D&D 5E Question about magical shields...

[Kithas]

@Kithas

Your explanation is missing something. When you use something as/like an improvised weapon, it becomes a weapon (to you). So you can't say you are dual wielding two shields as weapons and gaining the TWF benefit and be able to use BB/GFB, while simultaneously stating it is not a weapon in order to gain the benefit of the Dueling Fighting style on the same turn.

Same with sword and board. When you attacked with your sword and used the benefit of the Dueling fighting style, you can't simply switch within your turn and say: "The shield is now an improvised weapon and I attack with it as a bonus action and TWF."

So either you do your attacks with your sword only and benefit from Dueling, or you use both sword and shield as weapons and profit from Dual Wield and TWF. But not Dual Wield, TWF and Dueling all rolled into one.

Except that isnt how the sage advice reads. I agree thatd make more sense. Also by your interprutation, does it reset every turn? If you use your shield once and then pull out your longsword next turn can you get dueling?

 

[the_move]

The sage advice says nothing about how to deal with that issue. He and Mike Mearls only have the impression, that a shield (as any appropiate item) becomes a weapon, when used as such (improvised). Also your question is answered by my previous post. You can't have it all, Dueling, TWF and Dual Wield within the same turn. So if you draw your sword and use it next turn you can benefit from Dueling, provided that you attack only with your sword during that very same turn. Which means you can't declare your shield being a weapon momentarily. Either TWF/Dual Wield or Dueling per turn. Not all together.

 

[Yunru]

Don't you have to be holding two weapons when taking the attack action to get TWF? In which case, you're counting your other shield as a weapon for those attacks and therefore don't get Duelling. Or you could get Duelling but likewise not TWF. Seems simple to me, even when you're allowed to choose when your improvised weapon is a weapon.