Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I’m very new! So I have a dual wielding fighter. Does that mean for every turn I can use both weapons? If so, if I fail my first attack roll for my main hand- can I still make an attack roll for my other hand? If not, is action surge how you get to use your second hand- or how does that work? At lvl 5 you get an extra attack, is that how you get to use your second hand- or does that mean you get three attacks? (Main+second+main again) I’M SO CONFUSED!
If you are holding 2 weapons and both have the "Light" property (or you have the Dual Wielder feat), then on any turn that you take the Attack action using one weapon, you can then take a Bonus Action to make an attack with the second weapon. However, for this bonus action attack you do not add your Strength/Dexterity bonus to the damage roll unless you have the fighter's Two Weapon Fighting style. When you get the Extra Attack feature, that applies to your Attack action, so then you would get to make two attacks with the action plus one attack with the bonus action when holding two appropriate weapons.
Remember, each turn you only get a single Action and a single Bonus Action, so you can't use your bonus attack if you take any action other than the Attack action (like the Dash action), or if you use your bonus action to do anything else (like the Fighter's Second Wind feature to regain hitpoints with a bonus action).
Action Surge will give you an additional Action, but not an additional Bonus Action so you still only get one attack with your second weapon.
That explains everything perfectly! I didn’t realize that you get a bonus action naturally. My fighter has dual wielding and two weapon fighting style so he can wield two one handed weapons and the modifiers are applied to both. Thanks so much for explaining it!
That explains everything perfectly! I didn’t realize that you get a bonus action naturally. My fighter has dual wielding and two weapon fighting style so he can wield two one handed weapons and the modifiers are applied to both. Thanks so much for explaining it!
You only actually "get" a bonus action if you have a skill or feature that gives you access to one. You can't use a Bonus Action for any normal generic thing, but after a few levels of most classes (or a feat or two) you will generally have access to a handful of different things you could use a bonus action for. The key point though, is that even when you have access to more than one bonus action option you can only use (at most) one per turn. Full list of activity per character per round is:
Move up to full movement distance
1 Free object interaction (like drawing a sword or opening an unlocked door)
1 Action
1 Bonus Action (if skill or feature allows)
1 Reaction (like an opportunity attack or casting counterspell - can be used outside your own turn)
Very rarely will anything let you go beyond those 3 key actions - anything which does so is highly prized (fighter's Action Surge). Making full use of all the actions can help maximise effectiveness. For beginner players I like to give them coloured tokens to mark each action type (Action, Bonus, Reaction) which they can place down on their character sheet when used up, and refresh at the start of their next turn. A visual reminder of the full powers at their disposal.
There's also the Feat Dual Wielder (see PHB pg 165) that helps TWF. In particular, now the weapons don't have to be light! Plus a bonus to AC & the double draw as a free object interaction.
As long as we're talking about duel wielding, I have a question that may seem dumb but I kind of want to know. Can Warhammers be duel wielded? I know they have the versatile property that mean they can be swung with one handed or two plus it doesn't say two handed but I just want to be safe and try to find a confirmation.
With the Dual Wielder feat, yes. Each uses just their d8 damage dice. Same situation for longswords and battleaxes. Theoretically you could try it with the d6 single hand of spears, tridents or quarterstaves, but I imagine things would start looking messy...
Okay, my question is for the developers: How does dual-wield affect rangers when they reach 5th level and gain the extra attack? This isn't addressed any where that I can find and I need an official ruling since I have a ranger with the dual wield option who is 6th level and the DM says that's it - no extra attacks even though you have dual-wield (which I disagree with) and argue that as a minimum, my regular hand should be allowed the two attacks/turn in the PH with dual-wield giving a third attack. Most would argue for a 4th but I'm being realistic about it.
The D&D rules developers don't read these forums, much less respond to posts on it. I am not one of them.
How does dual-wield affect rangers when they reach 5th level and gain the extra attack?
What do you mean? Two-weapon fighting involves your bonus action, which has no particular interaction with Extra Attack. I'll spell it out for you, since I don't follow the question:
You make some number of attacks while wielding two Light melee weapons, A and B, during your Attack action. This can be 1, 2 (for various classes, including Ranger, once they reach a high enough level), 3, 4, or even more. Doesn't matter. What does matter is which weapons you attack with.
If your attack action included at least one attack with A, you can make a bonus action attack with B.
If your attack action included at least one attack with B, you can make a bonus action attack with A.
Make sense?
This isn't addressed any where that I can find and I need an official ruling since I have a ranger with the dual wield option who is 6th level and the DM says that's it - no extra attacks even though you have dual-wield (which I disagree with) and argue that as a minimum, my regular hand should be allowed the two attacks/turn in the PH with dual-wield giving a third attack. Most would argue for a 4th but I'm being realistic about it.
