Dueling vs great weapon fighting

Great Weapon Fighting: When you roll a 1 or 2 on a damage die for an attack you make with a melee weapon that you are wielding with two hands, ... I guess I'm curious because it's possible to get both Dueling and Two-Weapon fighting by MCing, or as a Champion Fighter at a high enough level. So theoretically, could a character with:

Dueling vs great weapon fighting. Dueling, however, just adds 2 to the damage flat, so if you want a more powerful build, consiser sword and board, because 2 ac goes a long ways. Now, greatsword is totally different. Since it rolls 2 dice (2d6) it also increases average damage by about 2ish. Then, greatsword matches the added damage of dueling.

It will make the most out of fighting with two weapons and makes 2 weapon fighting a solid choice. Dual Wielder is bait if you're DEX based. It only gives you +1 bonus to AC, and your off-hand can be a 1d8 weapon instead of 1d6. Meanwhile just taking the ASI and pumping DEX would give you +1 AC, +1 to hit and +1 damage.

The Vengeance Paladin should make a great two-weapon fighter; add Charisma modifier to all weapon damage for 2 turns (bonus action, Oath charge). +3 radiant damage for both weapons, 2 turns. Hard to beat that for a 1-level dip; or as you said, several levels for fighting style (lvl 2), vow of enmity (lvl 3), smites, hunter's mark, and extra attack.When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon.The Guild: https://chancesguild.c...If your DM lets you reroll 1s and 2s on smites and flametongue hits, Great Weapon Fighting becomes a lot better. It's kind of mediocre if you just do the base weapon damage, but I think it becomes on par with or even better than dueling for value added if you have the extra d6s and d8s from flame tongue and a smite. Paladin: Dueling vs Two Weapon Fighting. I am going to play a multiclassed build that will eventually be 17 levels of bladesinger wizard and 3 levels of vengeance paladin. Since this is a bladesinger, I can't just go with dueling and use a shield, since that would go against the bladesong ability. Aug 6, 2019 · So I'v been looking into the whole Dueling fighting style vs Great Weapon fighting style for some time. TL;DR most threads on the subject concludes that the main factor making great weapon fighting a better option than sword and board is the Great Weapon Master feat.

Also, the dueling style becomes better while two-weapon fighting becomes worse as you add more attacks with your action, meaning high levels fighters and rangers like it even less. Rangers, ironically, are arguably the worst two-weapon fighters from mechanics, because their base-game damage sources either require bonus actions …Great Weapon Fighting loses out to other offensive fighting styles because of math. The average increase on a 1d12 weapon by rerolling a 1 or 2 is only +1.2 — much lower than Dueling’s +2, two-weapon fighting’s …Defense is almost always amazing (even on 2h builds, since great weapon fighting's rerolling 1s and 2s is still only an average damage increase of like.. 1 or 1.5) Oath of Ancients has almost no offensive bonuses over base paladin, so it plays sword and board VERY well (source: played one in tabletop, Rime of the Frost Maiden).PAM and Dueling with a spear or quaterstaff does on average more damage then a great sword with GWF but not GWM. GWM is a bit more complicated on which is better but with rage or Hunters mark or Hex or a magic weapon the difference tilts more in the favor of PAM with a spear. So, the Greatsword is generously, say, 9 8.33 with GWF?Dueling, however, just adds 2 to the damage flat, so if you want a more powerful build, consiser sword and board, because 2 ac goes a long ways. Now, greatsword is totally different. Since it rolls 2 dice (2d6) it also increases average damage by about 2ish. Then, greatsword matches the added damage of dueling.Dual weapons may allow for more versatility and combos between weapon effects - I.e. you could have one weapon that does fire and one that does ice damage. Etc. The addition of more bonus attacks with off handed weapons and allowing dex based weapons to be used by barbarians in rage, does increase damage output of dual wielding, though two … Paladin: Dueling vs Two Weapon Fighting. I am going to play a multiclassed build that will eventually be 17 levels of bladesinger wizard and 3 levels of vengeance paladin. Since this is a bladesinger, I can't just go with dueling and use a shield, since that would go against the bladesong ability. Oct 10, 2020 · The offhand can't have a weapon in it, the pen and paper rules allow a shield in the offhand with dueling style, that's the whole point of it (it's designed to compensate for the loss of damage compared to TWF and 2-handed)

