Two-handed Reach weapons while enlarged?

I'm trying to get two-handed Power Attack damage with a reach of 15'. Enlarge Person is of course the only option for reach 15', but the problem is that polearms seem revert to one-handed use when you are Enlarged, and only give you +1 damage per tick of Power Attack. At least, I've tried this with glaives and guisarms.

I know from testing that Spiked Chain w/ Exotic Weapon Proficiency is still two-handed, but that's a potential waste of a feat.

Is there another reach weapon that DOESN'T require Exotic Weapon Proficiency that works properly with Enlarge and Power Attack? It feels really strange to have a non-Enlarged character doing more damage than an Enlarged one.

-Max

 

Welcome to Co8 Max

What about a longspear or a ranseur?

For really sick damage try adding invisibility sphere/sneak attack dice/power attack/cleave/great cleave/combat reflexes

I often play Barbarian1/RogueX with an accompanying bard producing a doubled-up rage.

 

All right then, it looks like I'm the expert on this issue.

In that case, I'll say that the only reach weapon which remains two-handed when Enlarged is the Spiked Chain. (Some other weapons like guillotine blades and Scather without the Exotif Weapon feat remain two-handed, but they are not reach weapons.)

Glaive, guisarme, ranseur, and longspear all become one-handed weapons when enlarged. As a side note, when enlarged pretty much all these weapons do the same 2d6 damage and are therefore equivalent.

If you want a 15' Power Attack, Exotic Weapon Proficiency is therefore a must.

-Max

P.S. I haven't tried any sneak attacks so far, party because the damage bonus hasn't impressed me. Even 5d6 of sneak attack damage from a pure rogue sounds fairly meh if you only get it once per combat... but maybe sneak attacks are easier to arrange than I think. Perhaps I'll try it at some point.

 

Odd, I could swear there was a time when I used to regularly Enlarge Person Power Attack with Glaves for 15 foot reach plus the two handed/2 for 1 damage/AB ratio. It's a devasting combo, especially when used with a ftr/mage truestrike with max PA. Did one of the more recent versions of Co8 mods change this?

 

The whole point of invisibility sphere is all attacks for combat duration count as sneak attacks for your rogue

When you stack 5d6 sneak + holy weapon with 15' reach and have cleave and great cleave your rogue will hardly ever make one attack per round against average mobs.

 

Sneak attack damage applies whenever you flank an opponent, when you're invisible, or when you can't be seen by blinded (glitterdusted) enemies. It's THE reason for including a rogue in ToEE (& 3rd ed D&D generally) as far as I can see.

 

I can confirm cmdw45's bug that an enlarged character wielding a reach weapon (except for the spike chain) (in my testing, it was with a ranseur) and using Power Attack does not provide double the Power Attack rating in damage as it is supposed to because the game incorrectly considers the weapon as being wielded 1-handed. My enlarged character had Power Attack set to 18, but in the screenshot, you can see that he only did 18 damage as a result of Power Attack (instead of the 36 damage that he is supposed to do because he was supposed to be wielding the weapon 2-handed). The second screenshot shows the same character with a Power Attack setting of 18 but this time he is not enlarged (as is indicated by the fact that the ranseur does 2d4 damage).

 

Can you test it while enlarged and changing weapons, say fron ranseur to light mace, then back to ranseur, or enlarging with a one handed weapon, then switching to a two-handed weapon.

 

General Ghoul, it makes no difference whether you are holding the weapon when you are first enlarged or not, or whether you unequip it and select another. The minute you are enlarged, your two-handed weapon turns into a one-handed weapon (you can see on the Inventory screen that the "ghost" icon in your off-hand disappears) and subsequent attacks don't do double Power Attack damage.

From what I know of D&D, the Power Attack behavior is in accordance with the rules (one-handed weapons only get +1). The glitch is in the weapon shrinking in the first place, and it doesn't just apply to two-handed weapons. (E.g. Great Cleaver becomes a light weapon and is unable to benefit from Power Attack at all, or two-handed STR bonus.) Also, ISTR that Enlarged damage should be based on normal size damage: 1d8 is supposed to become 2d6, 1d10 is supposed to become 2d8, etc., although apparently Troika didn't implement that.

As one final note: I'm glad Troika put this spell in the game. Enlarge was one of my favorite 2nd Edition spells for Combat Wizards, along with Fire Trap (adapt a variant which goes off on anyone who hits you in combat!) and Ironskin. Reduce + Flight is also very cool for wizards who are spying on the enemy.

-Max

 

Actually the SRD says;

All equipment worn or carried by a creature is similarly enlarged by the spell. Melee and projectile weapons affected by this spell deal more damage. Other magical properties are not affected by this spell. Any enlarged item that leaves an enlarged creature’s possession (including a projectile or thrown weapon) instantly returns to its normal size. This means that thrown weapons deal their normal damage, and projectiles deal damage based on the size of the weapon that fired them. Magical properties of enlarged items are not increased by this spell.

It doesn't mention anything about a weapon you pick up after you are enlarged, (maybe that's what enlarge weapon is for).

Here's the facts ... ENLARGE PERSON. Click the yellow text for a link.

 

It is clear then that the spell in game is not working properly.

 

Really would be nice to see this fixed; it seems it's all weapons , not just reach weapons, that are bugged (considered light weapons) while Enlarge Person'ed. I distinctly remember this wasn't always the case, you used to be able to benefit from power attack etc while enlarged... makes me wonder at what point the bug got introduced.