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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Since this thread got a "hello from 2025" post, it feels right to bring the conversation into the 2024 rules era, because two-weapon fighting changed in some sneaky ways.
In the 2024 Player's Handbook, TWF moved off the combat rules page and into the Light weapon property itself: when you take the Attack action and attack with a Light weapon, you can make one extra attack as a bonus action later on the same turn with a different Light weapon, and you do not add your ability modifier to the extra attack's damage unless that modifier is negative.
The edge case my table kept tripping over is drawing and stowing. You only get one free object interaction per turn, and drawing or stowing a weapon costs one. So if a fight starts with your shortswords sheathed, you can draw one for free, but the second costs your interaction, and then you have nothing left to open a door, pick up a dropped component pouch, or drink a potion that turn. Players who planned to keep one hand free for spellcasting and then casually draw a second blade mid-fight got a rude surprise. The 2024 Dual Wielder feat fixes this with its quick draw/stow benefit, which honestly does more for the build than the +1 AC does.
Then there is the Nick weapon mastery, which is the real sleeper change. If your weapon has the Nick mastery (a scimitar, for example), the extra attack becomes part of the Attack action instead of costing your bonus action. That frees your bonus action for Hunter's Mark, Hex, Cunning Action, Misty Step, or whatever else is competing for it, and bonus-action congestion was always the quiet tax on dual-wielding builds. At my table, the ranger who took Nick plus Dual Wielder went from "why am I even doing this" to out-damaging the greatsword fighter at levels 3 to 5, mostly because his bonus action stopped being eaten every round.
One more thing people forget: opportunity attacks never get the extra attack. The Light property's bonus attack is tied to taking the Attack action on your turn, and a reaction is neither, so the classic "dual-wielder with Sentinel holding a hallway" fantasy does not multiply the way people hope.
Table-experience verdict after running a dual-wielding ranger from 1 to 12 in the 2024 rules: the build shines brightest at low levels, when that extra d6 is a big share of your output, and then tapers as Extra Attack comes online and your bonus action gets crowded with better options. Feats like Dual Wielder are what keep it competitive at higher tiers, not the baseline rule. Would love to hear how it is playing out for others who made the jump to 2024.
Remember that, when you take the attack action, you get a free draw or stow per attack. So the dual-wielder doesn't need to use his free item interaction to draw a weapon at all, he can draw his weapons as part of his attack action.
I think this comment was mainly about the default non-Nick situation (two shortswords) where one of the attacks requires a Bonus Action which does not allow for a free interaction.
Even then it doesn't make sense, because you get to draw one short sword with your attack, and your other short sword with your free item interaction, and can then make your bonus attack.
Without such Feat or Mastery, a good way to address this when you know on your turn you may also have to interact with an object is then to attack with a Thrown weapon while drawing it as part of the attack, thus leaving an hand free as well as your Free item interaction.