Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General "Dueling" passive with the shield

Does "dueling" passive actually works with the shield in the other hand? There is two different descriptions on the wiki, that not very clear about it

From recollection, I believe it does. If you have a look at the combat log (if you are playing EA, that is) it might help you confirm. Or I expect someone here will be able to say with more certainty than me without going back to the game to check.

Huh. My recollection is that what it says in-game is that the other hand must be free, but maybe it was just clarifying no dual wielding.

But I'm pretty sure it's the former, because that condition surprised me

I see, thank you! I'm trying to keep myself from playing before the release though, just planning the build

So there is two descriptions on the wiki, one saying hand supposed to be "empty" and the other that there supposed to be no weapon. Don't know what is it in the game right now. And the dnd ruleset, as far as I understand, implying that it not supposed to be working with the shield, so that's kind of confusing

The PHB ruleset says "no weapon" so that would imply it should work with shields. At least that is how we always used it in PnP, but that of course doesn't mean it's the same for BG 3. Though not allowing it would be rather strange, since it only grants a +2 to damage.

Prior countless clarifications on this question (feel free to google them) regarding tabletop rules have clearly stated that wearing a shield is okay, since it does not count as a weapon, so the condition of "no other weapon" is satisfied. So yes, equipping 1H+Shield fully benefits from the Dueling fighting style.

However: Whether BG3 currently has this properly implemented is a different matter altogether. I'd recommend to test it (check char sheet + combat log), and if it doesn't work as expected, best to report it as a bug.

It should work with shield according to Jerremy Craford twitter ...
And i think it worked in this game aswell, when i tryed it.

You get the dueling benefit with a shield in your other hand in early access, yes.

*

Of note, at least in early access, you kind of have to have a shield in your other hand to get the bonus. Otherwise, the game assumes you're wielding a longsword, for example, as two handed instead of just one handed, giving you a d10 rather than a d8.

That's only the case with "versatile" weapons like longsword, battle axe, etc since those can actually be used two-handed.

It works per 5e [one handed weapon with or without a shield] (versatile weapons not working per 5e is a different issue...)

new entry "FightingStyle_Dueling"
type "PassiveData"
data "DisplayName" "Shared_Passive_FightingStyle_Dueling_DisplayName"
data "Description" "Shared_Passive_FightingStyle_Dueling_Description"
data "Icon" "PassiveFeature_FightingStyle_Duelling"
data "Properties" "Highlighted"
data "Boosts" "IF(FightingStyle_Dueling(context.Source)):CharacterWeaponDamage(2)"

function FightingStyle_Dueling(entity)
-- Default to Target, like cpp functions
entity = entity or context.Target
local hasNonVersatileWeapon = WieldingWeapon('Melee', false, false, entity) & ~WieldingWeapon('Versatile', false, false, entity) & ~WieldingWeapon('Twohanded', false, false, entity) & ~WieldingWeapon('Melee', true, false, entity) & ~WieldingWeapon('Ammunition', true, false, entity)
local hasVersatileWeapon = WieldingWeapon('Versatile', false, false, entity) & WieldingWeapon('Melee', false, false, entity) & HasShieldEquipped(entity)
return hasNonVersatileWeapon | hasVersatileWeapon
end

Thank you for confirming! Seems like its a good skill for a shield build after all. Hope they'll rephrase it though to make it understandable without a doubt, I always get stunlocked on that kind of things