Does Dual-Wielding = Double Damage?

[Corinnguard]

This two-bladed sword is detachable. https://www.karatemart.com/images/products/large/detachable-double-blade-slasher.jpg You could stow it away like you would with two ordinary swords. But when needed, you can put them together.

 

[aramis erak]

It came up again: a PC with two weapons wants to do two-times the damage.

This time, I didn't think about the rules-answer, I wondered about the real life answer. Is someone twice as likely to die when getting jumped by a thug with two knives? Twice as likely to get cut? What if the victim is wearing armor? What if the thug is a swordsman with two swords? Don't you lose momentum when your next attack is from the opposite side of your body? What about reach?

How are we feeling about this lately?

Generally, two weapons means no real change in attack paces in Rapier. It does require the defender to deal with those differently, and it's harder to hit a dual wielder.

 

[BrokenTwin]

That's one of the things I always find funny/annoying when it comes to Shields in D&D. IF the rules ever let you strike with a shield, (and 5e doesn't have this, AFAIR), then they always make you take a feat (specialty training) to do it.

IRL, if you can't strike with a shield, you really, really don't know what you're doing. You are not even close to "proficient" with a shield.

I was persuaded to run a D&D 5e campaign for some friends after some time away from the system, and when I was reminded of this (they were fighting skeletons and the spear-wielding barbarian was not having a good time) I prompted went "screw that, that's stupid, I'm giving it weapon stats". Honestly, there's a lot of 5e rules I dislike as a matter of taste, but that's one of the few that I feel is outright bad design.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Speaking of paddles, during 3.5 I had a few people who wanted to use this thing...

I mean, I laugh, but I'd let them. I just would have to accept that the tone of the game is going to change.

 

[BrokenTwin]

I first started playing shortly after the prequel trilogy came out, and you bet your bippy I was ALL about that Darth Maul dual blading goodness. Add in Final Fantasy IX and Chrono Cross, it was a good while before I was willing to accept how inherently ridiculous the concept is.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

This two-bladed sword is detachable. https://www.karatemart.com/images/products/large/detachable-double-blade-slasher.jpg You could stow it away like you would with two ordinary swords. But when needed, you can put them together.

I mean, that's cool and all, but don't mistake that anything like that was used in battle in the real world.

There are two things we need to understand when thinking about "real" weapons (assuming that we enjoy that sort of pastime):

1) A LOT of weapons exist that were made purely for show. To hang on walls, to dance around with in front of spectators, to do mock-battles, etc. I've read that most of the craziest looking African weapons were made to sell to Europeans during colonial times, because the locals quickly realized that they could make money off the foreigners who were amazed by the novelty of their "weird" weapons. Sounds like humanity to me.

2) Gladiators and kung-fu pit fights were for show. In fact, almost all historical "dueling" was for show, even if it could result in the death of one or more participants. Therefore, people often invented and used weapons that were impractical for killing, but looked awesome while doing it. Don't get me wrong - this style of weapon worked (or no one would use them for long) but there's a big difference between them and a weapon built for WAR.

Now, I'm not remotely advocating for D&D to only use practical weapons. That would be silly. If anything, I wish the game opened its collective mind to weapons that actually existed and were crazy. It seems to me to often be the worst of what I would call "low-level weapon research". At the same time it tries to say, "nah, a net would be so difficult to use!" AND YET makes the double-axe or worse, the spiked-chain.

(My only problem with the spiked chain is, well, the art that makes the chains look like anchors, and the fact that in 3.5 it was by far one of the "best" (read: most powerful) weapons).

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I first started playing shortly after the prequel trilogy came out, and you bet your bippy I was ALL about that Darth Maul dual blading goodness. Add in Final Fantasy IX and Chrono Cross, it was a good while before I was willing to accept how inherently ridiculous the concept is.

I mean, it would actually work with something like a lightsabre where you don't need to put much force behind your strike to be able to cut. As long as you don't get yourself with the cutting bits, but then, that's true of all weapons. Try not to get yourself.

 

[BrokenTwin]

I mean, it would actually work with something like a lightsabre where you don't need to put much force behind your strike to be able to cut. As long as you don't get yourself with the cutting bits, but then, that's true of all weapons. Try not to get yourself.

Most other weapons aren't 80% blade with the grip in the middle though. The angles you can point your blade in are SEVERELY limited by the fact you have another blade pointed back at you. Though with Maul's weapon (unlike the FFIX and Chrono Cross examples), you can at least turn the other blade on and off as needed. Downside is there's no safe place to touch your blade, which removes a lot of viable sword techniques from the equation.

 

[Corinnguard]

One advantage a duel-wielder has against an opponent using a single weapon is that the latter has to keep track both of your weapons during the fight. So your opponent constantly has to shift their attention from you to weapon A to weapon B and back again at all times. And people aren't very good at doing this in a fight.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Most other weapons aren't 80% blade with the grip in the middle though. The angles you can point your blade in are SEVERELY limited by the fact you have another blade pointed back at you. Though with Maul's weapon (unlike the FFIX and Chrono Cross examples), you can at least turn the other blade on and off as needed. Downside is there's no safe place to touch your blade, which removes a lot of viable sword techniques from the equation.

You're right, of course. I have retconned his sabres in my mind to be more staff and less blade. I was thinking more like four feet of staff and eighteen inches a side of lightsabre, but that's not what his staffsabre looks like at all.