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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Salamandyr" data-source="post: 5991736" data-attributes="member: 40233">No...fighting with a dagger in the off hand is not that hard...at all.  It's no harder than fighting with a buckler in the off hand, and the purpose is the same.  It can be picked up in the same time it takes to get basic familiarity with a rapier, ie a few months.  The masters taught rapier and dagger, rapier and cloak, buckler.  The idea was to have an object in the off-hand to help block, because early rapiers were really long, really heavy, and could only fence in single time.  As rapiers lightened, becoming smallswords, the ability to fight in double time (parry and riposte) became easier, and an open hand to grapple with became much more common; except for the Italians, who loved them some daggers.  In reality, two weapon fighting is not the outlier, single weapon fighting is.  You fight with your whole body.  If you're wielding a one handed object, you either grab and punch with the off hand, or grab your weapon in two hand to hit harder.  If you've got access to a second weapon, you pull that out to block with, or stab with.  And don't forget to kick, bite, headbutt, pommel smash, swing the quillons into their temple.  If you're using a buckler, you grind it into your opponents face as you cut at their legs or stab them in the belly.  It is true that the Master's tended to consider fighting with two swords to be very difficult and not something to try until you'd mastered using one sword in either hand.  Based on my experience, it's not that difficult, but tends to have the disadvantage of causing you to face your entire body towards an opponent.  When fighting with two swords, one sword should always be primary, the other used opportunistically.  The advantage of rapier and dagger is that this comes naturally (the rapier is always primary).</blockquote>

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