Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Help Tips & Tricks How can I dual wield melee weapons?

Playing a fighter but I cannot equip two melee weapons. Must I unlock it in later levels?

Only certain melee weapons can be dual wielded- these are designated as "light" weapons. Daggers, shortswords, scimitars, handaxes and light hammers are, IIRC, the only dual-wieldable melee weapons. If you're trying to dual wield longswords, you can't, or, at least, you need a feat at a higher level.

ALSO : once you have two light weapons, there is a dual wield toggle on the UI (left-hand side).

Because attacking with two weapons cost a Bonus Action. Sometimes you want to use your Bonus Action for something else, like Jump/Evade.

For a while I thought my halfling rogue could only DW daggers, when it seemed like a certain foppish high elf could, I attributed it to a size thing.

Turns out the short sword / long sword icons are similar enough that I should have paid closer attention to what I was doing.

I found the foolproof method - don't drag and drop gear into slots! Left click the gear slot in the equipment menu. For weapons, start with the top button for your main hand. Then left click the lower one, you'll see a list of what you can equip that accounts for what's in your other hand. I.E. a blade you can DW with in your offhand or a shield that may change the versatile options of whatever's in your main hand.

Thanks for the info! There should be an extra tutorial tip for that ingame. Maybe I've missed it though...

The Weapon set / dual wield (V) toggle works strangely. I found it just switched me into using either melee or bow.
The only times I've seen the Off hand attack, is when you manually use it (Right side toolbar) as it costs a Bonus Action.

Does anyone know if there is a dual-wield penalty (absent a feat), like in 5e? Or does costing a bonus action take the place of the penalty?

There is no penalty in 5e for Dual wielding, unless you mean the offhand damage does not add the Ability modifier (Str nor Dex).
In both 5e, and BG3, the offhand attack cost a Bonus Action.

EDIT : in the current build (Oct. 10, 2020), I noticed you get bonus damage on both attacks, which is an error.

The penalty is replaced by the fact that offhand damage does not add the Ability modifier (absebt a feat-like choice, e.g. Two Weapon Fighting class choice for warriors).

On the other hand, 5e removed APR and automatic offhand attacks, so attacking with the offhand costs a bonus action.

In a multiplayer game as wood elves, we noticed we were getting the bonus damage on both weapons (even offhand), which would be an error without the Fighter feature or Feat. But I will need to tests it more.

I was not able to dual wield rapier and dagger, I was pretty sure I should have been able to. 2 short swords was fine, short sword and dagger was fine. As soon as I equipped the rapier, no more dual wield.

This is because while a Rapier is definitely a 'Finesse" weapon, it's not a "light" weapon.

As an aside, having had a chance to hold a rapier myself, I can attest to it not being light in the slightest.

I've noticed we're incorrectly getting bonus damage, but it doesn't seem to be applying my attack bonus to my off-hand...

for some reason i cant dual wield scimitars, anyone else having this prob?

What class? Scimitars are martial weapons so rogues, clerics, wizards and warlocks are not proficient with them.

neither with rangers no fighters, the problem is not proficency as i can equip them, but it seems that it doesn't recognize em as light weapons, so it doesn't let me dual wield scimitars or any combination of light weapons with a scimitar ... guess it's bugged

There seems to be a bug with the "modifier" for off hand attack.
It seems you aren't getting a to hit modifier, but you are getting your modifier to damage (Which is reverse of what it's supposed to be)