D&D 5E Dual-Wielding

[ExploderWizard]

I wonder if you could effectively fight with hammer and tongs. What weapon could we reskin, if any?

Not sure how effective tongs would be in one hand.

Used two handed tongs could function as a mancatcher, doing some piercing damage and restraining the target until they could escape.

 

[guachi]

Be a rogue. Get proficiency in whip somehow (feat, 1 level of barbarian, fighter, paladin, ranger, war cleric, tempest cleric or lvl 3 valor bard). Stand behind the fighter/barbarian/paladin. Sneak attack with whip (it has reach!). Most of your damage is sneak attack damage anyway. No -2 for firing into melee like an archer.

Take dual wielding feat and use two whips. Take 2 weapon fighting (if you can) and add your Dex mod to damage. Get to a high enough level in your other class for two attacks. Take Sentinel. If you stand behind the frontline, the enemy won't likely be attacking you ever so you can reliably use the Sentinel reaction attack. That's four attacks. It's easy to get. And you'll almost always hit at least once so you can reliably get your sneak attack damage.

Be a Battlemaster. Take Trip Attack maneuver (and... stuff. you'll never use the other maneuvers). If you knock the target prone, all your other attacks are at advantage. And so are the attacks of everyone else that hasn't gone.

You also don't have to move to do this like you would if you ran up, attacked, and used cunning action. Oh, and another thing, the features I listed above come at all levels so you can start having fun being Devo (Whip it good!) right away.

 

[Boarstorm]

No -2 for firing into melee like an archer.

Did I miss this rule, or are you using the cover rules for firing into melee?

 

[guachi]

Uh... don't have my PHB near me. For some reason I thought you got -2 for ranged attacking into melee. Is that not true?

 

[Taronkov]

It is not, you get disadvantage(unless I'm misremembering).

 

[guachi]

Eww. That's even worse. Disadvantage is awful unless you already have a high hit percentage and you only crit on a 20 and your crits aren't that much larger than a regular hit anyway.

 

[jadrax]

I'm a little sad that whip isn't more effective; whip and rapier (or whip and shortsword) sounds tremendously fun otherwise.

Hmm. Anyone want to bet that someone has houseruled a Whip feat to allow them to grab, trip or disarm?

I just let people use a whip to grab, trip and disarm. No need for a feat imho.

 

[jadrax]

Not sure how effective tongs would be in one hand.

At the very least they are kind of intimidating. Not sure why, but psychologically facing someone who has a weapon that can grab hold of your flesh and tear chunks of it away feels worse than something that merely slices you to bits.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

I've always wanted to have a character with a hook for a hand who "dual-wields" their primary weapon (a cutlass seems appropriate) and their hook.

 

[ExploderWizard]

At the very least they are kind of intimidating. Not sure why, but psychologically facing someone who has a weapon that can grab hold of your flesh and tear chunks of it away feels worse than something that merely slices you to bits.

Yeah but to be intimidating you need to see the tongs in action! Opening and closing shut with a grim clang. I suppose if you had a pair with scissor like action that could be operated in one hand it would work.