Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Dual Wielding in D&D vs BG3 - BROKEN

Methinks some more homework is required by Larian into which weapons can be wielded main hand and off-hand in D&D vs what is available to players in BG3. A Dex based character like a Ranger or Rogue should be able to wield a Rapier in his main hand and dagger or shortsword in his off-hand with no penalties except the off-hand damage bonus if they don't have Two-weapon fighting. A STR based two-weapon Fighter or Ranger should be able to wield any one-handed weapons in their main hand and a finesse or light weapon with no penalties. That is where the Dual Wielder Feat comes into play. A PC with Dual Wielder (depending if they are DEX or STR based) can then wield ANY weapon they are proficient with in each hand. A DEX Rogue or Ranger could wield 2 Rapiers or a STR based Fighter or Ranger would potential wield 2 Battleaxes or Longswords.

This is the RAW in D&D and this is how it should be in BG3. Please FIX IT Larian. Thank you.

Ah, so without the feat, you should be able to wield a rapier and a dagger? I posted it in another thread because I found it weird you couldn't, especially as my drow was proficient with a rapier.

You are plain wrong.
"The gist of Two-Weapon Fighting is this, you can use a bonus action to attack with a light one-handed melee weapon. You can only make this bonus action attack after you take the Attack action with a light one-handed melee weapon in your main hand."
A rapier is NOT a light weapon.

Two short swords work. Two light hammers work. Two hand crossbows work. A combination of any of these works. Like a short sword and a hand crossbow.
Your rapier and dagger does NOT.
There is an exception. The feat 'dual wielder' allows you to use weapons even if they are not light.

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. 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.


RAW Pg. 195 of the Player's Handbook. I'm afraid Larian has it right in this. The rapier is finesse, but it does not have the light property so it cannot be used in dual wielding without a feat taken.

I think OP messes up with the concept of light and finesse.

Yeah. It is an easy mistake to make. In a certain sense, a rapier should be a light weapon, but then it would usable in the offhand, which seems a bit ridiculous.

Well, there were historical fencing manuals and techniques that employed twin rapiers, but it was an uncommon technique. Of course, those were mid-C16th and a little later than the pseudo-Medieval setting most D&D games are set in.

Mind you, the rapier is a bit of an anachronism as well.

I'm not going to get mad at someone for thinking they know how the rules work and being wrong. That's honestly just most people. Live and learn OP.

Still he is right that dual wielding is actually broken but for totally different reasons:

1. Ability modifier is NOT added to attack rolls with offhand weapon (even when the modifier is negative resulting you have higher chance to hit with offhand then your mainhand)
2. Ability modifier is added to damage rolls with offhand weapon for all classses from 1st level. This should be case only for fighter or ranger with Two weapon fightning style.
3. You can attack with two-handed weapon, change equiped weapons to two light weapons and attack with bonus action. After that you can switch to shield and pass the turn.

True

All of those are correct, though I suspect 1 & 2 are the result of a technical issue since the tooltips reference the rules properly; probably whatever calculation they have in there has the values switched. As for the third one, I think this is also a technical issue, although a more complicated one. I expect all of these will be fixed in time.

+1