Ah yes, of course, drawing two weapons instead if one makes things a lot spicier.
Was the ruling about having a weapon in both hands at the start of the round ever official errata, or it was just a clarification of intention? I think people pinning their hopes on a ruling that you don't need to wield two weapons to be deemed to be two weapon fighting are doomed to disappointment. It's a fun mental exercise but I don't see it living long enough to see usei n any kind of organised play. It's clearly bonkers.
In the 2014 PHB, there is a specific two-weapon fighting rule in the combat section. It says, “When you take the Attack action and attack with a light melee weapon that you're holding in one hand, you can use a bonus action to attack with a different light melee weapon that you're holding in the other hand. You don't add your ability modifier to the damage of the bonus attack, unless that modifier is negative.”
In the 2024 rules, this rule no longer exists. Two-weapon fighting is a function of the Light weapon property itself, which says, “When you take the Attack action on your turn and attack with a Light weapon, you can make one extra attack as a Bonus Action later on the same turn. That extra attack must be made with a different Light weapon, and you don’t add your ability modifier to the extra attack’s damage unless that modifier is negative.” Unlike the 2014 rule, this does not say that the second light weapon needs to be in your other hand.
Additionally, in the 2014 PHB you can only draw or sheathe one weapon per turn, with your free object interaction (or two with the dual-wielder feat), unless you take the Use An Object action to draw another. However, in the 2024 PHB, the rules for the Attack action say, “You can either equip or unequip one weapon when you make an attack as part of this action. You do so either before or after the attack. If you equip a weapon before an attack, you don’t need to use it for that attack. Equipping a weapon includes drawing it from a sheath or picking it up. Unequipping a weapon includes sheathing, stowing, or dropping it.” Now, normally this would not allow you to draw and attack with a weapon using the Light property, because the extra attack of the Light property uses a bonus action, so you’re not making it
as part of the Attack action. However, the Nick Mastery property says, “When you make the extra attack of the Light property, you can make it as part of the Attack action instead of as a Bonus Action. You can make this extra attack only once per turn.” That means, if you have Mastery with a Nick weapon such as a scimitar or dagger, you can draw or stow a weapon before or after the extra attack of the Light property with it, because it is an attack you’re making as part of the Attack action.
I suspect this is entirely intentional, both because it enables, for example, attacking with a rapier and then drawing and throwing a dagger on the same turn, and because despite being heavily discussed online, none of these rules were changed at all in the errata the 2024 PHB has already received.