2D6=7 basic from sword plus a further 1.3 from great weapon fighting = average 8.3. +3 from strength. +1 from a magic weapon. total great weapon fighting = 12.3. Dual wield. each sword = 1D6 = 3.5 + 1 from magic weapon +3 from str/dex bonus =7.5. Feat used up to get +3 bonus from the second weapon to match gwf feat.Great Weapon Fighting doesn't prevent 1's and 2's, it re-rolls them. It's perfectly possible to roll, say, two 1's and then re-roll and land up with a 1 and a 2. It's unlucky, but with enough people playing this game it's bound to happen to someone.Aug 20, 2020 · Instead of doing the above, I would rather do Dueling Fighting Style instead of Great Weapon Master Fighting Style since Dueling Fighting Style gives an auto +2 instead of rolling for it as a versatile weapon die with Great Weapon Master Fighting Style. Great Weapon Fighting. When you roll a 1 or 2 on a damage die for an attack you make with a melee weapon that you are wielding with two hands, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll, even if the new roll is a 1 or a 2. The weapon must have the two-handed or versatile property for you to gain this benefit. and Two-Weapon Fighting. When ...

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Dueling style gives +2 damage to those one hand/one weapon fighting attacks, and scales with your number of attacks. The scale has a ceiling of your attacks. Defense fighting styles +1 AC scales with the number of enemies and attacks they have, which can potentially scale quite a bit more than the number of attacks you receive, … The damage will usually be much higher than dual wielding, especially using a Fighter with the Great Weapon Fighting ability. Dual wield is more versatile in the sense than it enables you to attack "twice", dealing less damage but distributing the damage more. In a sense, a 2H weapon could only kill one enemy (not considering the cleave ability ... The choice is "more damage" or "more defense". You can't carry a shield with a 2H weapon (unless it's versatile). And you do less damage with 1H than with 2H options. If you are going with a Dex paladin (which is a thing), then you're just going to have a rapier and a shield, so there's not much choice. But if you're aiming for strength, a ...Finally, anything which can increase the hit chances. Magic weapon, bless, etc. Not in BG3, but if you had multiple attacks, you could shove someone prone and then attack with your second attack. I'd generally say the encounters in BG3 are such that melee really isn't optimal and GWM is a bit harder to use. #4.

The gloves that add+2 dmg to dueling chars, with no downside for example. Dual wield and great weapon fighting have a higher feat tax and/or require multiclassing into specific subclasses most of the time. It's alot easier to go into dueling for most gish builds like Bladelock or EK. And it works with shields for the most part.Aug 11, 2023 · Great weapon is the simplest for raw damage. Plus how you set your spells you can get protection spells that increase your survivability. #2. Sunricer Aug 11, 2023 @ 7:24pm. Defense for +1 AC at all times if you plan to use shields, two handed fighting for smite damage if you don't. #3. FAT WANZER Aug 11, 2023 @ 7:24pm. Within this post, these definitions apply: dual wielding: wielding a separate melee weapon in each hand. two-weapon fighting: using a bonus action to attack with a light weapon. Two-Weapon Fighting: the fighting style available to fighters, rangers and bards. Dual Wielder: the feat that provides a bonus to dual wielding.However, level one Fighters, level two Rangers, level two Paladins, and level one Bards College of Swords are get the Fighting Style class feature which includes a proficiency in dual wielding, and it’s called two-weapon fighting. With two-weapon fighting, you add your damage ability modifier to your off-hand attacks.PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) is a wildly popular battle royale game that has taken the gaming world by storm. With its realistic graphics and intense gameplay, PUBG offers ...Jan 22, 2023 · Fighting with two weapons gives players a chance to make an extra attack each round. Two weapon fighting can be great depending on the situation. For some characters, dual wielding will offer a chance to routinely deal extra damage. Especially at lower levels, two weapon fighting can give players an advantage in combat. One advantage to single is that you get three extra feats. To effectively go dual, you're going to need the two-weapon fighting tree to be effective. You can invest in dueling instead, but with dueling you're already more accurate than dual-wielders. Also, those feats arguably get trumped by others such as lightsaber specialization, toughness ...Dueling Style: "When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no weapon in the other hand, you gain a +2 bonus to DAMAGE rolls with that weapon." Longsword (Dueling) 1D8+2 Avg = 6.5 , avg crit = 11.0. So, comparing expected damage if you hit at 5% crit chance:DnD 5e prides itself on its ease of access and quick rulings, like advantage, but I think great weapon fighting kind of goes against this. Rerolling 1s and 2s doesn't sound super bad but it is a little extra time spent doing something useless, because just having a +2 to damage as a quick example would have basically had the same effect (minimum damage still …He has 18 strength, so I was thinking Longsword, since the Dueling fighting style gives me a guaranteed minimum of 7 damage and maximum of 14 because of my +4 strength. So that seemed like a pretty good deal, but then I remembered Great Weapon fighting and the two dice you roll for the greatsword.Oct 10, 2020 · The offhand can't have a weapon in it, the pen and paper rules allow a shield in the offhand with dueling style, that's the whole point of it (it's designed to compensate for the loss of damage compared to TWF and 2-handed) The choice is "more damage" or "more defense". You can't carry a shield with a 2H weapon (unless it's versatile). And you do less damage with 1H than with 2H options. If you are going with a Dex paladin (which is a thing), then you're just going to have a rapier and a shield, so there's not much choice. But if you're aiming for strength, a ...

