feats like weapon focus that only work for a specific weapon. Since you want your offhand weapon to be light for the minimum penalties, you need to pick 2 light weapons.
Daggers are good because you can also use them as throwing weapon in a pinch.
Shortsword is good for slightly more damage.
The "slightly more damage" becomes less important as your sneak attack dice increase. After all, 3d6 + 1d4 isn't really much less than 4d6.
If you play a half-elf, you can get a free weapon proficiency in place of Skill Focus (APG), but the half-elf is really good only if you plan to multi-class (in my experience). In my opinion, the flexibility of the dagger (melee or throwing) outweighs the extra damage from the short sword.Edit: The dagger allows you to choose whether you want to do slashing or piercing damage. Sometimes you need to choose one or the other to get around a monster's damage reduction.
The "slightly more damage" becomes less important as your sneak attack dice increase. After all, 3d6 + 1d4 isn't really much less than 4d6.
That's true, but I'd add the caveat that that assumes you can sneak attack.
Depending on how often you expect to be fighting and unable to (which is partly campaign dependent) you might place a higher weight on more base damage. I mean, maybe you expect to be enlarged a lot for some reason -- now the double-bladed sword seems better, etc.
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The "slightly more damage" becomes less important as your sneak attack dice increase. After all, 3d6 + 1d4 isn't really much less than 4d6.
That's true, but I'd add the caveat that that assumes you can sneak attack.
Depending on how often you expect to be fighting and unable to (which is partly campaign dependent) you might place a higher weight on more base damage. I mean, maybe you expect to be enlarged a lot for some reason -- now the double-bladed sword seems better, etc.
Excellent point, M. Mongoose. In our group I generally have a designated "flanking buddy", but that's not always the case. I can almost always tumble around to get to a good flanking position, but "almost" is an important adverb.
The flip side is that increasing the weapon size by one die (d4 -> d6, d6 -> d8, etc) only gives you an average of +1 damage. So, by using the same light weapon in both hands, you're giving up an average of one damage per main-hand attack you make over the course of your career to gain the advantage of having your feats work on both weapons. So even if you can't flank and get sneak attack regularly, you're still basically trading +1 damage for +1 attack (from sharing weapon focus), which is almost always an advantage.