TWC vs Polearm DS

[Suppressed Poet]

I glanced over the formulas for both on calculating the parry DS, but it makes my head hurt...

Can anyone tell me which would be better for defence and % chance to parry in offensive stance for these two? Just assume same stats bonuses and all other skills the same for both. Also if you can fill me in on how big or small the difference is. Just a general summary is fine and thanks:

2x Polearms using a lance

VS

2x TWC + 2x Edged using a longsword and handaxe combo.

[Suppressed Poet]

Didn't want to start another thread but another mechanics question...

Does wearing heavier armor help reduce the crit and damage from creature maneuvers? IE: Will a character in plate have a better chance of surving a minotaur charge or a stone troll throwing a rock at you given the same failure rate? I've seen that padding does in fact help, but it seems unclear to me if heavier armors help with that.

Forgive my ignorance and thanks in advance for the help.

[Whirlin]

No access to Krakii, so can only answer the second question by completely not answering it at all...

Some maneuvers take armor / crit padding / dfredux into account... some don't. Like crit padding won't help against major e-wave.

Can't make a blanket statement about all maneuvers... but realistically... heavy armor will almost always help you live.

[celtani]

I glanced over the formulas for both on calculating the parry DS, but it makes my head hurt...

Can anyone tell me which would be better for defence and % chance to parry in offensive stance for these two? Just assume same stats bonuses and all other skills the same for both. Also if you can fill me in on how big or small the difference is. Just a general summary is fine and thanks:

2x Polearms using a lance

VS

2x TWC + 2x Edged using a longsword and handaxe combo.

Polearm DS formula: ((Weapon Ranks + (STR bonus ÷ 4) + (DEX bonus ÷ 4) + (enchant bonus)) × stance modifier) + Polearm bonus + Stance bonus

Stance modifier is slightly larger than normal -- 0.27, 0.41, 0.54, 0.68, 0.81, 0.94.

TWC DS is normal one-handed DS plus offhand DS.

One-hand DS: (Weapon ranks+(STR/4)+(DEX/4)) × (0.20 + stance/2) + (stance × 50)
Offhand DS: (TWC ranks+(STR/4)+(DEX/4)) × (0.10 + stance/4) + (5 or 15)

(In other words, with equal TWC and weapon ranks, offhand DS is just half one-handed DS, plus 5 or 15 for a main-gauche or sai.)

Let's roll the skill plus stat bonuses up into x. We know stance is 0 in offensive, also, so:

Polearm DS: 0.27x + 15
TWC DS: 0.30x + 5

TWC > Polearm when:
0.03x > 10
x > 333

In practice, x will never be greater than around 230, so polearms will have more DS, but it should be obvious that the two will give almost exactly the same DS in offensive stance. (In fact, the difference between them won't ever be greater than 10.)

Not sure on the E/B/P formula. I think TWC has the edge there, but no formulas.

[Suppressed Poet]

Awesome - thank you both on the tips/advice. Exactly what I was looking for in the explanations.

[Donquix]

TWC has the benefit of double dipping with parry mastery, if you have that as an option it applies to both the main and offhand parry checks.