Double weapon worth it on a medium?

[Arutema]

I wonder if the design team anticipated a flood of "small medium" jokes when they gave halflings one of the better medium favored class bonuses.

Any way, on to my actual question; I'm building a halfling medium, and wondering whether it's worth taking two-weapon fighting and using a double weapon in order to get more chances per turn to apply my spirit and seance bonuses.

The double weapon seems to have an advantage over two light weapons that I can use it as a two-hander in turns I only get one attack in. But, I'm still not sure the extra attacks are worth having to split points between Dex and Str.

Thoughts?

[Das Demonica]

I hope they anticipated it, even without one of the better FCBs, halflings make good mediums because of their dexterity and charisma.

My thoughts are as follows: halflings have a negative to strength and mediums are tight for feats. Buying a 12 strength, for a halfling, costs the same as buying a 14 constitution and if you plan on getting into melee you'll want that constitution more. Finessed estocs/wakizashi might work better, simply because of the likelihood of low strength.

Here be more important (but not as directly related to the question) information. While there is a trait which can grant weapon proficiency it's also important to note that it's never stated that their temporary weapon proficiency does not grant them to ability to take related feats (whereas it is stated that their temporary arcane/divine spells don't count for feats and such: whereas the iconic builds on a weapon he's not proficient with). Therefore, a medium can have weapon focus (sling staff) without having true/permanent proficiency with it.

[PossibleCabbage]

The real question worth asking yourself is whether your double weapon fighting halfling medium is going to out-damage a halfling who takes River Rat, Weapon Finesse, TWF, and Pharasma's Deific Obedience. That's three feats and a trait and you have a fighting style that works with every spirit, not just the Champion.

You're small, so your damage dice are going to be poor, so the 1d6/1d6 on the double weapon isn't going to vastly outperform the 1d3+1/1d3+1 from the daggers and river-rat (avg of 3.5 vs. 3), and double weapons are 2-handed hence not finesse compatible.

Level 8 Halfling medium possessed by the champion, using the FCB, and with River Rat, Finesse, 2WF, Pharasma's Deific Obedience, and Spirit Focus Champion fighting with daggers is going to have an attack progression of +11/+11/+11/+6 (plus Dexmod and equipment bonuses) averaging 11 damage per hit (plus StrMod and equipment bonuses) ; and in 3 levels you get pounce. Can you do better than that with a double weapon?

The medium is really feat starved, and though the FCB is fantastic, you don't get access to good weapons through your race and your proficiencies when you're not the champion are poor. Unless you're going to be the champion all the time (which sort of defeats the point of the class) you're better off spending your feats on things that are compatible with more than one spirit.

[nicholas storm]

I think I looked at this and came to the conclusion that a STR build two handing a falcata is better than two weapon fighting (partly due to the free attack at level 6). When you do two weapon fighting, the extra attack doesn't have as much impact as two handed weapons.

Builds I looked at used a small aasimar (+2STR/CHA) with scion of humanity or human with racial heritage halfling. I think I looked at a halfling build, but the -2STR hurts.

[Imbicatus]

Also, the main advantage of a double weapon is the ease of casting when compared with two weapons due to the free action remove a hand. Psychic casters don't care about free hands though, so it's a wasted benefit on a medium.