Uncanny Dodge for the Dual-wielder perk

[Anthee]

Everyone who’s tried knows it is next to impossible to make a dex-based dual-wielder work without splashing in rogue – or without relying on getting flame weapon every time from a friendly mage. There just aren’t enough reliable sources of damage. And now I don’t mean the dual-wielder perk in particular, I mean all of the full BAB classes. Yes, even ranger, although they recently got Uncanny Dodge (which was IMHO an excellent decision but doesn’t solve the problem of low damage). But rangers can at least be versatile thanks to stealth, so that’s not the main issue.

The main problem is fighters since they can’t very well take advantage of their dexterity in other ways. Well, barbarians too, but I’ve got no solution in mind for them. The dual-wielder perk is right now like tailor-made for a strength build: the elemental damage bonus only applies to the main-hand weapon, and the deflection bonus to off-hand is useless for dex builds by level 7 because of Parry. So my suggestion is to give them Uncanny Dodge at some point – make it level 8, if needed, and give it a dex condition (say, 16+) if possible. But just give a bit of love to these flashy guys trying to be cool :/

I doubt it’d break anything, and it might just make a new breed of warrior at least somewhat viable.

(EDIT: I confess my bias, I'm one of those folks who always played a katana dual-wielder in BG2. Double Celestial Fury of course. Boom boom BOOM)

[Pandip]

I think you're making some leaps in logic in your argument for why this should be the case.

But even ignoring that, you have to bear in mind that perks are often made as-is and forgotten about. There is very rarely justification or means for going back over them, especially considering they are frequently coded by someone who is no longer around. Several of these perks have been this way for years - chapters, even.

That is not said to waggle fingers at anyone. It's merely a suggestion that you should maybe move on and find a satisfying way to live the character fantasy you're looking for that doesn't involve reliance on perk changes.

[Anthee]

Thanks for your reply.

If it’s common knowledge that perks are difficult or impossible to modify at this stage, as you seem to assume, I apologise for my ignorance.

I think we can still agree on dex-based dual-wielders (and dex-based warriors in general) being fairly rare. If this suggestion is not feasible, hopefully something else can be done to make them more viable in the future. Maybe it’s the swashbuckler class that should be worked on instead.