What's the consensus?
Where would a 4th attack come from? And why would you only make 2 attacks? I don't understand you or your DM.
EXTRA ATTACK Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
TWO-WEAPON FIGHTING When you take the Attack action and attack with a light melee weapon that you're holding in one hand, you can use a bonus action to attack with a different light melee weapon that you're holding in the other hand.
I don't see where there's any room for confusion. If you're wielding, for example, a scimitar and a short sword, you make 2 attacks with your attack action. If the 2 were with your scimitar, you make a bonus action attack with your short sword. If the 2 were with your short sword, you make a bonus action attack with your scimitar. If the 2 were 1 with scimitar and 1 with short sword, the bonus action attack can be with either. It's that simple, and it's explicitly spelled out in the rules I just provided.
Okay, my question is for the developers: How does dual-wield affect rangers when they reach 5th level and gain the extra attack? This isn't addressed any where that I can find and I need an official ruling since I have a ranger with the dual wield option who is 6th level and the DM says that's it - no extra attacks even though you have dual-wield (which I disagree with) and argue that as a minimum, my regular hand should be allowed the two attacks/turn in the PH with dual-wield giving a third attack. Most would argue for a 4th but I'm being realistic about it.
What's the consensus?
You can make 2 attacks with your action per extra attack and 1 attack with your bonus action per 2 weapon fighting.
You can use either weapon for either attack with the action. The bonus action must use a weapon that was in the your hand when you attacked with a weapon in your other hand (in other words you can go RR/L, RL/R, RL/L, but not RR/R or LL/L).
Alright, got it. Two attacks with the primary at level 5 (he uses short swords btw) and one with the 'off-hand' weapon if he chooses the bonus action attack (the dual-wield). That was all I wanted to know. That was what I was trying to tell my DM but he didn't see it that way.
Alright, got it. Two attacks with the primary at level 5 (he uses short swords btw) and one with the 'off-hand' weapon if he chooses the bonus action attack (the dual-wield). That was all I wanted to know. That was what I was trying to tell my DM but he didn't see it that way.
I would really suggest to use the actual language of the rules in this edition rather than what you're used to from previous editions/other games. I know it's easy to stick with what you're used to but when you need to constantly translate between the words you are using in your discussion and the words you are reading in the rules it is really easy to get lost in the weeds. The intuitive meaning of two different phrases can be quite different, especially for two different people. For example "off-hand" as you use and "other hand" from the rules makes for some difference in options when you are holding different weapons in each hand (and have the Extra Attack feature).
Alright, got it. Two attacks with the primary at level 5 (he uses short swords btw) and one with the 'off-hand' weapon if he chooses the bonus action attack (the dual-wield). That was all I wanted to know. That was what I was trying to tell my DM but he didn't see it that way.
No. I'll use DJC's syntax of naming the weapons R and L, instead of A and B like I did, cos I like theirs better.
You just said it had to be RR+L or LL+R, but that's not the case. It can be RL+L or RL+R. The reason the difference matters is when your Bonus Action does something else, so you're only using Extra Attack, and you're using short swords with different properties. For example, suppose you are carrying a silver short sword and an adamantine short sword, this is the first round of combat, and you used your bonus action to cast Hunter's Mark. If you want to stab a target with each sword once to try and check for damage resistances, you can (whether you'll succeed in noticing damage resistance if present is a separate question).
When you take the Attack action and attack with a light melee weapon that you're holding in one hand, you can use a bonus action to attack with a different light melee weapon that you're holding in the other hand. You don't add your ability modifier to the damage of the bonus attack, unless that modifier is negative.
If either weapon has the thrown property, you can throw the weapon, instead of making a melee attack with it.
Say you have 2 shortswords. One in each hand. They're both light, so qualify for TWF.
If you attack with Sword 1, then this 'unlocks' the option to Bonus Action attack with Sword 2 this turn.
The only way this interacts with Extra Attack is this:
If you use your first attack to attack with Sword 1, you unlock a Bonus Action attack with Sword 2. If you use your second, Extra, attack to attack with Sword 2... you ALSO unlock a Bonus Action attack with Sword 1. You only have a single Bonus Action to spend per turn, so now you will need to choose which of these two swords you want to Bonus Action attack with.
There are very few cases where this is important. Maybe some weird circumstance where you're using different magic items and special damage types or something. Or the Bladesinger, but only because their Extra Attack is funky.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
If you use your first attack to attack with Sword 1, you unlock a Bonus Action attack with Sword 2. If you use your second, Extra, attack to attack with Sword 2... you ALSO unlock a Bonus Action attack with Sword 1. You only have a single Bonus Action to spend per turn, so now you will need to choose which of these two swords you want to Bonus Action attack with.
There are very few cases where this is important.
