So I've been looking literally everywhere for an answer, and maybe I'm completely oblivious or just dumb, but I don't know the answer still...
My question is; say you're a Rogue, and you're dual wielding two daggers for example... since both weapons have the Light property, if you use a malee attack once, are you able to use Any bonus action to attack a second time with your other dagger?? I understand that in combat you need to have a feat that specifies that you're able to make another attack as a bonus action, but anywhere I've looked about Light weapons, it never states that. So... does that still apply to dual wielding light weapons? Or do you just get to make two attacks automatically with Light weapons? Or can you expend Any bonus action to attack a second time? For instance can you use your Cunning Action to get a bonus attack action? I know you can't do that normally, but as I said I can't find anywhere that those rules still apply to dual wielding Light property weapons... I mean I would assume they still do? But just some confirmation would be greatly appreciated.
There is a special rule on page 195 "Two-Weapon Fighting" which does allow you to make an attack as a bonus action if you used your action to take the attack action with a second light weapon you're holding. You don't add your ability modifier to the damage of that bonus action attack(unless it's negative).
This rule can be used by anybody (like a rogue in your example) holding two light weapons. There is also the Dual Wielder Feat and the Two-Weapon-Fighting fighting Style which amend taht rule for non light weapons/lets you add the ability modifier.
The other thing is the Extra Attack feature that lets you take two attacks with any weapon/unarmed strikes when taking the Attack Action instead of one. This doesn't use your Bonus Action, it's just the Attack Action making two Attacks instead of one, it doesn't allow you to make two attacks with anything else but the Attack Action (So no double Booming Blade, Apell Attacks etc.). Extra Attack is a class feature of most martial classes.
That said you could use both in the same turn, you can hold two light weapons, use the Attack Action, attack twice with that, then use your Bonus Action to use Two Weapon Fighting to attack a third time.
You only have 1 bonus action to take on your turn, so when you take the Attack action and attack with a light melee weapon, you can use a bonus action to
1) attack with a different light melee weapon that you're holding in the other hand
2) use Cunning Action
3) use anything else as a bonus action you have at your disposal.
Okay, so that's my main question. Say a level 3 Rogue, who doesn't have the Dual Wielder feat, or anything else that permits an extra attack as a Bonus Action, is the Rogue still able to use the Bonus Action provided by his Cunning Action for example, to utilize his other dagger to attack a second time?
So if you dual wield Light weapons, then you don't need the Dual Wielder feat or any of the other feats to make a second attack? That's what's confusing me honestly. Mainly if dual wielding two Light weapons bypasses the prerequisites required to typically make a second attack (i.e. having a Bonus Action that allows a second attack, Two-Weapon Fighting fighting style, Dual Wielder, or not being able to use normal, non-combat Bonus Actions to attack).
Simply put: Can you make two attacks if you have two Light weapons, like daggers in your hands. Without the need of any special feat? Can I use ANY Bonus Action provided to make the second attack? Or must the Bonus Action be combat-based?
I truly appreciate the help lol. I don't know why this is so confusing for me, but I just wanna play correctly and whatnot. I hope my question isn't too convoluted or anything either
Can you make two attacks if you have two Light weapons, like daggers in your hands. Without the need of any special feat?
Yes you can.
No one need Cunning Action or the Dual Welder feat to use Two-Weapon Fighting, only that you use the Attack action and attack with a light weapon while having one also in the other hand.
Thank you for replying and helping, but unfortunately I've already looked and found all of the same things you showed. And none of them answer my question though (unless they do and I somehow missed it?). But I reworded my question a bit when replying to Plaguescarred's answer.
If you have any other input to add please by all means. But as far as I know, Plaguescarred answered my question. Let me know if it's correct or not.
Thank you! I appreciate the help a lot! What was mainly confusing me was if it required a Combat-based Bonus Action to use both attacks. Or if you can just use any Bonus Action to make the second attack with two Light Weapons.
It would help to stop thinking of them as 'combat based' or other bonus actions. A bonus action is something ascribed to a specific ability in the game - anything that can be done as a 'bonus action's can be done whether or not you're in combat.
Any character can use their bonus action to attack, provided they are wielding TWO Light weapons and they use their ACTION to attack as well. Full stop, that's all the rules. You can do it under the listed conditions every time, whether or not you're in combat. (this example is a bit weird because you ARE attacking, so by virtue of attacking you'd be in combat. But you could still do this to, say, a tree or something).
However, you only have one bonus action on your turn. Further, there are feats (listed in other posts above) that can give your bonus action offhand attack extra accuracy/strength.
