Hmm. Thank you, nago.
Since the main effect I was aiming for with riposte was not the damage itself, but the distortion effect, let's see: a free +5% on distortion brand application comes out to 0.7 (mindelay) / 1.05 = effective mindelay of 0.67. On a falchion, 0.6 / 1.05 = 0.57. The dagger is 0.5 with no riposte. This is against a single monster.
Since riposte processes on dodging, and dodging unlike shields gets applied to more than one attacker in a turn (correct?) then if one is facing two monsters at once, it becomes a 10% chance that you'll get a riposte distortion effect, 15% for three, etc. Neglecting the miniscule chance that you'll get two or more riposte distortions in a single 10 auts of enemy action:
- Code:
Effective mindelay for scimitar with one, two, three, four, five simultaneous attackers:
0.67, 0.64, 0.61, 0.58, 0.56
Effective mindelay for falchion with one, two, three, four, five simultaneous attackers:
0.57, 0.55, 0.52, 0.50, 0.48
So a dagger is better from the standpoint of distortions per aut even with riposte, except in the worst mobbings that you ought to be avoiding anyway. But beyond riposte, distortion is just a good damaging brand. Similarly to how an electric battleaxe isn't bad because electrocution is a good brand, a distortion scimitar isn't bad either. Now there are some situations when you don't want distortion: when you need to buff to take on the monster, it sucks to quaff potions and then see it teleport away to heal while your buffs expire. But if your best current long blade is a scimitar of protection or something lame like that, you need something that can do a chunk of damage and distortion is good at that. So here is my new advice:
If you have a scimitar with a good brand already, distort a dagger. Otherwise, distort a scimitar, not because of the riposting which is gravy but because distortion is a good damage brand intrinsically.