[3.5] Using TWF & Dancing Weapons to "Juggle"

[Adamantrue]

I had a stray thought, and wondered if this was rules-legal, and explored before.

Get some kind of Oversized Two-Weapon Fighter (quite possibly an actual Fighter), and 3 dancing Longswords.

What you do is stagger the release-grab cycle, like a Juggler, so that you can get around the 4 rounds dancing-4 rounds dormant modes. Say, every 4 rounds, switch out with the opposite hand, which net's 4 rounds dancing, 8 round dormant (though every 4th round you can't declare an attack).

This makes things particularly interesting for a TWF (though quite possibly expensive from the cash perspective). The lowly Weapon Specialization is now good for +6 Damage in a round if you are reliably hitting, and you get 3x the return for Power Attack.

Of course, add in an Animated Shield, just to increase the complexity and silliness of it all.

What do you think?

[true_shinken]

Sounds expensive. But it's crafty and looks legal. I'd allow it in my game.

[Adamantrue]

I suppose you could also take it to 4 longswords too, if you wanted. 2 rounds setting loose/grabbing longswords, 3 rounds attacking with 4 of them, 2 rounds resetting, etc...

Although...you could have 5 longswords of dancing, set 3 in the air over three rounds, have 5 weapons making full attacks for 1 round, and then resetting for another 3 rounds. (Power Attacking with a 5-to-1 payoff, and Weapon Specialization is worth 10 Damage).

This is silly, but it could be a hilarious situation to watch.

[Gorgondantess]

Sounds cool in theory, but in practice it's pretty ineffective: by the level you could afford 3 dancing weapons, most combats will be over in 4 rounds anyways.

[Adamantrue]

I figure as much...though I wonder if there is a "sweet spot" where this becomes viable. Probably involves Swift-Action Teleporting & Epic Level Wealth, with my luck, but still...

[edit]

Actually, going with the Wealth by Level chart, you could have this at 16th level. Not really much of anything else, but you could.

[AslanCross]

It's possibly cheaper to ask your DM if you can get a custom magic item that allows you to cast Steeldance a number of times per day. You can quickly get four attacks per turn, and you don't have to spend so much on additional weapon costs for the dancing weapon property. Though yeah, by my calculation, a ring that casts steeldance three times a day at CL 6th costs 19440.

[true_shinken]

It's possibly cheaper to ask your DM if you can get a custom magic item that allows you to cast Steeldance a number of times per day. You can quickly get four attacks per turn, and you don't have to spend so much on additional weapon costs for the dancing weapon property. Though yeah, by my calculation, a ring that casts steeldance three times a day at CL 6th costs 19440.

You could get an (eternal) wand. A lot cheaper.

[Iamyourking]

Or, you know, just take the 3-weapon fighting tree.

[Greenish]

Oh, do D&D rules produce some wacky ideas. I'll put the dancing sword juggler down next to the iaijutsu master with a golf bag of fleshgrinding katanas and the dwarf who heals by putting snakes into his pants. :smallamused:

[Adamantrue]

Yes, yes it does...

At 20th level, it isn't unreasonable to have two +10 Weapons, which costs about 400,000 gp (more or less). We'll call this the "Baseline".

Going with 3 Weapons, the same price can net you 3 +8 Weapons (with a little room to spare). The Dancing enhancement takes away +4 from each, but you still get +12 worth. Hmmm...

You can probably get away with a +3 bonus & grab Vicious (I know, its playing with fire, but Mages & Clerics can go Nova, why not a Fighter?). Let's go with Adamantine Dancing Vicious Warhammers for 131,012 gp each, 393,036 gp total, and toss 3 Lesser Crystals of Return into the mix (1,000 gp each, 3,000 gp total).

Now, the Mandatory Feats. Two-Weapon Fighting, Improved Two Weapon Fighting, Oversized Two-Weapon Fighting, Power Attack (5). I think with this particular combo, Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, Melee Weapon Mastery, and Crushing Strike aren't bad options (4). Grabbing Improved Sunder could be cool (1). 10 Feats aren't bad, if you go Human and spread Fighter over 8 levels, you can pull this off and grab 12 levels in another Class. I'd suggest Barbarian for the Hit Points & Rage.

The net result with these & a Raging Strength Score of...say 28:

3 Attacks at +33/+28/+23/+18 (though each consecutive hit adds +1 to the rest), and deals 1d8+2d6+16 damage (and 1d6 to the wielder, and the off-hand only does 1d8+2d6+7), and some Power Attack amount. Its dependent on Full Attacks and hurt the character in the process and DR will likely screw this over, but it isn't unreasonable to expect upwards of 5 or more hits in a round, for an average of 130 damage dealt or so before Power Attacking (at a 3-for-1 rate).

Give him a red wig & paint his face white, and we'll call it "Giggles, the Juggling Clown of Doom."