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I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
I think you might be a little confused about the nature of Bonus Actions.
This section of the rules describes Bonus Actions. Basically, you can take a Bonus Action "when a special ability, spell, or other feature of the game states that you can do something as a bonus action. You otherwise don't have a bonus action to take." And "You can take only one bonus action on your turn, so you must choose which bonus action to use when you have more than one available."
So a character does not have a Bonus Action per se, rather, it can take a Bonus Action if the the appropriate conditions are met. And the rules for two weapon fighting allow any character to take a Bonus Action to make an attack, so long as the conditions of two weapon fighting are met. A Rogue that uses two weapon fighting is not using their Cunning Action Bonus Action to a make an attack, rather, they are choosing to take a Bonus Action to make an attack under the two weapon fighting rules instead of using one of the options available to them under the Cunning Actions class feature. They have to choose, because of the rule that limits bonus actions to one per turn.
Rogues don't have more (or fewer) bonus actions than anyone else, they just have more options for taking them. There are no combat-based bonus actions, or any other kind, there are just bonus actions.
Ah, gotcha... I guess when I read somewhere that said "You can only take the attack action as a bonus action if something in your class allows it"... Think it was another post someone did... so it confused me by thinking that you could only take feats like Crossbow Expert, or Polearm Master and etc that specifically allow a second attack in combat if you wanted to use two weapon fighting with two daggers.
So those specific Bonus Actions that allow a second attack, my brain associated those to a separate category of Combat Based Bonus Actions lol.
I've always wondered how Thrown Weapon Fighting Style from Tasha's interacts with Two Weapon Fighting. RAW, Two Weapon Fighting says you need to have a light weapon in hand, but Thrown Weapon Fighting Style allows you to draw the weapon as part of the attack action itself. Let's say I have a short sword in one hand, dagger in the other, but I'm just outside melee range. If I throw the dagger and have a spare on my belt, could I then draw a second dagger with Thrown Weapon Fighting Style and Bonus Action for Two Weapon Fighting and a second throw? Would I even need the short sword in hand in that case?
You must have both weapons in hand when you make the first attack.as explained in Sage Advice Compendium;
Can I make an attack with one weapon, then draw a second weapon with my other hand and qualify to use two-weapon fighting? To use the two-weapon fighting bonus action (PH, 195), you must have both weapons in hand when you make the first attack.
So I've been looking literally everywhere for an answer, and maybe I'm completely oblivious or just dumb, but I don't know the answer still...
My question is; say you're a Rogue, and you're dual wielding two daggers for example... since both weapons have the Light property, if you use a malee attack once, are you able to use Any bonus action to attack a second time with your other dagger?? I understand that in combat you need to have a feat that specifies that you're able to make another attack as a bonus action, but anywhere I've looked about Light weapons, it never states that. So... does that still apply to dual wielding light weapons? Or do you just get to make two attacks automatically with Light weapons? Or can you expend Any bonus action to attack a second time? For instance can you use your Cunning Action to get a bonus attack action? I know you can't do that normally, but as I said I can't find anywhere that those rules still apply to dual wielding Light property weapons... I mean I would assume they still do? But just some confirmation would be greatly appreciated.
Okay:
There is a special rule on page 195 "Two-Weapon Fighting" which does allow you to make an attack as a bonus action if you used your action to take the attack action with a second light weapon you're holding. You don't add your ability modifier to the damage of that bonus action attack(unless it's negative).
This rule can be used by anybody (like a rogue in your example) holding two light weapons. There is also the Dual Wielder Feat and the Two-Weapon-Fighting fighting Style which amend taht rule for non light weapons/lets you add the ability modifier.
The other thing is the Extra Attack feature that lets you take two attacks with any weapon/unarmed strikes when taking the Attack Action instead of one. This doesn't use your Bonus Action, it's just the Attack Action making two Attacks instead of one, it doesn't allow you to make two attacks with anything else but the Attack Action (So no double Booming Blade, Apell Attacks etc.). Extra Attack is a class feature of most martial classes.
That said you could use both in the same turn, you can hold two light weapons, use the Attack Action, attack twice with that, then use your Bonus Action to use Two Weapon Fighting to attack a third time.
You only have 1 bonus action to take on your turn, so when you take the Attack action and attack with a light melee weapon, you can use a bonus action to
1) attack with a different light melee weapon that you're holding in the other hand
2) use Cunning Action
3) use anything else as a bonus action you have at your disposal.