This is true, but there are more cases as you increase in levels. A high level fighter could dual wield and have 5 attacks per turn including their bonus, and may have a slashing weapon with fire damage in one hand and a piercing weapon with poison damage in the other. They are not locked into making 4 attacks with Sword 1 and the bonus with Sword 2. They can pick whichever sword is best for each of their 4 regular attacks, then the bonus can be made with the opposite hand to at least one of those attacks.
It is absolutely best to forget about any thought of a 'primary hand' and an 'off-hand'. Those concepts do not exist in this edition and will only limit a player.
If you use your first attack to attack with Sword 1, you unlock a Bonus Action attack with Sword 2. If you use your second, Extra, attack to attack with Sword 2... you ALSO unlock a Bonus Action attack with Sword 1. You only have a single Bonus Action to spend per turn, so now you will need to choose which of these two swords you want to Bonus Action attack with.
There are very few cases where this is important.
This is true, but there are more cases as you increase in levels. A high level fighter could dual wield and have 5 attacks per turn including their bonus, and may have a slashing weapon with fire damage in one hand and a piercing weapon with poison damage in the other. They are not locked into making 4 attacks with Sword 1 and the bonus with Sword 2. They can pick whichever sword is best for each of their 4 regular attacks, then the bonus can be made with the opposite hand to at least one of those attacks.
It is absolutely best to forget about any thought of a 'primary hand' and an 'off-hand'. Those concepts do not exist in this edition and will only limit a player.
Confused. Is this advice directed at me? I don't believe I said anything about offhand or main hand attacks. Just that attacking with a weapon unlocks the Bonus Action option for attacking with the other, and, that you could then potentially have multiple unlocked Bonus action attacks to choose from if you had extra attack and did use different weapons during those extra attacks.
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I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
This is true, but there are more cases as you increase in levels.
Confused. Is this advice directed at me? I don't believe I said anything about offhand or main hand attacks. Just that attacking with a weapon unlocks the Bonus Action option for attacking with the other, and, that you could then potentially have multiple unlocked Bonus action attacks to choose from if you had extra attack and did use different weapons during those extra attacks.
The response was directed at you, but not the advice. The response was to your "very few cases this is important" comment and, since the current discussion is the importance of the distinction between "primary/off-hand" language and the correct rules text of "one hand/other hand", your comment could be read as minimising the importance of that distinction.
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When dual wielding, and the first attack lands, does the player need to make another attack roll for the second weapon or does it always hit?
You do a second attack roll for the off-hand attack.
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I’m very new! So I have a dual wielding fighter. Does that mean for every turn I can use both weapons? If so, if I fail my first attack roll for my main hand- can I still make an attack roll for my other hand? If not, is action surge how you get to use your second hand- or how does that work? At lvl 5 you get an extra attack, is that how you get to use your second hand- or does that mean you get three attacks? (Main+second+main again) I’M SO CONFUSED!
If you are holding 2 weapons and both have the "Light" property (or you have the Dual Wielder feat), then on any turn that you take the Attack action using one weapon, you can then take a Bonus Action to make an attack with the second weapon. However, for this bonus action attack you do not add your Strength/Dexterity bonus to the damage roll unless you have the fighter's Two Weapon Fighting style. When you get the Extra Attack feature, that applies to your Attack action, so then you would get to make two attacks with the action plus one attack with the bonus action when holding two appropriate weapons.
Remember, each turn you only get a single Action and a single Bonus Action, so you can't use your bonus attack if you take any action other than the Attack action (like the Dash action), or if you use your bonus action to do anything else (like the Fighter's Second Wind feature to regain hitpoints with a bonus action).
Action Surge will give you an additional Action, but not an additional Bonus Action so you still only get one attack with your second weapon.
That explains everything perfectly! I didn’t realize that you get a bonus action naturally. My fighter has dual wielding and two weapon fighting style so he can wield two one handed weapons and the modifiers are applied to both. Thanks so much for explaining it!
Man, that’s a great idea! Thanks again!!
There's also the Feat Dual Wielder (see PHB pg 165) that helps TWF. In particular, now the weapons don't have to be light! Plus a bonus to AC & the double draw as a free object interaction.
As long as we're talking about duel wielding, I have a question that may seem dumb but I kind of want to know. Can Warhammers be duel wielded? I know they have the versatile property that mean they can be swung with one handed or two plus it doesn't say two handed but I just want to be safe and try to find a confirmation.
With the Dual Wielder feat, yes. Each uses just their d8 damage dice. Same situation for longswords and battleaxes. Theoretically you could try it with the d6 single hand of spears, tridents or quarterstaves, but I imagine things would start looking messy...
