Two weapon fighting & strength bonus

[tasos_sour]

If a warrior fights with 2 weapons do you add the stength damage to both weapons on a successful hit or do you split the damage bonus between the two weapons? Where can I find the rules for this question so I can show it to my players?

 

[Boneguard]

Unless explicitely stated in the rules (as for the constitution based hit point bonus for multiclass), every bonus/penalty are considered to be fully apply in the situation: In this case, the full "hit adjustment" and "Damage adjustment" bonus/penalty from your strength applies to both weapons.

The "Hit adjustment" bonus/penalty will either offset or worsen the "two weapon penalty".

In regards to the "Damage adjustment" you need to look at the two underline section below. The full "damage Adjustment" modifies the damage of every attack performed by the player. As the "off hand" weapon constitute an independant attack from the "primary" hand, it get's the full damage adjustment.

p 13. PHB Damage adjustment definition:
Damage Adjustment also applies to combat. The listed number is added to or subtracted from the dice rolled to determine the damage caused by an attack (regardless of subtractions, a successful attack roll can never cause less than 1 point of damage). For example, a short sword normally causes ld6 points of damage (a range of 1 to 6). An attacker with Strength 17 causes one extra point of damage, for a range of 2 to 7 points
of damage.

p. 96 PHB Attacking with two weapon, 4th paragraph
The use of two weapons enables the character to make one additional attack each combat round, with the second wrpppon.The chancter gains only one additionnal attack each round, regardless of the number of attacks he may normally be allowed. Thus a warrior able to attack 3/2 (once in the first round and twice in the second) can attack 5/2 (twice in the first round and three times in the second).

 

[tasos_sour]

I did my research and found the Dragon's magazine issue 149 mentioning on sages advice that its not recommended to add the strength bonus to both attacks. Please check it out and tell me what your opinion is. Is the sages advice to be considered seriously?

 

[Boneguard]

Usually, Sages Advice are considered seriously if not official. But looking at Dragon 149, Skip Williams is way of on his very first advice: Forcing a player to spend 2 proficiency slots to learn to use both mode of a bastard sword is completely wrong.

Now the wording of his advice about two weapons and Damage adjustment is that of a recommandation, not an obligation.

[...]The DM can allow strength bonuses for each hand, but I do not recommend it. Limit strength bonuses to one weapon or the other, or allow the character to split the bonus between weapons.

Wheras the wording in the PHB is clear. "Damage adjustment applies to all attacks" and "fighting with two weapons gives the player an extra attack." So the Extra attack get's the damage adjustment too.

I don't know where he get's his "It's a DM call, but I recommand not to.

 

[GenghisDon]

It applies to both, although it should not. Where? right in the PH, per STR. However, that is not realistic, nor a good rule. If you want a better rule, I'd suggest borrowing from 3.5e & applying half STR bonuses for off hand melee weapon attacks, and 1.5 times STR bonus for 2 handed melee weapons.

EX: per the rules, a character fighting with scimitar & dagger (wearing gauntlets of ogre power for 18/00 STR) would have +3 hit & +6 damage with both weapons (although 2 weapon combat penalties to hit, if any, apply).

I'd suggest using +3+6 for the scimitar & +2+3 for the dagger instead.

 

[Micazian]

I'd suggest using +3+6 for the scimitar & +2+3 for the dagger instead.

Somewhere there's a rule that you only apply as much STR bonus as the weapon's max damage. I know that's not the well researched point it could be, but you have to post three times right at first around here, apparently.

 

[Micazian]

Found it. PO: Combat & Tactics, Chapter 7:

The 16th-level Dart Specialist: It's ludicrous to allow a high-Strength character the full benefit of his muscular power if he insists on using tiny little weapons such as darts. A good way to address this kind of min-maxing is to limit the damage bonus granted by high Strength to the maximum roll of the weapon's base damage. A dart normally causes 1d3 points of damage against size M targets, so a character with exceptional Strength could gain a total of +3 to his dart's damage-but no more, even if he is normally entitled to a damage bonus of +4 or more.

 

[billd91]

Somewhere there's a rule that you only apply as much STR bonus as the weapon's max damage. I know that's not the well researched point it could be, but you have to post three times right at first around here, apparently.

This is an idea that's been circulating around in RPGs for some time - though obviously not all games have implemented it (like D&D and Pathfinder). It is, however, the reason that your ability to add your strength to a killing attack was limited in earlier editions of Champions.

 

[Igwilly]

In my table, I have a simple rule:
While you gain the benefits of TWF, the maximum strength bonus for damage is +2. I'm assuming that characters won't go much further than exceptional strength.
Similar rules exist for throwing weapons.