Single Hand Melee vs Duel Handed

[Big Boy Salsa Daddy]

I'm sure there is a thread to this somewhere but didn't know how to search for it. Scrolled through 5 pages and then decided to make my first thread.

When playing Kotor I'm always trying to decide which melee specs are better. Single Hand or Dual? Perhaps it all evens out in the end, but I just started a new game and want to know logistics behind them both. I'm guessing there at certain feat pairing for single and dual hand melee too (Flurry, Critical Stike and ect).

Hope you can help!

[jimbobslimbob]

Originally posted by Big Boy Salsa Daddy:

I'm sure there is a thread to this somewhere but didn't know how to search for it. Scrolled through 5 pages and then decided to make my first thread.

When playing Kotor I'm always trying to decide which melee specs are better. Single Hand or Dual? Perhaps it all evens out in the end, but I just started a new game and want to know logistics behind them both. I'm guessing there at certain feat pairing for single and dual hand melee too (Flurry, Critical Stike and ect).

Hope you can help!

It depends greatly on the type of character/class you are playing, but also a little on simply "what you like". Let's break it down.

All attacks in the KOTOR games have an "AB" (Attack Bonus - just like D&D). This AB is used to determine your chance to hit an opponent. If you are a melee fighter, you will want this to be as high as possible.

Now, different classes have different "BAB" (Base Attack Bonus) progression. A Soldier/Guardian is high BAB, Scout/Sentinal is medium and Scoundral/Consular is low. What this means is, to make an effective melee fighter out of the "low" BAB progression classes, you need to focus more on AB raising stuff.

Now, there are also several other factors that increase a character's AB. For melee (specifically, the lightsaber), it is EITHER strength or dexterity (whichever is higher). Other factors include dual wielding. When you dual wield by default, you are sacrificing some AB for increased number of hits per combat round. So, on a "low" progression class, you will probably want to skip dual wielding and instead focus on AB raising stuff, like "duelling". Flurry also works well with this.

If you are a Soldier/Guardian (high BAB), then you can generally go "all out" with the dual wielding, since AB does not matter so much. These characters generally have more strength too, which increases damage per hit and works well with feats like "power attack".

So, to summarise: on a high AB character, dual wielding is most efficient. On a low AB character, single wield is most efficient.

Hope this helps - and roughly explains how the BAB and AB mechanics work.

[CargoPantsGuy]

I always go full dual wield for the sake of looking like a badass, plus the extra damage is always nice. Plus, I enjoy using the crystals from Yavin space station for both my lightsabers so they look even more cool than they were before.

Overall, I choose duel wielding 90% of the time due to the high damage while taking down my defense. My logic is why have a defense for the long run when you can simply take them out in one or two fell swoops?

Also Jimbo has explained the D&D game style mechanics perfectly, so take his explaination to heart when you want to consider this deeply.

But most of all, have fun! Don't think *too* hard on this, and enjoy the ride!

[Nula513]

You could always meet in the middle and use a double-bladed lightsaber :D
I always dual wield. It's especially cool to use two different colors, like one red and one blue.

[Big Boy Salsa Daddy]

Thanks Jimbob and the rest of you. That was an amazing breakdown. I think I understood most of it. I've only observed a few D&D matches before so I'm not fully with your cross-reference but I see how it relates. I'm a scout now and will go counselor class so I'm thinking it's best to stick with dueling/single hand fighting for best results? Since you've broke it down for me, I'm thinking I'll start seeing the stats/numbers of the fighting in a whole other light.

Thanks homies.

[jimbobslimbob]

No problem! I hope you have fun with whatever you end up doing!

Remember that KoTOR is quite forgiving, so you don't necessarily need to min-max too much and there are plenty of ways/items to help.

Good luck!

[Big Boy Salsa Daddy]

Absolutly, I beat this game for xbox back in 2004. It was the best time, I dont think I knew a fraction of the combat fundamentals. This time around I just wanted to gain some knowledge and easily stomp on some thugs.