Dabbling with some character concepts I seem to enjoy the idea of a ranger using a quarterstaff. Obviously twf comes into play which I like the idea of in theory but I've never played a two weapon fighter before. Would the quarterstaff master feat be enough of an incentive to wield a quarterstaff?
I think there is enough incentive to use a quarterstaff even if you do not take that feat. This stems from the fact that it is a double weapon.
Besides the fact that they can be used for TWF, double weapons have the advantage of still being two handed weapons. You can choose whether to use them as such, or as one one-handed weapon and a light weapon (obviously you can't do both at once, or switch at one point in your attack routine). So, when you can't use TWF (due to not being able to use a full attack), you can just two hand it to get 1.5x power attack and strength bonuses.
This is major for a TWF build, since the question of "what to do when you can't get in a full attack" is one of the reasons why it can deal less damage in practice than a two-handed build. This might be enough to make up for the poor critical stat.
But this is like how a longspear is one of the best simple weapons since it is the only reach weapon in that category. Obviously other double weapons are better usually, but they often require a feat investment. If you play a half-orc or dwarf, you would obviously go with the racial double weapons they have. But quarterstaff master might be a decent option if you are willing to invest the 3 feats.
Would the quarterstaff master feat be enough of an incentive to wield a quarterstaff?
no, probably not.
that is not, however, the only incentive... quarterstaff works with perfect strike which you can pick up with a dip in weapon adept monk, that same dip will set you up for the crane style feat tree. normally you can't use that with a 2hander or 2WF, but quarterstaff master lets you use the quarterstaff in one hand, so you have a ton of versatility! when you move you can 2hand the staff for max damage, or 1hand it for max defense (thanks to crane wing); when you get to full-attack you can use the staff as a double weapon (which is extra efficient if you can get get shillelagh on it, though that pretty much requires you take UMD) or you can use the staff in one hand and use unarmed strikes for off-hand attacks (this will do less damage than the weapon attacks but allow you to still use crane wing). couple all that with the fact that you can afford extra Str since you don't need to meet the Dex requirement for 2WF feats you get as a ranger and it could be a fairly solid build.
good call krodjin- just about any method of getting shillelagh would be helpful for this build.
I was thinking about that one. A lot of good stuff. It won't be near the top for damage, I was just debating using a quarterstaff and making it work. Would shillelagh stack with the effects of a lead blades spell? Neither of the spells say they don't, but it can get kind of fuzzy. A 2d6 double weapon is nice, a 3d6 double weapon is your gm looking at you all funny.
the fluff at the beginning of lead blades kind of sounds like maybe they could stack but the mechanics of it clearly won't. shillelagh makes it count as two sizes bigger and lead blades makes it count as one size bigger... size increases (even 'effective' ones) do not stack.