Dysfunctional Rules IV- It's like a sandwich made of RAW failure!

[Darrin]

Emphasis mine. "A character can fight with both ends of a double weapon as if fighting with two weapons just as though the character were wielding a one-handed and a light weapon." Additionally, the only way to use a double weapon as a two handed weapon is to only attack with one end while using both hands.

The problem is the text only discusses one-handed and light weapon in regards to calculating attack penalties. It doesn't discuss calculating damage, which is detailed on page 134 of the PHB.

Actually, the strongest argument for treating damage as one-handed and light comes from the text of the Power Attack feat, PHB p. 98:

"Normally, you treat a double weapon as a one-handed weapon and a light weapon. If you choose to use a double weapon like a two-handed weapon, attacking with only one end of it in a round, you treat it as a two-handed weapon."

This is the only place in the Core rules where the text makes a general statement about how you treat double weapons outside the immediate context of calculating attack penalties.

The Rules Compendium might clarify this a bit:

"A creater can fight using both ends of a double weapon as if using two weapons, incurring all the normal penalties associated with two-weapon fi ghting while wielding a one-handed weapon and a light weapon."

However, "penalties" used here again only refers to calculating attack penalties. I'm not sure if dropping the Str modifier down to x0.5 really counts as a "penalty". Yes, it's worse than x1.5 or x1.0, but you're changing a ratio rather than subtracting a specific modifier expressed as a whole number.