So going to make a dual wielder, know my light offhand will be Kukri since I know there is some good ones, were first thinking bastard sword for mainhand cus of a +5 oversized bastard sword but noticed even tho bastard swords are one handed, that specific one is two handed use only due to its size, so whats the best +4 or stronger non light one handed weapons you have come across in the game?

for d/w I would suggest going kukris. they have good crit range and are plentiful. pretty much at every milestone you will get an upgrade(nok-nok companion quests). you get your first set in stag lords camp. I do not recommend spreading into two weapon types. it will cost you feats with no gain.

for str d/w I'd suggest going with shield bash route with no weapon feats. at least till very late in the game - just use the best you can find.

as for best one-handers. I'd say being "good" is not good enough. availability is more important than one good weapon you can find sometime when the game is is pretty much over. good dueling swords are really plentiful. there are some decent sabers, with good progression, but those are mostly for magus. everything else has one-off weapon that is good for a limited time and nothing after. late in the 2nd half you can find a shop at the tournament that sells pretty much everything at +4 enchantment, so you will not be gimped forever no matter what you picked. bring a lot of gold with you there - those things are costly.

generally this game punishes you for getting weapon feats early unless you go dueling sword, kukri, or saber(for magus). +2 weapon with special effects is better than +1 weapon of nothing that you have focus on. imo this game is designed around getting weapon feats at level 15-ish and warriors are forced to go dueling swords for 1h and greatswords for 2h as they can't realistically delay weapon selection.

speaking of one-off insane items - see attached image. I found literally 0 double-axes in the game until that one.

For weapon focus and specialisation feats I think they should have gone for weapon groups rather than individual weapons. I chose longsword for weapon focus/specialisation assuming as its fairly iconic and generally comon I'd come across enough - but I'm currently level 11 and the best I've found so far is a plain +2 which was in a shop.

Plenty of two handed weapons of various types with additional bonuses, and a fair number of exotic weapons, but at the moment it seems more like youre penalised for choosing 'normal' single handed weapons.

Basically unless you know what weapons are in the game and where they are its somewhat pointless currently to speciliase.

good news for you is you will get an upgrade at the tournament. won't be incredibly long judging from your levels. should happen around lvl13-14.

it's not really a question of metagame imo. it's a question of approach. what game wants us to do is to fin a weapon we want to marry and then spec into it. it works for pnp as those usually don't go from 1 to 20.
much worse in crpg where people come with a notion that the game will support their choices and there will be an entry level weapon, mid-level weapon and lategame weapon of every group. and when it is not really the case they get pissed. mainly cause get weapon first - specialize later is an alien concept to cRPG's.

going from 1 to 14-ish with masterwork double-axe would be an interesting experience.

this game in general is like playing with a dickish DM that is out to get you. you get hoards of strong monsters. should have a perfect build(for challenging and up) and when the time comes for the loot you get anything but what you can use. I don't mid it, but it would be helpful if they made some kind of manifesto for the players at the start. like session 0 for pnp where they explain their expectations.

knowing what you order from masters would be nice too. kinda weird to order a weapon and to get boots.

One good thing about one-handed weapons is the availability of bane weapons. So instead of using just one sword, you can carry an undead bane and a human bane or whatever, switching weapons when facing optimal foes for your weapon. There are some two-handed bane weapons as well. Amiri is great with the undead bane greataxe when facing undead, for example.

I't not like this doesn't happen in P&P games.

pnp is different. decent GM would find a way for you to reforge the cool magic item or maybe retrain. he would not hold a dude wanting to be a longsword master hostage for 10 levels. if your DM does that he is a dick plain and simple.

I'm a little conflicted on this myself. Having training cover a more generic area gives my fighter more versatility, but specializing in a specific weapon adds some realism. A dao handles differently than a talwar, which is different from a scimitar, which is different than a longsword.

Also, my monk's favourite one-handed weapon is his fist. Nyeh-heh-heh-heh-heh!

imo general weapon proficiency is covered under lets say martial weapons aka you are a trained warrior and can use anything without chopping your own head off. focuses are exactly specializing on weapons. like some katana and longsword techniques are pretty similar and one would say mostly interchangeable but there are pretty major differences that would define "specialist" in each weapon. although talking realism in a game where people can take a dozen hits and walk away fine is pretty absurd.

and yeah exotic stuff doesn't fall into this logic but it's just mechanics of the system

Right on Brother

You are right of course but switching from Scimitar to saber is more a familiarity thing that a differend skill. a couple days of practice and you've got it.But going from say a mace to a flailummmnot so muchand be sure to wear a helmet

Rapiers and daggers are pretty plentiful as well. Stragem a Agile +2 Rapier, and Deadly Grace a +1 Keen, sword that deals potential 3d6 acid damage is pretty sweet early in the game. I've also heard of Calistria's Rapier, but I don't know the stats on that one.

rapiers vanish after act1 pretty much for a long time. daggers too. you can get a serviceable dagger from one of the masters I think but it's pita as you never know what you order.

Yes I know I'm seriously necro-threading this post but with the newer versions (and the fact Google brought me here when asking a similar question)... the Kukri's are plentiful and have good mods. But for the two-weapon Rogue Knife Master I like to go with daggers and in particular, the Arcane Protector early on. It's found in Bart's house and a second location at roughly the same point in-game and each gives a +3 Dodge bonus, which stacks.

Because the two-attacks a round thing? - doesn't seem to always apply before your BAB gets you there. But +6 to AC always does. Between that and taking medium armor proficiency to use a certain breastplate the AC can get crazy, quick.

Now, here's the thing. The monk's flurry of blows does work, always, and since daggers are monk weapons... you get the point there. So I'm playing a Rogue Knife Master 3 / Monk the rest of the way. I started Rogue, took Monk at second, then Rogue to third (4 total levels, right after the Stag Lord) and chose the Sai as the Rogue's finesse weapon.

Because in the second act you can convince a merchant to join your Kingdom and she makes a variety of Monk weapons, often twice. If you see those pop up in Opportunities during the Kingdom building phase and have someone free - TAKE THEM - if nothing else it's free gold you can use to build.