What is the biggest weapon wieldable with a Goliath + Wield Oversize Weapon?

Question

I was looking at the Goliath race, and noticed the Powerful Build racial trait, which lets me wield a weapon one size category larger without penalty. I also saw the Wield Oversized Weapon feat, which lets me treat a weapon as one size category smaller and lighter than otherwise.

Powerful Build: […] A goliath can use weapons designed for a creature one size larger without penalty. However, his space and reach remain those of a creature of his actual size. The benefits of this racial trait stack with the effects of powers, abilities, and spells that change the subject’s size category.

Wield Oversized Weapon
You can treat any weapon as if it were one size category smaller than normal and one category "lighter" for the purpose of determining the amount of effort it takes to wield. […]

This feat subsumes the effects of the Monkey Grip feat. The feats' effects do not stack.

Since one affects the weapon, and one affects the character, I think they would stack. So I could use a Huge greatsword basically as a medium two-handed weapon. My DM lets us use epic feats the same as regular ones, so that's not an issue. So, my question is, using these two features, what is the largest possible weapon I can use (The character I was thinking of uses this as the only criteria for a weapon's quality)? Also, how would I go about satisfying the prereqs for Wield Oversized Weapon as quickly as possible?

EDIT: Also, would Gloves of Enlarge Weapon stack with this for a Gargantuan Greatsword?

Answer 1

Looks like a Huge weapon works without penalty

Wield Oversize Weapon says you can treat a weapon as one size category smaller than it is. Thus, you can treat a Huge weapon as if it were Large.

Powerful Build says you can wield weapons one size category larger than yourself without penalty. Since a goliath is a Medium creature, that means a goliath may wield Large weapons without penalty.

Since Wield Oversize Weapon lets you treat the Huge weapon as Large, and Powerful Build lets you wield Large weapons without penalty, you may wield a Huge weapon without penalty.

It does appear that by preventing Wield Oversize Weapon from working with Monkey Grip, the authors were trying to prevent exactly this, which could be an argument for an intent that this shouldn’t work. But by the rules-as-written, that applies only to Monkey Grip, not Powerful Build.

Please note that a size category larger weapon tends to deal only ~1 more damage than its smaller counterpart. There are some exceptions, but it still tends to be small amounts of damage. You can often gain more damage more quickly through other uses of feats. Note also that the size of your weapon does not affect reach (well, larger weapons don’t; too-small weapons do), so you do not get extended reach this way, either.

As for gloves of enlarge weapon, those are a really poor idea. If you meant strongarm bracers, those explicitly do not stack with Powerful Build.

Answer 2

I can see how the wording could lead to confusion, but Powerful Build, Monkey Grip, Wield Over-sized Weapon all modify the effort (or additional effort) required to use an inappropriately sized weapon, and thus do not stack.

main faq, pp 51

Do effects that allow you to use larger than normal weapons, such as the Monkey Grip feat or the Powerful Build racial trait, stack with each other?

These effects do not stack with each other. If you have an effect that allows you to use a weapon one size category larger than you and then gain the same benefit from another source, you are still limited to weapons one size category larger than you.

As a side note, Powerful Build is superior to Monkey Grip for a couple of reasons; you still incur the -2 penalty with MG and it does not allow you to wield an inappropriately sized weapon in your off hand.

Some people try to do a dual wield with MG and Over Sized Two Weapon Fighting, which do stack, but they don't quite do what you might think. OTWF gives you the ability to use a one-handed weapon in your off-hand, but neither feat give you the larger sized weapon in the off-hand.

However, with Powerful build and OTWF, you could wield a large, one-handed weapon in your off-hand. Since you

... can use weapons designed for a creature one size larger without penalty.

I've also seen people try to combine this with an exotic weapon (dwarven waraxe or bastard sword) but this is also called out in the faq

main faq pp 57

The bastard sword, lance, and dwarven waraxe are all two- handed weapons that can be used in one hand under the correct circumstances (the bastard sw ord and dwarven waraxe are shown on Table 7–5 as one-handed exotic weapons, but they’re really two-handed weapons). Trea t all three of these weapons as two-handed weapons when de termining who can use them and how. For example, a Small character cannot use a lance or bastard sword made for a Medium creature, even when mounted (in the case of a lance) or when the Small character has the Exotic Weapon Proficie ncy (bastard sword) feat.