The two-weapon fighting style allows 1 additional attack a round, but the great weapon master feat can allow for that as well, making the two-weapon fighting style seem less unique. For further insult, let us calculate the "dueling" fighting style (+2 damage) and see how well a duelist with a shield does for damage (gaining an extra …

The tools and weapons of the Pueblo Indians included bows and arrows, spears, war clubs, wooden hoes, rakes, spindles, looms and pump drills. Bows and arrows and spears were used f...The Dueling Feat. +1-3 Attack +1-3 Defence when using a single weapon. This is controversial but in my experience Dueling is better than Two Weapon Fighting, on paper Two Weapon Fighting looks superior because of the extra swing per round which equals more damage but in practicality the bonuses from Dueling are better, lets …Free Fire, the popular battle royale game, offers an array of weapons that can make or break your gameplay experience. As a player, it is essential to understand the strengths and ...If you are using a versatile weapon, you can only gain the benefit of the Great Weapon Fighting Style if you you are using it in both hands. Similarly, you can only gain the benefit of the Dueling Fighting Style if you are using it in one hand.The Dueling fighting style doesn't benefit natural weapons. The description of the Dueling fighting style says: When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon. The key here is that you must be wielding a melee weapon in one hand, and not wielding any …16. With Basic's release the Fighter is given six different Fighting Styles to choose from at level 1. Each fighting style offers a solid mechanical benefit to the fighter, but both Great …The point was you can't use your bonus action for the additional attack from your second weapon when you use a flourish with your action. If you go Dueling you can have a Weapon in one hand and a Wand in the other, or something like that. Though remember if you go Two Weapon Fighting you have no hand free for spells.Jul 28, 2022 ... You probably need to use your Sharpshooter and Great Weapon Master feats power attacks more often ... D&D:O Shorts #1 - Two Weapon Fighting vs. The gloves that add+2 dmg to dueling chars, with no downside for example. Dual wield and great weapon fighting have a higher feat tax and/or require multiclassing into specific subclasses most of the time. It's alot easier to go into dueling for most gish builds like Bladelock or EK. And it works with shields for the most part. Say a level 5 Fighter has a scimitar in one hand and a dagger in his other hand. The first attack given is assumed to be the “main-hand,” while the two-weapon fighting attack is the “off-hand.”. Extra attacks can be taken with either weapon. Scimitar is slash, dagger is stab.

