Weapon Choice for TWF Rogue/Swordsage

[FocusWolf413]

I am playing a 3.PF game. I'm playing a githzerai unarmed swordsage 2 PF rogue X and I'm focusing on TWF. Am I better off enchanting two daggers/short swords or using a necklace of natural attacks? I am not willing to change my build and do not have feats to spare on exotic weapons.

[Greenish]

If you can get Necklace of Natural Attacks, that's fairly obviously better than paying for two weapons, unless your DM houserules that you need to enchant your unarmed attack twice to TWF with it.

[Urpriest]

If you can get Necklace of Natural Attacks, that's fairly obviously better than paying for two weapons, unless your DM houserules that you need to enchant your unarmed attack twice to TWF with it.

This is kind of the fundamental issue here, actually. In 3.5, there's a lot of debate about whether you can TWF with unarmed strikes, and in PF you explicitly can't due to some of their trademark silly designer commentary. So it depends a great deal on what sorts of rulings your DM has made.

Regardless, if you went for Unarmed Swordsage then you shouldn't get two daggers, for rather obvious reasons. You might want to get one, though, if your DM rules you can't TWF with two unarmed strikes.

[Darrin]

Am I better off enchanting two daggers/short swords or using a necklace of natural attacks?

Ask your DM if you can use unarmed strike as both your primary and offhand weapon at the same time. If so, then ask about the Necklace of Natural Attacks... there may be an argument that if you're going to treat your unarmed strikes as two separate weapons, then you need to pay for your enchantments twice.

If your DM says no, then I'd try going for a Scorpion Kama (MIC) as primary and unarmed strike as offhand. This lets you take advantage of your better unarmed strike damage, and you can add enchantments to the Scorpion Kama if need be.

The most "optimal" choice for TWF is probably is a two-handed weapon (primary) with unarmed strike (offhand). You get x1.5 Str bonus on your primary, and if you choose to pick up Power Attack later, you get x2 damage on your primary and x1 damage on your unarmed strike. Taking Stone Dragon as your discipline focus is probably best: greatsword and unarmed strike are both considered discipline weapons. If you prefer a more "monk" flavor, Setting Sun has both the quarterstaff and unarmed strike.

If you're going the Shadow Blade route, then I'd probably go with shortsword/unarmed strike. If you want to combine Shadow Blade with Bloodclaw Master, then dagger/dagger or dagger/unarmed works best. It doesn't work with Shadow Blade, but you may also want to note that greataxe/unarmed strike are both Tiger Claw weapons, and you can get your TWF penalties down to zero with two levels of Bloodclaw Master.

[FocusWolf413]

I have a dex of 24 so I am using the Shadow Blade feat. I think I might use both a Riverine Dagger (the base weapon damage is irrelevant, it is cheaper, and it is easy to conceal) and a necklace of unarmed attacks. If the DM allows the necklace to apply to multiple attacks, I will use that as my primary weapon. If not, I'll eventually get a second riverine dagger or some kind of short sword.