Executioner vs The Pawn

[Atma]

For a 2h build with points in Scoundrel for crit damage bonus + utilities + movement, do you think Executioner outshines The Pawn?

I know The Pawn is better on a dagger build due to positioning for backstabs, but the movement bonus is really nice for getting into range for 2h abilities as well w/out expending AP that can be used for attacks.

The Pawn is active every round, whereas you may not score a kill to proc Executioner every single round, making The Pawn's bonus active more often over time.

However, Executioner's extra 2 AP on kill is also extremely powerful in its own right, sometimes allowing you to pop off another ability or score an extra kill that you wouldn't have w/out it.

What do you guys think?

[Frostmire]

why not both

[awc]

I'm all for executioner. Get those AoE kills in with your last AP spend to find yourself with a full bar again. Pawn seems to really only be good for getting in backstabs w/out putting your mobility skills on cooldown or spending AP on movevment.

[Frostbeast]

Originally posted by Frostmire:

why not both

You cant have both talents ;)

[awc]

Originally posted by Frostmire:

why not both

Because they are mutually exclusive without a mod to change that.

[Atma]

Originally posted by awc:

I'm all for executioner. Get those AoE kills in with your last AP spend to find yourself with a full bar again. Pawn seems to really only be good for getting in backstabs w/out putting your mobility skills on cooldown or spending AP on movevment.

Do you get AP per kill or 2 max AP per round?

I know that I have killed several people in a round and the round ended because I had 0 AP left even though my last attack was a kill.

I'm pretty sure there is a cap on the AP return for Executioner, but I could be wrong about that.

[Punished Vorst]

It really depends.

IMO, Pawn is better suited for archers that need to get to the high ground ASAP.
I've got Sebille in one run as a one-shot wonder, I use pawn to get myself close to the highest thing I can climb and then use tactical retreat to get up there, with gives you haste and what not so it works pretty well with pawn because you've got the 1AP you normally would have had spent, alongside the bonuses that haste gives.

I used Executioner on my Pyromancer solo run. Since most of my spells could kill multiple enemies at once, and had massive range/AOE, I'd basically kill 2-3 people with 2 AP to spare to either kill another enemy or to save it for/spend it on something else.

For your particular case, if it were me, well...
If I was having trouble with the AP needed to travel to melee range with the targets, I'd go for Pawn.
If you're not having trouble with that, and are confident in killing stuff with your absurdly high crit damage bonus? Go for executioner.

[Atma]

I'm leaning toward Executioner, because as you said, I do have an absurdly high crit damage bonus between 2h skill and Scoundrel w/ Wits + gear giving me a ridiculous crit chance.

[Exeter]

I think it depends more on the difficulty, on easier modes stuff dies faster so executioner is more valuable in general. On tactician with the bloated hp/armor pawn is way more useful.

[wendigo211]

I think it depends on a few things.

• Are you using Lone Wolf? If you are then Executioner hands down.
  
• What difficulty level are you playing on? Granted I only play Tactician, but with a four man party, the Pawn seems more useful. A free AP of movement tends to be useful more often than you kill an opponent.
  
• What level are you? As you level up, it gets easier to kill opponents, so Executioner procs more often. Of course with free respec, that doesn't mean you can't take the Pawn at low levels and swap it for executioner once you're powerful enough to get it to work for you.

One nice trick with the pawn and melee oppoents is you can cripple opponents and move out of their striking range for free, effectively giving you a third incapacitate with a low level Warfare build.

[Lina]

the pawn seems more useful early on but i think later on Executioner is probably better thanks to having insane damage to one-two shot enemies

[Atma]

I play double Lone Wolf (mage warrior) on Tactician, starting a new game now. Was in act 3 before, so I have an okay grasp of mechanics.

I had a strong summoner before that made things boring and wanted to give a new race combo a try.

[DarkFenix]

Executioner is capped at one trigger per turn. If you have lone wolf, it's a no brainer, take executioner as you'll probably trigger it most rounds. If it's a high damage character that is low on your initiative table, also take executioner, it won't be hard to ensure they can always get a kill with it.

The only time you want pawn is on non-lone wolf, high initiative characters, they aren't very likely to get an immediate kill, so the free AP for movement is the best they'll get.

[shadeling]

Originally posted by Frostmire:

why not both

Why not bequeath your 'wisdom' upon the forums of games you actually own? You know, so you can have a chance of actually knowing what you're talking about?

[Greywolf]

Originally posted by Atma:

Do you get AP per kill or 2 max AP per round?

2AP per round provided you land a killing blow in that round, you don't get any extra AP for killing more than 1 killing blow per round.

[Iry]

Explorer or Classic = The Executioner.
Tactician or Honor = The Pawn.