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Nov 6, 2019 · The text of Dueling states that it applies when you are wielding a melee weapon with one hand. Therefore, it does not apply when you are wielding it with two hands. This is also confirmed by a tweet by rules designer Jeremy Crawford from April 2018 (though those are no longer official): If you plan on using a greatsword, dueling will end up being a waste for you so defense wins in that battle. Though you could instead pick up 2 weapon fighting for a good increase in damage instead. If you intend to use a greatsword later on, use defence or great weapon fighting. If your planning on eventually using a great sword defense is the ...The Player’s Handbook. Great Weapon Fighting is a fighting style in D&D that allows a character to reroll the damage dice of a melee weapon attack made with a heavy weapon. A heavy weapon is any melee weapon with the Two-Handed property, such as a greatsword, axe, or maul. By rerolling the damage dice, a character has a better chance of ...TL;DR Great weapon fighting will provide you more consistent damage and will do so in just as reasonable, if not larger, numbers than two weapon fighting.. More detailed answer. TWF: one extra attack per round.This is useful, but is limited to d6/d8 weapons depending on feats. You're a fighter, so we'll assume you grabbed the feat for it.Great Weapon Fighting. When you roll a 1 or 2 on a damage die for an attack with a two-handed melee weapon, that die is rerolled once. Great Weapon Fighting is a Class Passive in Baldur's Gate 3. Features provide unique abilities or effects and can be acquired depending on the Character's Race, Class and level.Dueling. For those looking to wield a weapon in one hand whilst wielding a shield in the other, Dueling is a great choice for one's fighting style. As long as a character with this fighting style is only holding one melee weapon at once and it is being wielded in one hand, that weapon deals an additional +2 damage.I'm so sad rn. Not a change for dueling just a limitation that versatile things go two handed, just equip a shield and you can have your dueling bonus. I can confirm that this still works. They word it differently because if you don’t have a shield in your off-hand, any versatile weapon defaults to its 2-handed form. Grab a two handed weapon but dont take great weapon fighting (it’s not that great (pun intended)), take defense instead. Choose great weapon master and get plate armor as soon as possible. If you really want stack shield of faith on top and you’ll end up with 21 AC and great weapon master damage. Source : twitter. Best fighting style for Paladin BG3 is the Defense Class. It provides the best protection in the raid with the advantage of +1 AC while wearing armor. Some might consider Great Weapon Fighting (GWF) the best class as it offers players an increase in the damage on the opponent while rolling the damage die; also 1 & 2 give a ... ….