Okay, so that's my main question. Say a level 3 Rogue, who doesn't have the Dual Wielder feat, or anything else that permits an extra attack as a Bonus Action, is the Rogue still able to use the Bonus Action provided by his Cunning Action for example, to utilize his other dagger to attack a second time?
So if you dual wield Light weapons, then you don't need the Dual Wielder feat or any of the other feats to make a second attack? That's what's confusing me honestly. Mainly if dual wielding two Light weapons bypasses the prerequisites required to typically make a second attack (i.e. having a Bonus Action that allows a second attack, Two-Weapon Fighting fighting style, Dual Wielder, or not being able to use normal, non-combat Bonus Actions to attack).
Simply put: Can you make two attacks if you have two Light weapons, like daggers in your hands. Without the need of any special feat? Can I use ANY Bonus Action provided to make the second attack? Or must the Bonus Action be combat-based?
I truly appreciate the help lol. I don't know why this is so confusing for me, but I just wanna play correctly and whatnot. I hope my question isn't too convoluted or anything either
Yes you can.
No one need Cunning Action or the Dual Welder feat to use Two-Weapon Fighting, only that you use the Attack action and attack with a light weapon while having one also in the other hand.
Thank you for replying and helping, but unfortunately I've already looked and found all of the same things you showed. And none of them answer my question though (unless they do and I somehow missed it?). But I reworded my question a bit when replying to Plaguescarred's answer.
If you have any other input to add please by all means. But as far as I know, Plaguescarred answered my question. Let me know if it's correct or not.
Thank you! I appreciate the help a lot! What was mainly confusing me was if it required a Combat-based Bonus Action to use both attacks. Or if you can just use any Bonus Action to make the second attack with two Light Weapons.
Thanks for helping clarify!
It would help to stop thinking of them as 'combat based' or other bonus actions. A bonus action is something ascribed to a specific ability in the game - anything that can be done as a 'bonus action's can be done whether or not you're in combat.
Any character can use their bonus action to attack, provided they are wielding TWO Light weapons and they use their ACTION to attack as well. Full stop, that's all the rules. You can do it under the listed conditions every time, whether or not you're in combat. (this example is a bit weird because you ARE attacking, so by virtue of attacking you'd be in combat. But you could still do this to, say, a tree or something).
However, you only have one bonus action on your turn. Further, there are feats (listed in other posts above) that can give your bonus action offhand attack extra accuracy/strength.
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
I think you might be a little confused about the nature of Bonus Actions.
This section of the rules describes Bonus Actions. Basically, you can take a Bonus Action "when a special ability, spell, or other feature of the game states that you can do something as a bonus action. You otherwise don't have a bonus action to take." And "You can take only one bonus action on your turn, so you must choose which bonus action to use when you have more than one available."
So a character does not have a Bonus Action per se, rather, it can take a Bonus Action if the the appropriate conditions are met. And the rules for two weapon fighting allow any character to take a Bonus Action to make an attack, so long as the conditions of two weapon fighting are met. A Rogue that uses two weapon fighting is not using their Cunning Action Bonus Action to a make an attack, rather, they are choosing to take a Bonus Action to make an attack under the two weapon fighting rules instead of using one of the options available to them under the Cunning Actions class feature. They have to choose, because of the rule that limits bonus actions to one per turn.
Rogues don't have more (or fewer) bonus actions than anyone else, they just have more options for taking them. There are no combat-based bonus actions, or any other kind, there are just bonus actions.
Ah, gotcha... I guess when I read somewhere that said "You can only take the attack action as a bonus action if something in your class allows it"... Think it was another post someone did... so it confused me by thinking that you could only take feats like Crossbow Expert, or Polearm Master and etc that specifically allow a second attack in combat if you wanted to use two weapon fighting with two daggers.
So those specific Bonus Actions that allow a second attack, my brain associated those to a separate category of Combat Based Bonus Actions lol.
Thanks for your help, I appreciate it!
Thanks everyone for helping clarify things!
I've always wondered how Thrown Weapon Fighting Style from Tasha's interacts with Two Weapon Fighting. RAW, Two Weapon Fighting says you need to have a light weapon in hand, but Thrown Weapon Fighting Style allows you to draw the weapon as part of the attack action itself. Let's say I have a short sword in one hand, dagger in the other, but I'm just outside melee range. If I throw the dagger and have a spare on my belt, could I then draw a second dagger with Thrown Weapon Fighting Style and Bonus Action for Two Weapon Fighting and a second throw? Would I even need the short sword in hand in that case?
You must have both weapons in hand when you make the first attack.as explained in Sage Advice Compendium;