Dragonsplits

[Cog]

...are a weapon out of MM4. What caught my eye was that, though it's a 1H weapon, it counts as light for TWF penalties. Not long before, I'd been looking at Exotic Weapon Master, and happened to remember Uncanny Blow: treat a 1H weapon as 2H for power attack returns. Unlike Revenant Blade, you can get the double returns earlier, and you get a choice of piercing/slashing vs. DR.

It seems to me this solves the problem of martial TWFing; normally you can't get the PA returns on it and need precision damage instead, but this opens up the Shocktrooping, Leap Attacking, and such. Not the most optimal way, I'm sure, but it looks fun. I'm just having trouble weighing my options. Workable is the key here, rather than truly massive damage output; if I ever get to play this, it'll likely be with a group that's not too optimized, but anything too strong I can tone down on my own, so any thoughts other than "don't do this" are cool.

The options I see so far:

Fighter: Classic, and as above, I can make this workable in my group. Between the TWF line and the Shock Trooper/PA line, those feats are going to come in handy. Ability points start getting spread pretty thin, though; with as high a Dex as you need for TWF, Finesse starts batting its eyelashes at you, too. With Shock Trooper wanting Bull Rush, this could go dungeoncrasher as well, but meh - I have other builds I'd sooner use that one for.

Ranger: This gets you the TWF line without worrying about Dex, and the build solves the usual problem with TWF Rangers. You need light armor to take advantage of that TWF, though, so it only saves you a few ability points, at the cost of HP and AC. Offers skills and access to Pounce through wand chambers, too.

For either of these, Singh Ranger would probably follow EWMaster. Pounce and such is nice, especially on top of TWF, but Spirit Lion Totem almost makes it too easy.

Psychic Warrior: Solves the feat problem in the same way Fighter does, but it's less BAB to fuel those power attacks. Sure, you could patch that with Slayer, but then you've got feats going elsewhere again. I know it's easily a better class than Fighter, I just don't know if it's as good for a PA build like this.

Warblade: The lack of feats are the only thing getting in the way here. With most of the Tiger Claw maneuvers I suppose you don't need to get far into the TWF line, but I've also heard that initiators like PA less because they're more invested in hitting.

[Tvtyrant]

The weapon would certainly boost Ranger damage; having a high dex and a high str would make you somewhat MAD and would reduce the amount of damage you get from str.

[Greenish]

Uncanny Blow only works when holding the weapon two-handed.

[Cog]

Uncanny Blow only works when holding the weapon two-handed.
Uncanny Blow only gives double Str mod to damage when wielded twohanded. Onehanded weapons wielded in two hands already get double PA returns, and the second sentence of Uncanny Blow isn't phrased dependently on the first. You get two separate benefits from it:

2H wielding gives you a better Str bonus to damage
1H wielding gives you the same PA returns as 2H wielding.

There are two ways of wielding a 1H weapon. Uncanny Blow gives a different benefit depending on which you use; the alternative is that it's a useless ability if you wield a onehanded weapon in one hand. Admittedly, that's possible; the rules aren't explicit either way, and the second sentence might simply be a reminder. For the purposes of this thread, though, I'm using the broader possibility, unless there's something to exclude that reading.

[Greenish]

Uncanny Blow only gives double Str mod to damage when wielded twohanded. Onehanded weapons wielded in two hands already get double PA returns, and the second sentence of Uncanny Blow isn't phrased dependently on the first.Hmm, looking it over again, that reading seems possible, or even more sensible than mine.

I've also glanced over Dragonsplits before, but never connected the dots. Now that I think of it, the combo seems most handy.