Dueling (PHB). When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon. Great Weapon …It seems to me that while the psychic blades feature emulates two weapon fighting mechanically in a lot of ways, it’s different. As such, with the psychic blade manifesting when used for an attack, then immediately disappearing before another blade is summoned for subsequent attacks, that each blade benefits from the dueling fighting …Defense is almost always amazing (even on 2h builds, since great weapon fighting's rerolling 1s and 2s is still only an average damage increase of like.. 1 or 1.5) Oath of Ancients has almost no offensive bonuses over base paladin, so it plays sword and board VERY well (source: played one in tabletop, Rime of the Frost Maiden).Dueling: When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon. Great Weapon Fighting: When you roll a 1 or 2 on a damage die for an attack you make with a melee weapon that you are wielding with two hands, you can reroll the die. You must use the new roll, even if it is a 1 ...Dueling - When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon. Great Weapon Fighting (GWF) - When you roll a 1 or 2 on a damage die for an attack you make with a melee weapon that you are wielding with two hands, you can re-roll the die and must use the new roll. Not a change for dueling just a limitation that versatile things go two handed, just equip a shield and you can have your dueling bonus. I can confirm that this still works. They word it differently because if you don’t have a shield in your off-hand, any versatile weapon defaults to its 2-handed form. Dual wielding is better at lower ACs, GWF is better at higher (enemy) ACs but ultimately the damage output is comparable. Just pick what you think fits better for your playstyle and character and go toward that. Edit: As others have mentioned (and I forgot) you’ll need the fighting style pretty much. I think UA had a feat that allowed for the ...The Dual Wielder Feat. You master fighting with two weapons, gaining the following benefits: You gain a +1 bonus too AC while you are wielding a separate melee weapon in each hand. You can use two-weapon fighting even when the one-handed melee weapons you are wielding aren’t light.At early levels two weapon was the best, but it falls off after level 5; still good just not the best. Dueling is pretty much always good, because you get the armor from shield and extra damage. Defense is better the better your armor is. So you are kinda pidgin holed into using a shield anyway, and dueling is better, but comparing it to great ... Dueling vs great weapon fighting, Dueling (PHB). When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon. Great Weapon …, TL,DR: GW fighting style isn't very good; Dueling fighting style is really good; Greataxe gets better up to a point as your crit chance goes up and as the target gets harder to hit. EDIT: Corrected ... With great weapon fighting it's 2x(3.5+3.5+3+4+5+6)/6 = 8.33 Now I have no idea what went wrong here:, You might want the dueling fighting style then. It gives you +2 damage when you have a weapon in one hand and either nothing or a shield in the other. Basically allows you to have the damage of using the versatile weapon in 2h, while still benefiting from having a shield. Teniye. • 7 mo. ago., Are you looking to make a mark in the real estate industry? Whether you’re a seasoned professional or just starting out, having the right tools and resources is crucial for success..., Andrew Jackson killed one man in a duel on May 30, 1806. Charles Dickinson insulted Jackson, accusing him of cheating on a bet, calling him a coward and calling his wife Rachel a b..., One is that dueling is way better than great weapon fighting, so for tier 1/no feats games there's a huge gap. GWM then starts to significantly overshadow dueling because 1h weapons don't keep up in expected value when GWM can add 10 damage as a flat bonus. The second is that having to choose your fighting style forever is limiting., The great weapon fighting style on lvl 2 from Paladin is useful because either per choice or oversight it lets you reroll not only the roll for the weapon but also the smite damage. Thats not in the dnd rules so it is more consistent damage. On the otherhand +1AC from the go is quite nice especially since your overall AC isn't great without a ..., Leading off of my previous post, my character (A level 5 Paladin [16 STR; +3 strength mod]) has a Flame Tongue Greatsword. A couple of interesting comments drew my attention to that taking the Great Weapon Mastery feat at 4 (vs. raising STR to 18) would likely lead to lower damage on average due to the 'wasted' base damage of each hit that could be lost at the -5 GWM conversion. , May 9, 2023 · Flooter. addict. Flooter. addict. Joined: Aug 2021. Double post due to forum glitch. But let's recap. For duel to work you need to use a single, one-handed melee weapon. Four things are off the table: ranged weapons, two-handed weapons, dual wielding weapons, versatile weapons with an empty off-hand. , Aug 20, 2020 · Instead of doing the above, I would rather do Dueling Fighting Style instead of Great Weapon Master Fighting Style since Dueling Fighting Style gives an auto +2 instead of rolling for it as a versatile weapon die with Great Weapon Master Fighting Style. , Two weapon fighting in one round: 1d6+3 / 1d6 = 9 Great Sword being used ALONG with Great Weapon Master in one round: 2d6+3 + 10 = 19. Two weapon fighting ALONG with Two Weapon fighting feat in one round: 1d8+3 / 1d8 = 11. Now in BG3 lets look at the last example, but this time allow for multiple attacks using off hand:, Grab a two handed weapon but dont take great weapon fighting (it’s not that great (pun intended)), take defense instead. Choose great weapon master and get plate armor as soon as possible. If you really want stack shield of faith on top and you’ll end up with 21 AC and great weapon master damage. , TLDR; just to break even (kind of) with the damage of someone with Great Weapon Mastery(GWM), a Two Weapon fighting (TWF) style character must deal an average of 7.5 with each attack when both characters get one main attack 12.5 when you both characters get two main