Two-Weapon Fighting Fix
Fighting Style
Two-Weapon Fighting
When you engage in two-weapon fighting, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of each bonus attack. If you have Extra Attack, once per turn, any bonus attack(s) from two-weapon fighting that are part of a single bonus action can be made with no action required. If you do so, you cannot use your bonus action to make any additional weapon attacks this turn.
Blade Storm (Feat, Main Fix)
You have mastered the art of ambidextrous fighting, gaining the following benefits:
- You can draw or stow up to two weapons per turn.
- When you make an opportunity attack, if you engaged in two-weapon fighting, you may attack with both weapons.
- When you engage in two-weapon fighting, as a bonus action, for each attack that you successfully hit during your Attack action(s) this turn, you can 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 attacks, 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.
Dual Wielder (Feat, replaces Dual Wielder)
You learned to balance offense and defense while wielding two weapons, gaining the following benefits:
- You can draw or stow up to two weapons per turn.
- You can use two-weapon fighting even when the one handed melee weapons you are wielding aren't light.
- You gain a +1 bonus to AC while you are wielding a separate melee weapon in each hand.
- When you engage in two-weapon fighting, at the start of your turn, you can adopt a defensive fighting stance if you aren't in one already, gaining a +2 bonus to your AC. This fighting stance ends if you perform any bonus attack(s).
Artist Credits
Drizzt Do'Urden Ranger by Ilich Henriquez
Appendix: Math and Explanation
Table 1. Average DPR by Level, Accuracy = 65%
| Builds | Level 1 | Level 6 | Level 11 | Level 20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greatsword+GWF+GWM | 8.53 | 18.66 | 28.00 | 37.33 |
| Longbow+Archery+Sharshooter | 8.75 | 19.50 | 29.25 | 39.00 |
| 2 shortswords+TWF+Blade Storm | 8.45 | 18.23 | 27.35 | 36.47 |
| Greatsword+GWF+GWM with Advantage | 13.65 | 29.86 | 44.79 | 59.72 |
| Longbow+Archery+Sharshooter with Advantage | 13.13 | 29.25 | 43.88 | 58.50 |
| 2 shortswords+TWF+Blade Storm with Advantage | 11.41 | 28.01 | 42.01 | 56.02 |
Math Assumptions
The character is a Fighter with standard array ability scores. The Fighter is maxing the weapon attack stat ASAP, so +3 at level 1, and +5 at levels 6 and beyond.
65% is roughly the average accuracy (before feat modifiers) across all levels (see table in DMG p. 274). Fortunately, the numbers are still balanced for almost any accuracy. See this excel sheet to check for yourself and confirm the math.
Why a Fix?
This fix is mainly to make TWF competitive for the Fighter class at all levels (especially levels 11+).
TWF scales badly since Extra Attack does not apply to TWF's bonus attacks. With 2 Exta Attacks, the average DPR for TWF is 34 * accuracy, which is lower than 34.5 * accuracy for Duelist, and 40 * accuracy for GWF. Furthermore, GWF and Duelist do not require a bonus action, and Duelist allows for a shield (+2 AC).
The imbalance is exacerbated if the DM allows feats. GWF and Archery get a huge damage boost from Great Weapon Mastery (GWM) and Sharpshooter. TWF gets Dual Wielder, which kind of sucks (worse than +2 DEX).
Fix Explained
First, we free up the bonus action by level 5, since it now deals less damage than GWF, which does not require a bonus action.
The second fix, as shown by Table 1, helps scale TWF across all levels when Feats are involved. We balanced the feat's damage output against Great Weapon Master and Sharpshooter.
The main drawback to my fix is that the feat becomes necessary for TWF to be competitive at levels 11-20. Nevertheless, fighters at that level typically use feats anyways due to how many ASIs they have. Another potential drawback is that Blade Storm could require a lot of rolling at higher levels.
Isn't this OP with Hunter's Mark?
I don't think so. I define the synergy between Hunter's Mark and Bladestorm as the additional damage from Hunter's Mark with vs without Blade Storm.
For classes with access to abilities with +X dmg / attack, they only have access to 1 Extra Attack. With 1 Extra Attack, you only ever hit your 4th weapon attack if your first two weapon attacks landed. In other words, that's double disadvantage for the bonus damage.
Additionally, +X dmg / attack abilities typically require concentration, which is hard to maintain while fighting in melee.
Additional Damage from Hunter's Mark (HM) with 1 Extra Attack:
| Hit Chance | TWF+HM | TWF+Blade Storm + HM |
|---|---|---|
| .3 | 3.15 | 3.24 |
| .35 | 3.68 | 3.83 |
| .40 | 4.20 | 4.42 |
| .45 | 4.73 | 5.04 |
| .50 | 5.25 | 5.69 |
| .55 | 5.78 | 6.36 |
| .60 | 6.30 | 7.06 |
| .65 | 6.83 | 7.79 |
| .70 | 7.35 | 8.55 |
| .75 | 7.88 | 9.35 |
| .80 | 8.40 | 10.19 |
As you can see, the synergy is there, but it's not that big.
Update Log
More rigorous wording. Added revised Dual Wielder feat. Added Hunter's Mark analysis.