So, I'm playing a Strength-focused melee Occultist, currently wielding a two-handed weapon because I hadn't heard about Panoplies before. I'm planning to take Trappings of the Warrior at level 10. This, as my GM has said, would require me to go sword-and-board.
But which sword? Scimitar and Rapier do little damage, but crit a lot. Longsword crits a bit less, but does more damage. Short Sword is a light weapon. Or something else entirely?
Does it even matter? Surely, the weapon damage won't be making much of a difference, anyway, since most of my damage will come from special abilities (due to Legacy Weapon) and Power Attack.
Also, I had originally planned to take Power Attack for my two-handed weapon build at level 9, but it's much worse with a one-handed weapon. Is it still the way to go with a Strength-focused sword-and-board build? TotW will fix my low BAB, so I can probably deal with the penalty to attack.
Or should I just bite the bullet, stick with my two-handed weapon and a buckler and sink two feats into Unhindering Shield? That's a pretty hefty feat investment, but gets me a better AC and slightly higher damage from Power Attack, so I'm not sure.
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If you haven't anything specific guiding you I'd just choose whatever martial 1H weapon you like the look of best. Not necessarily a sword. The stats are more or less a wash as you note, exotic weapons aside.
I'm pretty sure you can find a better use for two feats than shield focus & unhindering shield. There's a number of good feats gated by the +6 BAB that unhindering shield requires.
Edit: & yes, getting power attack is still worth it w/ sword & board, just not worth using on absolutely every attack. Not if you're going for shield bash/TWF perhaps, you'd be feat starved then.
If you haven't anything specific guiding you I'd just choose whatever martial 1H weapon you like the look of best. Not necessarily a sword. The stats are more or less a wash as you note, exotic weapons aside.
Thanks for the answer! I'm currently thinking a Short Sword simply because we recently found a +1 in a treasure pile somewhere and Light weapons can basically always be used.
I'm pretty sure you can find a better use for two feats than shield focus & unhindering shield. There's a number of good feats gated by the +6 BAB that unhindering shield requires
Good point. I'm thinking maybe Lunge? As a melee caster, that gives me quite a bit more security. Or maybe the Step Up path of feats.
yes, getting power attack is still worth it w/ sword & board, just not worth using on absolutely every attack. Not if you're going for shield bash/TWF perhaps, you'd be feat starved then.
Alright, I'll probably be going for Power Attack first then.
I think your GM is wrong, there's no reason you couldn't take, for example, Shield Brace and use a two handed weapon and a shield.
Indeed, bucklers call out specifically that they don't get in the way of archery (but you're STR based so that's not relevant.)
Yeah I did a reach build using a buckler for mine and eventually got unindering shield, I don't think you have to be sword and board to use the panoplie
I'm pretty sure power attack would not be worth it for you, with bane active you have a LOT of damage per hit, so your DPR might go down or be basically the same with power attack, which to me makes it not worth it.
My friend has a THW occultist and found that power attack at lv9 gives him a 3 DPR increase, from like 45 to 48. Which was basically the same bonus that him going large was giving. His accuracy was worth almost 3 damage, which is why power attack was lackluster.
So I can only surmise that for a one handed weapon the DPR of bane is still probably putting accuracy at about 2.5+ dpr so power attack would be a negative trade.