hand attacks 16 with three 18.75 with four main hand attacks and 22.5 when each character get 6 main hand attacks. that said ..., 6. Druidic Warrior. Druidic Warrior grants the Ranger two cantrips from the Druid spell list.You can also trade these cantrips out once per level. Druidic Warrior suffers just a bit from the ..., Aug 5, 2023 · To avoid confusion up top, there is a class passive called Dueling that gives you plus two attack when you wield a one-handed melee weapon. That’s a nice class passive Fighters, Rangers, Paladins, and Bard College of Swords get to enjoy, but this article is all about how to duel wield in Baldur’s Gate 3. , Two-Weapon Fighting will normally provide a plus-five to damage by level eight, making it more impactful than Dueling by default. In addition, Rangers really benefit a lot from off-hand attacks., Thrown Weapon Fighting (TCE). You can draw a weapon that has the thrown property as part of the attack you make with the weapon. In addition, when you hit with a ranged attack using a thrown weapon, you gain a +2 bonus to the damage roll. Two-Weapon Fighting (PHB). When you engage in two-weapon fighting, you can add your ability modifier to the ..., 2D6=7 basic from sword plus a further 1.3 from great weapon fighting = average 8.3. +3 from strength. +1 from a magic weapon. total great weapon fighting = 12.3. Dual wield. each sword = 1D6 = 3.5 + 1 from magic weapon +3 from str/dex bonus =7.5. Feat used up to get +3 bonus from the second weapon to match gwf feat., The Great Weapon Fighting feature—which is shared by fighters and paladins—is meant to benefit only the damage roll of the weapon used with the feature. For example, if you use a greatsword with the feature, you can reroll any 1 or 2 you roll on the weapon’s 2d6., TLDR; just to break even (kind of) with the damage of someone with Great Weapon Mastery(GWM), a Two Weapon fighting (TWF) style character must deal an average of 7.5 with each attack when both characters get one main attack 12.5 when you both characters get two main hand attacks 16 with three 18.75 with four main hand attacks and 22.5 when each character get 6 main hand attacks. that said ..., Hence, the dueling fighting style is very effective if you’re utilizing a weapon like a longsword or a greatsword, which already has a significant damage output. 3. Great Weapon Fighting. When using two-handed weapons, the Great Weapon Fighting style lets you reroll 1s and 2s on damage rolls., The two-weapon fighting style allows 1 additional attack a round, but the great weapon master feat can allow for that as well, making the two-weapon fighting style seem less unique. For further insult, let us calculate the "dueling" fighting style (+2 damage) and see how well a duelist with a shield does for damage (gaining an extra …, Been playing a blood hunter lycan for about a year and a half, and I'd say that dueling or great weapon fighting is your best bet. With dueling you have the additional AC of your shield, which will really help you fill the roll of tank (if you're wanting to get crazy take a barb dip for rage, quartered damage feels incredible) and with studded leather and your …, Dueling: + 3 attack (flat +15% chance to hit) + 3 AC (flat -15% chance to get hit) Two-Weapon Fighting: + 1 extra attack per turn at -2 attack In Kotor characters do not get any extra attacks, they are stuck at 1 per turn. (unlike D&D where characters get + 1 attack every 5 BAB/attack). This makes the extra attack from TWF very important since it basically doubles the number of attacks per round., At early levels two weapon was the best, but it falls off after level 5; still good just not the best. Dueling is pretty much always good, because you get the armor from shield and extra damage. Defense is better the better your armor is. So you are kinda pidgin holed into using a shield anyway, and dueling is better, but comparing it to great ..., A dueling-focused paladin can still deal respectable damage while maintaining versatility in their actions. Great Weapon Fighting: Optimizing for two-handed weapon use, this style lets you reroll any 1s or 2s on damage dice when attacking with heavy melee weaponry. This significantly increases average damage output for hard …, Finally, anything which can increase the hit chances. Magic weapon, bless, etc. Not in BG3, but if you had multiple attacks, you could shove someone prone and then attack with your second attack. I'd generally say the encounters in BG3 are such that melee really isn't optimal and GWM is a bit harder to use. #4., Great weapon fighting gives you +1.33 damage per attack on average with a Greatsword. ... Great Weapon Fighting. I tried going for Dueling once as a martial that primarily used a greatsword, but ultimately really regretted it. Donning or doffing a shield takes an action, making you inflexible anyway, and it never felt worth it to have a one ..., However, if instead we compare a longsword wielded in two hands which benefits from Dueling to a greatsword, we get 7.5 average damage (5.5 +2 from Dueling) vs 7, or 8.3 if the greatsword is benefiting from Great Weapon Fighting. These numbers are significantly closer together, making longswords and other versatile weapons more viable options., What is Great Weapon Fighting? Great Weapon Fighting is a fighting style option that allows you to reroll 1s and 2s on damage dice when wielding a melee weapon with two …, Damage is damage, but dropping GWF or a fighting style completely from your build will have fairly minimal impact on damage, especially for larger dice. Essentially, you're getting little marginal benefit from taking both SA + GWF (~35% dmg increase) compared to just taking Savage Attacker (first table, 25-30% dmg increase). , Dueling closes the gap between d8 and 2d6 weapons while defense always decent. I don't think the +1 AC is necessary and would take dueling over it myself, but you can't …, So dueling makes a longsword match eg a greataxe in average damage, with smaller variance. Defense is worse than a shield, though. That said: plate plus shield is already 20ac. A monster with +5 to hit is hitting you 30% of the time.. Or 25% of the time with Defense, which is actually only 83% as often. 2.