two-weapon fighting?

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I'm playing through the game trying to comprehend the D&D rules and its going pretty good, i'm uncertain of 1 thing though, i got a ranger wielding 2 bastard swords wearing light armor so i get ambidex and two-weapon fighting feats but now a friend tells me he get penalty for wielding 2 weapons if they are of the same size so to use its full potential he should have the be equiped with a smaller weapon on the off hand? is this true?

 

in short: yes.

to make a long and detailed descrition:

Any normal character (like a fighter) using 2 weapons at the same time will incur the "dual wielding penalties". These penalties are -6 to hit with your main hand, and -10 to hit with your offhand (considering 2 similar weapons like forexample 2 longswords).

To reduse this you can either pick specific feats, or use different sized weapons.

For example using longsword in teh mainhand, and shortsword in your offhand will reduce the panlties with 2 on each hand. so you wil suffer only -4 on mainhand and -8 in offhand.

"Two Weapon Fighting" feat also reduses these penalties by 2, and combined with using different size weapons reduce by 4, so -2 on mainhand and -6 in offhand.

"Ambidexterity" feat reduses the offhand penalty by 4, regardless of what other feats and things you use in this. So a normal fighter picking ambidexterity feat would have hes start penalties redused to -6 mainhand and -6 offhand. Combined with the above mentioned ways it would be redused to -2 mainhand and -2 offhand.

And that is the best you will get it.

If you use two weapon fighting + ambidexterity (ranger in light armor) you get -4 mainhand and -4 offhand.

If you change the sword in your offhand to a shortsword, these penalties is redused to -2 mainhand and -2 offhand. (Offhand needs a smaller weapon than the mainhand, so it does not woth with shortsword in mainhand and longsword in offhand.)

Two daggers will still give you the bonus for using different size weapons, becose there is nothing "smaller".

Bleeh, i hope that should explain most of it.

 

ah ok, thanks for the comprehensive response, i understand everything well now =)

got to thinking is bastard sword considered larger then large sword? if i dualwielded bastard sword with longsword would i get the "size-penalty"?

[ March 16, 2006, 17:43: Message edited by: Darkiz ]

 

Err, light means LBS wise or can you give a spesific list of light weapons? For example, is dual-wielding two scimitars of nearly exact same weight (just like Drizzt does) possible or does it give a horrible penalty?

 

Light weapons in ID2 consist of only two choices - small sword and dagger - in other D&D based games there are several other choices but only those will work in ID2 (unmodded)

 

As Wanderon says, "Light Weapons" are what are classified as "Small Blades", i.e. daggers and short swords.


BTW, after you've reached higher levels, wielding 2 non-light weapons is not such a big deal. The -4/-4 penalty may be more than offset by the benefits of the weapon you've got in your offhand.
For example, The Golden Heart of CHARNAME longsword in HOF is a great offhand longsword, due to its excellent abilities.

What differentiates good offhand weapon abilities versus good main hand abilities is as follows...

Good offhand abilities: Abilities that affect the character as a whole, not only when you strike the enemy. For examples, "Protection from Evil, while equipped" or "Freedom of Movement, while equipped". You don't need to strike the enemy to get these benefits, so they make great offhand abilities.

Good main hand ability: Abilities that only happen *IF* you strike the enemy. If you have 3 attack/round with your main hand and +1 attack/round with your offhand weapon, you want the main hand weapon to have the more damaging weapon, the weapon with the most damaging effects.

[ March 16, 2006, 20:13: Message edited by: crucis ]

 

yeah i'm gonna continue to wield 2 bastard swords on my ranger i think because the offhand sword gives him executioners eyes on all the time which give a +4 attack bonus plus +4 critical hit threat so i think that is almost the ideal offhand weapon =)

 

If you have Ambidexterity and Two-weapon fighting feats and your off hand in light, you still get -2BAB on both weapons. If the off-hand weapon is not a small blade, the penalty is -4BAB.
THe small increase in penalty can easyly be overlooked, specially in your case Darkwiz since EE anyway gives +4BAB bonus.