drawing 2 weapons (or sword+shield) a minor action?

[entropysoda]

I want to draw two weapons (for TWF) or, say, a sword and shield...

Does this take 2 minor actions, or just 1?

I remember in 3.5 it was suggested if you did TWF you could draw BOTH weapons as easily as one. Is there something similar in the new rules?

 

[Mezzer]

Not in the rules as such, they just say that it's a minor action to draw/sheathe a weapon. Still, it only makes sense to allow a person to draw both weapons if he uses two, and it doesn't adversely affect the rules in any way to do so.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Readying or stowing a shield is a standard action, but you usually just strap it on and leave it on.

Drawing a weapon (or just about anything else that's not a shield) is a minor action. Technically, drawing two weapons is two minor actions, so you could trade in your move to draw the second one and still attack (or trade in your standard to move, but not attack).

The Quickdraw feat makes drawing a weapon or item part of using the weapon or item, so you can move, use TWF & TWD when you attack someone (meaning you're using two weapons, so you just drew them for free with Quickdraw), and still have your minor action left. In addition, Quickdraw gives you a +2 initiative.


That said, it would be perfectly reasonable to let a character with TWF to draw both his weapons as a single minor action (much as in 3e). It's not like TWF does all that much, anyway.