Related to the Dervish Dancer feat and thread but a separate issue. On the surface dex to damage is to good of an ability. Strength has very little use in comparison to dexterity which also has uses in accuracy with ranged weapons, initiaitve, AC, several great skills, reflex saving throws and indirectly movement rate as a high strength low dex character is probably goign to be wearing heavy armor and probably a few things I have missed. Dex to damage has the ability to create a super stat. RAW there are currently 3 ways of getting dex to damge in Pathfinder that I know of.
1. Dervish Dancer feat. Yesterday in PF I described an NPC carrying a scimitar and dressed in light armor. PCs assumed he was a Magus. PCs were right.
2. Agile weapon enhancement. Probably won't be available to PCs at low levels, located in semi obscure sourcebook I have read about on the forums whose name eludes me.
3. Aldori Bladelord. PrC, feat intentensive limited to one weapon.
If there are any more please let me know.
I'm not 100% sure and others may disagree with me but these are probably the best weapons in Pathfinder. Im no particular order
1. Scimitar
2. Falchion
3. Falcata
4. Bows and Guns.
5. Two handed weapons in general.
Or basically power attack, rapid shot, high crit and ranged weapons. These weapons have the best feat support and do the most damage compared to competing weapons for low opportunity cost. Bows and scimitars have been popular to abuse since the early days of 3.0, two handed weapons since 3.5 and the changes it made to power attack.
Basic weapons such as longswords are really only used by classes like Clerics with a deity who has it as a weapon, people who do not know any better and maybe the sword and shield types who will probably be outclassed by other builds. A Dwarven waraxe is also a decent choice if you are a Dwarf I suppose. Not everyone is a powergamer either and may just go with whatever they feel like as it will not matter to much vs creatures of similar CR if they can build a decent build.
Anyway is dex to damage broken as an ability? Opinions may vary and I have been allowing it in my own games via an improved weapon finesse feat. I do not allow Piranha Strike into my games though as we only use the core rules, APG, Inner Sea World Guide and the ultimate books in the game.
I also gave feat suppot to weapons that PCs in normal circumstances would not use as primary weapons. One of my PCs is a Gunslinger1/Fighter 5 who dual wields daggers, another uses a rapier. The Rapier user also gets to add intelligence to damage and he uses nothing in his other hand. I converted the 3.5 Swashbuckler class to PF as a fighter option. I wanted to see if I could make the duelist option work in Pathfinder and he is enjoying his character.
Now are things like this overpowered? In a way yes they are. The Rapier user for example is dealing something like 1d6+10 damage with his rapier (+4 dex, +3 int, +2 specialist, +1 weapon). Thats a little bit borked compared to a core PF build. However from the DM point of view his character is easier to deal with than say a Paladin with a keen falchion. The other fighter type has taken similar feats and dual wields daggers which deal 1d4+10 (+4 dex, +2 int, +2 specialisation, +1 trait, +1 weapon) damage each.
Yes they all took high dex characters when I gave them some juicy feat options to support it but it was also in comparison to their last characters which involved a ranger acher and a Paladin using a keen falchion. It was something different for them to try. Personally ATM I have no problem with dex to damage but one may want to limit what else you can pile onto it (Piranha Strike comes to mind). I have gone as far as allowing int to damage although that one is precision damage.
Anyway thoughts about dex to Damage? I had to custom design feats for my examples above but if you want PCs to use different weapons you may need to do the same thing. Bastard sword sucks as written give it a feat that increases its damage or crit range and see what happens;)
only way to get dex to damage is to wait until either 3rd level (second if a fighter) for dervish dance, or wait until you can afford agile (insert weapon here) and that takes longer, not until 5th level or so.
so all in all it sucks having no damage and banking on that damage comming at later levels when its less important to gain a +2-4 damage on a strike.
i wouldnt bank on it unless i was playing a character that didnt need extra base damage because of other factors, like a rogue or a magus.
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i prefer 'precision damage' to be dice/bonuses rather than DX. for reasons that you state.
generally though, especially depending upon who you game with, there are many 'broken' components of a potential 'super-combo' that will not break a house game. gamers worth gaming with would not want to 'break' their own game. that very concept is ludicrous.
as a side, i think Weapon Finesse should be changed from a feat to a weapon trait. that way, both 'ranged' and 'finesse' (and 'monk') weapons would have to operate via DX. you just can't brutishly wield a rapier. or a dagger against a guy with an axe. but being strong and fast is better than being just fast in both these instances.
rainzax are you meaning finesse weapons more or less get weapon finesse free as part of the weapon property and a user would not need the weapon finesse feat?
D&D Next has done that ut they do not get the 50-100% damage bonus from high strength when wielding a two handed weapon or power attack.
I'm very close to rewording weapon finesse into dex to damage and making dex to hit a property of finesse weapons.
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how about instead you change Weapon Finesse to be worded as a 'power attack' for 'light' and 'finesse' (and 'monk') weapons with instead a 13 DX prerequisite a la Piranha Strike?
that way there is still a drawback for a low ST high DX build.