Level Up (A5E) Any plans to fix Two weapon fighting in Level up?

Kozos

Explorer
Two weapon Fighting is rightfully considered the weakest fighting style in 5e and for good reason If i might say so.
The problems it has is the following.

1) It eats the bonus action when there are several superior ways to spend it.
2) It scales badly with the number of attacks but scales nicely with damage buffs. A fighter with a large number of attacks doesn't get as much bang for their buck as a paladin or ranger or even warlock.
3) It is clearly vastly inferior to dueling style polearm master with spear. It has lower damage output and ac.

Thematically it fails to address the following.

1) It was considered a highly technical skill, everyone can do it decently in 5e and its feat is the weakest of all combat feats.
2) It was more often done with a longer and a shorter weapon. Rapier and dagger was relatively common, far more common that two shortswords for example.
 

log in or register to remove this ad

I find TWF fine in 5e. It is not as powerful as other editions and may not be right for certain combos or classes. In my games, it tends to be rogues that use it to allow a second chance to deal backstab damage if the first attack misses. Generally, if the first attack hits, the player likes to save the bonus action to do something else. The fighters tend to use a shield and take the AC over a possible attack.

I'm note sure how much to add to it in an attempt to make it better will go too far and make it overpowered.
 

I think just adding a -5/+10 type of feat for two-weapon fighting would be a good fix.

Like,
Two-Weapon Momentum
  • Take a -5 penalty to hit to be able to do 2 attacks instead of one with your B.A.
  • At the start of your turn, you can drop your speed to 0 until the start of your next turn to gain Cover against attack.
  • When you dodge as an action, you can make an attack against an attack that misses you if the target is within your range.
 


Simply modifying the style so that only the offhand weapon needs to be a light weapon helps.
I think going the other way is a better solution. There are fighting styles that use two weapons, but those weapons tend to be specialized, a parrying dagger is different in form & function than a dagger as the link points out. Instead of limiting how the various weapons can differentiate themselves because of how they might combine why not make paired weapons such as butterfly swords hook swords & so on that themselves include a versatile-like footnote for how they work if you are only using half a set for some reason.
 

Two weapon fighting:

when you wield 2 one handed weapons that you are proficient with, at the start of your turn you can add +1 AC or +1 to melee attack rolls.
You can still make only one attack, but you can pick with which waepon you will attack.

if your weapons have magic +X bonus to attack and damage you add lower bonus to AC and both bonuses to damage from melee attacks with any of those two weapons.

Fighting style; you gain both +1 AC and +1 to melee attack rolls.

edit:
I would also remove "light" weapon category as it is no longer needed.
Have only finesse, usually one die size smaller than normal weapon(one handed or two handed)

change dual wielder feat to;
+1 str or dex,
when you make melee attack with you mainhand one handed weapon as part of your Action, you can make one weapon attack with your off hand weapon as a Bonus action.

possible addition to the feat: if you have Extra attack feature, add your base weapon damage die to damage with your off hand attack.
Half-way between no bonus from Extra attack and full additional attack with your off hand in addition to your extra main hand attack.
 
Last edited:


Commandercrud and Horwath imply or state that if anything two weapon fighting is a strong style. Do the rest of you agree?
 

Commandercrud and Horwath imply or state that if anything two weapon fighting is a strong style. Do the rest of you agree?
Yep. If you have the fighting style it's another standard attack. If you have the feat you get +2 damage and +1 AC. If you have neither it's still another damage die every turn. The bonus action seems like a fair balance to keep it from being OP.
 

I think it's OP if anything. But it's fine as-is.
I think you have one of the most interesting viewpoints because it differs from common wisdom. I think in general it is considered underpowered once 5th level and Extra Attack come into play - though those with extra attack are not the only people who can benefit from it.

In what cases do you see it overpowered?
 

Remove ads

Top