Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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"Duel Wielding" implies two weapons in hand at the same time. You are free to rule however you want at your table, but the common sense definition of 'duel wielding' seems pretty clear.
Someone fighting sword and board, is NOT dual wielding.
Someone fighting one handed, then doing some weapon juggling shennanigans is NOT dual wielding.
Duel Wielding means duel wielding.
Playing D&D since 1982
Have played every version of the game since Basic (original Red Box Set), except that abomination sometimes called 4e.
Except the rule contains no text requiring one weapon in each hand.
"Dual Wielder
General Feat (Prerequisite: Level 4+, Strength or Dexterity 13+)
You gain the following benefits.
Ability Score Increase. Increase your Strength or Dexterity score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
Enhanced Dual Wielding. When you take the Attack action on your turn and attack with a weapon that has the Light property, you can make one extra attack as a Bonus Action later on the same turn with a different weapon, which must be a Melee weapon that lacks the Two-Handed property. You don’t add your ability modifier to the extra attack’s damage unless that modifier is negative.
Quick Draw. You can draw or stow two weapons that lack the Two-Handed property when you would normally be able to draw or stow only one"
I dont like the rule, but it seems when applying it Rules As Written, the dual wielding feat doesnt prohibit swapping both weapons in the same hand.
And most players will oppose any change to require two hands because that will reduce their power. And power creep is real.
You are free to run your table anyway you wish, but the five DMs in our extended group will always apply a bit of common sense to the rules. Ruling that 'dual wielding' requires a weapon in each hand (as it has been for every edition of the game that used that wording) does not diminish any character's power, but it does prevent exploits that quickly become ridiculous.
The benefit of the Dual Wielding feat is that the second weapon doesn't need to be light, and you can draw/stow two weapons at once (again reinforcing the idea that dual wielding is the wielding of a weapon in each hand at the same time).
Playing D&D since 1982
Have played every version of the game since Basic (original Red Box Set), except that abomination sometimes called 4e.
Ability names are not mechanics. They never have been and never will be. The game is better for it. If you want to house rule unnecessary restrictions on mechanics because of how things are named, the game will need to clutter the books with "despite the name, this doesn't actually mean ..."
How to add Tooltips.
My houserulings.
I'd say in 5.5 the main mechanical benefit is an extra BA attack that stacks with Nick, although it does also allow for thematic rapier/dagger pairings and the like
It's still a pretty massive downgrade from the 5.0 version in terms of which weapons you can use though. No more barbarians with twin battle axes
Active characters:
Edoumiaond Willegume "Eddie" Podslee, Vegetanian scholar (College of Spirits bard)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Peter "the Pied Piper" Hausler, human con artist/remover of vermin (Circle of the Shepherd druid)
PIPA - Planar Interception/Protection Aeormaton, warforged bodyguard and ex-wizard hunter (Warrior of the Elements monk/Cartographer artificer)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
As i said, i dont like the rule myself. I was just discussing whether rules as written allows the one-handed swapping, and it appears that it does.
I believe if the 2024 Dual Wielding feat added the clarification that the dual attack wespon must be in the othet hand from the first wespon, then the the player can still do 3 attacks (Attack, LightAttack, DualAttack) but they cant weild a shield.