Great players of IA who can rule the game on insane with ease, please let me know which melee person you consider best to wield 2H weapons (particularly halberds) and why. My thinking is kensai or barbarian. The kensai should be able to Greater Whirlwind and hit just about anything but his defense will suck without potions or Spirit Armor. The barbarian has much better defense (rage, resistance, good armor), but he may be using Critical Strike rather than Greater Whirlwind - not sure which would be optimal. But these are the thoughts of a lesser player. What do you think?

I wouldn't say I'm a great player, but I think the answer really depends on what else you want the 2HW to add to the party. Kensai's do more damage whereas a barbarian, berserker, or paladin type adds other utility. Barbarians can tank an extreme amount of damage, and not being obligated into GM (yes kensais are not obligated but that extra half APR is just so attractive) that they end up dual wielding too. Its too bad that their armor options suck, but hey, what they have is better than a kensai. Since there are only a few fights that truly require piercing weapons (Sendai), its certainly possible to skip halbreds or even short swords and be just fine.

If I just had one slot, I would take an Avenger due to the incredible utility and high DPS offered by the class. There is a new spear that is quite strong, albeit not as good as the halbreds.

In my current game (~1.1 Million XP, Ch 3), I'm using Dorn but I think the blackguard class is a bit weak, and I'll probably drop him for either Minsc or Valygar after killing a few more vampiric mists. For a second slot, a barbarian (or dwarven defender) is very strong. Hardiness + 20% innate + upgraded warblade = 80% physical damage reduction. Using the Defender of Easthaven and a high elemental resist shield is also a quite powerful defensive combination.

In most cases, a 2H wielder has fewer damage output than a dual wielder. The biggest problem is that the 2H wielder has fewer APR. Only few equipments or spells can increase APR, and the most typical one is the Paws of the Furious Cat.

The kensai is definitely a good 2H wielder, for his low thac, he can choose GWW rather than CS.

My recommendation is:
1.Kensai(13)/Thief(or Kensai(9)/Thief), for he can equip Paws of the Furious Cat and Carsomyr. His APR will be at most 8. He can also backstab with Staff of the Ram! The Assassin(23)->Fighter should be more powerful, but it'll take a long time to dual.
2.The Avenger, Fighter/Druid or Druid Fighter dual, are all decent 2H wielders. Since IA v6.2, many powerful 2H weapons that designed for druids are added.

BTW, if you have a Bard in party, many other warriors are selectable. With +4 hit and damage bounses, it is more reasonable for them choose GWW.

Chaser, have you played these classes on insane? I am skeptical that they would fare well vs a pure kensai on the second rank doing GWW. I may consider a high level dual in ToB. Maybe Kensai 21-thief? I do like Bards, particularly with summons. However, I like Bards in my heavily modded SCS game much more than in IA.

Does Sparrowjacek have some wisdom to share?

Yes, I’ve played all the classes I mentioned on insane, although these classes are not using 2H weapon all the time. If you only consider the damage output, kensai may be superior to these classes. However, each of these classes has its own characteristics.

It's pretty fun to design different parties to challenge IA again and again. K21/T worth a try

"It's pretty fun to design different parties to challenge IA again and again. "

I've played IA off and on since IA3 or so. Trying different things and a pressing time schedule tends to mean I seldom complete a game. Still, it's the journey that I find fun! I remember singing the praises of the bard on these forums long ago. I don't think Sikret liked bards. He shortly thereafter struck them with the nerf bat hard. Still, I agree with you that the bard song can be useful. Does the bard offer enough to gain a position in a party of six - that I am unsure about. The best players can do well without optimal selections but discovering and making optimal selections is part of the fun of the game to me. And helps me out considering that I am not a "best player".

@ Chaser Just curious whether you think Avenger, F/D, F->D, or D->F is better. I may be wrong, but a F(13)->D wielding paws under improved haste should get 8 APR with a staff or 10 APR if dual wielding, but won't have access to CS or WW, which an Avenger, F/D, or D->F can get. Personally the Avenger seems the most balanced to me.

Thief(23)->Fighter is roughly 7 million XP when the thief ability comes online. That is very late SOA - is such a late dual worthwhile?

Also re-reading the original post, I feel obligated to mention I only ever play on core. Insane seems, well, insane...

@ bulian What I actually mean is the D-> F, not F-> D...I tried the Shapeshifter(13)/Fighter, and additionally installed the “Shapeshifter rebalancing” component of cdtweaks. I found this class interesting, with a higher damage output, though not as comprehensive as the avenger and FD multiclass.
As for F->D, I personally think this class is pretty weak, nothing special.

Indeed, it's a bit too long for the assassin23/Fighter to take shape. I recently designed a party of multiple rogues, including an Assassin 23/Fighter, hoping to win several key campaigns with backstabbing. But after playing for a while, I gave up and changed the A23/F to a K9/T... If someone wants to experience extreme backstab damage can try this class, otherwise the Kensai/Thief can take the place .

If I ever find some time, I'll give the K9/T a try!

It will be interesting to see if you think a K9/T is still viable if Use Any Item is removed.

I can't recall using a thief or backstabbing in IA - it seems there is enough burst built into some of the weapons (Thor/Poseidon's Wrath/The Truth) and enough defensive resistances, immunities to backstab, and contingencies (SS/PFMW/AI) that opportunities for backstab to shine are very limited. Perhaps a missed opportunity by the mod - one can imagine a 2000 hp monster, for example, with no physical resistance where backstab or the thief HLA would be a lot of fun and highly advantageous.

I don't know what the thieves would be in the future versions. If the UAI is removed, the thieves need to be compensated in other ways. In the current version, few people want to play thieves without UAI, such as FT, CT, MT multiclass, etc. They are not only less powerful, but also featureless (Except for the Swashbuckler). Otherwise, why did the author change Imone’s class into sorcerer, and change Jan to a thief->illusionist?

There are no immediate plans to remove UAI, it's just one of many concepts written in a very big todo list. I have no idea why Imoen is a sorcerer, this was done long time ago by Sikret. As for Jan, I did it as a short-term solution to bring another in-game NPC into the roster before any work is done on either multi-classes or thieves.

EE version added some pretty nice opcodes, so we have a bit more freedom when it comes to thieves and rebalancing, however currently our main priority is druid stronghold, all else comes later.