Attack bonus vs damage bonus

[Zahn]

May I suggest you try rolling up characters based on what you think you might enjoy playing, then test them out on the HotU or other single player module? You'll be able to see what suits you best quite easily.

[Keflex]

So weapon finesse helps to hit more often, but not at all to do more damage.

If someone were fighting with two weapons, then, would weapon finesse with a pair of light weapons tend to do more damage than the usual medium/light pair, since they land more blows, all else being equal?

I guess that would depend entirely on what the weapons were. Say a 1d8 and 1d6, vs two 1d6s... I should just work this out on paper or something. *sigh* I'm just trying to plan wise decisions for a character who dies too much, but my lack of familiarity with the underlying mechanics makes that tricky. Thanks for the help.

The answer is: It depends.

Given that the difference in average damage between 1d6 and 1d8 is only 1, you're probably better off going with the two light weapons, unless you have a fairly large attack bonus, or you're fighting things that are really easy to hit (which, if you're fighting things according to your level, they probably won't be).

[Ankh Seeker]

In a sense, Zahn, creating a character that suits me is what brought me to all these questions. When I played pure classes before, survivability was generally not an issue, because they were internally balanced.
This character concept is extremely interesting for me, but has required me to spread him between an odd combination of classes. But this new balance means I suddenly needed to understand game mechanics, so I could make wise choices that balanced the concept with survivability.
I think I've got enough to work with now, though, so thanks all! I am having tremendous fun with this fellow.

[Ankh Seeker]

grrr double post

[Midknight]

Test it out. There are several modules on NWVault that allow you to level up characters, select from any item in the Bioware palette, and test the character against monsters. One I use is called "The Halls of Advanced Training - HoTU Edition"

[Dirk Cutlass]

The truth of the matter is that there are many different variables and so there is no "best" weapon choice. Each has their own merits, not all of them numerical.. morningstars for instance, look cool - but its not that great a weapon really. Here's a list of factors that you may want to consider for weapon choice / fighting style:

1) dex or str based
2) one handed, 2 handed, 2 weapon, double-weapon
3) crit multilpier
4) crit range
5) rarity of weapon (e.g. picking a very obscure weapon may mean that you have difficulty getting a finding a good one ... on the other hand it might be better, because nobody else wants them, or even that a DM helps you out knowing)
6) looks - some weapons just look so cool
7) racial sterotype, some weapons just look better in the hands of certain races: lizards and double-swords, dwarves and axes, elves and longswords/longbows, gnomes and hammers

That's a lot of variables - you'd be hard pushed to find an overall "best" weapon choice. If you want you could stick all the numbers into a spreadsheet and work out a damage vs AC curve or something... but is it worth it? what about opponents with high DR? what about opponents immune to criticals?

For my fighter character Leo, I decided to use the warhammer (2-handed due to size) almost exclusively. It's got a x3 crit multiplier and 1d8 damage, but mainly I chose it because its a hammer, and gnomes use hammers for building things and mining. Numerically, an axe would have been better because I can put keen edge on it (with spell or finding a keen weapon), but it just didn't suit - so he went with hammer and hasn't looked back since.

What I'm trying to say, is it's probably best to pick a weapon and style that suits the character you want to play, there are no rights and wrongs in this.

[Ankh Seeker]

I will try the leveller, then, as well.

[Shaka]

Another easy way if you don't feel like leveling a character up in a solo campaign is to use this cool damage calculator created by Thott of Mithaniel Marr EQ.

http://www.afterlifeguild.org/Thott/nwn/