Two Weapon Fighting Fixes
To fix two weapon fighting, a number of things must be considered. Firstly is what is it that people want out of it thematically. there are two forms of two weapon fighting that people try to replicate based upon either the historical reality of two weapon fighting (a defensive fighting style) or the fantastical imagining of two weapon fighting (the flurry of blades image).
Realistic Dual Wielding
firstly I feel that to begin supporting two weapon fighting better, there actually needs to be a new property that is contingent upon a weapon having the light property. A way of conceptualising this change would be u/kibblestasty's observations.
New Weapon Property: Offhand
An Offhand weapon is smaller and lighter still than a light weapon, making it ideal for two weapon fighting with weapons that are not light. When you take the attack action with a one handed weapon that is not light and are wielding a weapon with the offhand property in your other hand, you may make an attack with your offhand weapon as a bonus action, this otherwise follows all rules for two weapon fighting. For further information about two weapon fighting's general rules, see chapter 9 of the player's handbook.
Weapons affected by this property include the Club, Dagger, Light Hammer, and Sickle.
note: if using u/kibblestasty's observations (linked above) this property can only be applied to weapons that have the light property and it decreases their damage die by -d2.
The above weapon property should help satisfy a player's desire to play as a rakish duelist who wields a rapier in one hand and a dagger in the other. however whilst we have the mechanical basis around which to base this play style around now with this property, we now need a feat that can properly support and enhance it's utility.
New feat: Offhand Weapon Master
You've mastered defending yourself with an offhand weapon, gaining the following benefits:
- When you use your bonus action to two weapon fight with a weapon with the offhand property, you have advantage on the attack roll and deal an additional 2d4 of damage if you critically hit.
- When you use your bonus action to two weapon fight whilst holding a weapon with the offhand property and have the two weapon fighting style, you can forgo your ability modifier to your two weapon fighting attack and gain a +1 bonus to AC until the beginning of your next turn.
- You gain a +1 bonus to AC while you are wielding a separate melee weapon in each hand, one of which must be a weapon with the offhand property.
- You can draw or stow weapons with the offhand property freely without using your action.
This feat should enable a character to fully express the aesthetic of the rapier and dagger wielding duelist and should combo nicely with the duelist feat. Furthermore, it should also be noted that the feat as written also provides some support to thrown weapons, allowing the character to throw as many daggers as they have attacks if need be.
Originally the dot point that granted advantage on the bonus action attack was a critical hit chance alteration for offhand weapons. I changed this after I considered the feature as written and found it too bloated and convoluted in wording as well as potentially being OP in the hands of a rogue.
It also helps that this feat is immensely flavorful for the swashbuckler subclass of the rogue. I was initially leery of giving such easy access to advantage, but thinking on it, the rogue has a number of action choices that compete for attention for their bonus action and they can only get their sneak attack off once per turn which makes it some what less overpowered in this context.
Fantasical Dual Wielding
This feat is for expressing the concept of a warrior who wields two weapons of equal size with a focus on offense, characters who typically exemplify this image would be the Barbarian, Fighter and Ranger.
the design of the feat is guided by a simple statement: an off hand weapon sacrifices both the AC benefits of a shield and the raw damage output available to two handed weapons with feats like great weapon master or sharpshooter for an extra chance at dealing damage on every turn.
in essence the mechanical niche that I've hit upon for the traditional form of dual wielding is reliable damage. thus it has no mechanic similar to the -5/+10 or a critical hit triggered mechanic.
The below feat is what I've settled.
New Feat: Dual Wielder
replaces the Dual Wielder feat in the Players Handbook on page 165.
You've mastered attacking with two weapons, gaining the following benefits:
- When you are wielding a melee weapon in each hand, you have a +2 bonus to damage.
- If you have the two weapon fighting style, you add double your ability modifier to the damage of your bonus action two weapon fighting attack instead.
- you gain a +1 bonus to AC while you are wielding a separate melee weapon in each hand.
- You can draw or stow two one-handed weapons when you would normally be able to draw or stow only one.
Originally the two first two feats in this document had the following dot point attached to their usage.
- When you are wielding a magic weapon in either of your hands that has a static bonus to attack and/or damage, you may add the static bonus to attack and damage of the magic weapon to your other weapon's attack and damage rolls if it does not already have such a bonus.
this dot point was intended to address a number of edge cases relating to magic weapons and effects similar.
In particular this is intended to address the value proposition that the off hand weapon presents compared to a two handed weapon such as a great sword or a long bow, or alternatively a shield. two weapon fighting has one advantage over these weapons or defensive equipment in the form of it's bonus action attack, allowing it to have the greatest number of chances at dealing damage. however whilst it has that advantage, spells like magic weapon and elemental weapon, provide no advantage comparatively to it as both spells only affect one weapon at a time under normal circumstances.
I don't think I'd be the only person to say that getting the some of the benefits of elemental weapon or all of the benefits of magic weapon one extra time time per turn is overpowered.
Furthermore, the dot point was designed to address the value proposition of the off hand weapon compared to using a shield. A shield grants it's benefits all the time for all attacks made against the wielder barring special circumstances. The two weapon fighting bonus action attack only provides it's benefits once per turn and requires the bonus action thus limiting what the character can do that turn if they have a lot that they could be doing cough ranger cough.
Thus in regards to this angle of the issue of equipment and action value I'd personally recommend homebrewing actual magic weapons that are a pair of weapons. I don't think it would be unbalanced if they scaled from uncommon for just the basic +1 variant as they typically would still be functionally a pair of light weapons that could also be wielded separately.
Fantastical Dual Wielding cont.
In DnD 3.5e there was the possibility to wield weapons that were not "light" right from the get go that in 5e requires the dual wielder feat as published. but they came with penalties that could be mitigated with feats. the first two feats that I've come up with for this document mostly focus on the light weapons however, I do feel that I should at least provide an option for those who want the traditional non light weapon focused two weapon fighting.
New Feat: Oversized Dual Wielding
Prerequisite: 15 strength
You've achieved remarkable strength such that you can wield weapons together that many others could not, gaining the following benefits:
- You can use two weapon fighting even when the one handed melee weapons you are wielding aren't light.
- When you are wielding a melee weapon in each hand and you roll a damage roll, you roll two of the weapon's damage die, taking the higher of the two results.
- you gain a +1 bonus to AC while you are wielding a separate melee weapon in each hand that lack the offhand property.
- You can draw or stow two one-handed weapons when you would normally be able to draw or stow only one.
As you may notice, this feat has a prerequiste of 15 strength. This is pretty much just the final line against the ridiculous dual rapier stuff and I will admit a slight buff in relevance for strength, after all if someone has to invest at least 15 strength, they might as well go the whole way and just have a +2 in dex at most.
These feats are most definitely something I've iterated over in my own head as far as the mechanics are concerned and the fact that they have many aspects to them that actually are generally synergistic with each other is intentional.
Examples of this is the stackable AC bonuses and the nondescript language used for several of the features of the feats such that their benefits can benefit any weapon, offhand Weapon Wielder being the sole explicit exemption from this, whilst the Oversized Dual Wielding feat has a soft block preventing particular combos specifically the ridiculous twin rapier fighting which is the mechanically most powerful way to two weapon fight in current published DnD5e.