Okay, my question is for the developers: How does dual-wield affect rangers when they reach 5th level and gain the extra attack? This isn't addressed any where that I can find and I need an official ruling since I have a ranger with the dual wield option who is 6th level and the DM says that's it - no extra attacks even though you have dual-wield (which I disagree with) and argue that as a minimum, my regular hand should be allowed the two attacks/turn in the PH with dual-wield giving a third attack. Most would argue for a 4th but I'm being realistic about it.
What's the consensus?
The D&D rules developers don't read these forums, much less respond to posts on it. I am not one of them.
What do you mean? Two-weapon fighting involves your bonus action, which has no particular interaction with Extra Attack. I'll spell it out for you, since I don't follow the question:
Make sense?
Where would a 4th attack come from? And why would you only make 2 attacks? I don't understand you or your DM.
EXTRA ATTACK
Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of
once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
TWO-WEAPON FIGHTING
When you take the Attack action and attack with a light
melee weapon that you're holding in one hand, you can
use a bonus action to attack with a different light melee
weapon that you're holding in the other hand.
I don't see where there's any room for confusion. If you're wielding, for example, a scimitar and a short sword, you make 2 attacks with your attack action. If the 2 were with your scimitar, you make a bonus action attack with your short sword. If the 2 were with your short sword, you make a bonus action attack with your scimitar. If the 2 were 1 with scimitar and 1 with short sword, the bonus action attack can be with either. It's that simple, and it's explicitly spelled out in the rules I just provided.
You can make 2 attacks with your action per extra attack and 1 attack with your bonus action per 2 weapon fighting.
You can use either weapon for either attack with the action. The bonus action must use a weapon that was in the your hand when you attacked with a weapon in your other hand (in other words you can go RR/L, RL/R, RL/L, but not RR/R or LL/L).
And there is no "main" or "off" hands.
Alright, got it. Two attacks with the primary at level 5 (he uses short swords btw) and one with the 'off-hand' weapon if he chooses the bonus action attack (the dual-wield). That was all I wanted to know. That was what I was trying to tell my DM but he didn't see it that way.
I would really suggest to use the actual language of the rules in this edition rather than what you're used to from previous editions/other games. I know it's easy to stick with what you're used to but when you need to constantly translate between the words you are using in your discussion and the words you are reading in the rules it is really easy to get lost in the weeds.
The intuitive meaning of two different phrases can be quite different, especially for two different people. For example "off-hand" as you use and "other hand" from the rules makes for some difference in options when you are holding different weapons in each hand (and have the Extra Attack feature).
No. I'll use DJC's syntax of naming the weapons R and L, instead of A and B like I did, cos I like theirs better.
You just said it had to be RR+L or LL+R, but that's not the case. It can be RL+L or RL+R. The reason the difference matters is when your Bonus Action does something else, so you're only using Extra Attack, and you're using short swords with different properties. For example, suppose you are carrying a silver short sword and an adamantine short sword, this is the first round of combat, and you used your bonus action to cast Hunter's Mark. If you want to stab a target with each sword once to try and check for damage resistances, you can (whether you'll succeed in noticing damage resistance if present is a separate question).
Say you have 2 shortswords. One in each hand. They're both light, so qualify for TWF.
If you attack with Sword 1, then this 'unlocks' the option to Bonus Action attack with Sword 2 this turn.
The only way this interacts with Extra Attack is this:
If you use your first attack to attack with Sword 1, you unlock a Bonus Action attack with Sword 2. If you use your second, Extra, attack to attack with Sword 2... you ALSO unlock a Bonus Action attack with Sword 1. You only have a single Bonus Action to spend per turn, so now you will need to choose which of these two swords you want to Bonus Action attack with.
There are very few cases where this is important. Maybe some weird circumstance where you're using different magic items and special damage types or something. Or the Bladesinger, but only because their Extra Attack is funky.
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
This is true, but there are more cases as you increase in levels. A high level fighter could dual wield and have 5 attacks per turn including their bonus, and may have a slashing weapon with fire damage in one hand and a piercing weapon with poison damage in the other. They are not locked into making 4 attacks with Sword 1 and the bonus with Sword 2. They can pick whichever sword is best for each of their 4 regular attacks, then the bonus can be made with the opposite hand to at least one of those attacks.
It is absolutely best to forget about any thought of a 'primary hand' and an 'off-hand'. Those concepts do not exist in this edition and will only limit a player.
Confused. Is this advice directed at me? I don't believe I said anything about offhand or main hand attacks. Just that attacking with a weapon unlocks the Bonus Action option for attacking with the other, and, that you could then potentially have multiple unlocked Bonus action attacks to choose from if you had extra attack and did use different weapons during those extra attacks.
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
The response was directed at you, but not the advice. The response was to your "very few cases this is important" comment and, since the current discussion is the importance of the distinction between "primary/off-hand" language and the correct rules text of "one hand/other hand", your comment could be read as minimising the importance of that distinction.