TWF Interpretations

[interwyrm]

From the SRD:

TWO-WEAPON FIGHTING [GENERAL]

You can fight with a weapon in each hand. You can make one extra attack each round with the second weapon.

Prerequisite: Dex 15.

Benefit: Your penalties on attack rolls for fighting with two weapons are reduced. The penalty for your primary hand lessens by 2 and the one for your off hand lessens by 6.

Normal: If you wield a second weapon in your off hand, you can get one extra attack per round with that weapon. When fighting in this way you suffer a –6 penalty with your regular attack or attacks with your primary hand and a –10 penalty to the attack with your off hand. If your off-hand weapon is light the penalties are reduced by 2 each. (An unarmed strike is always considered light.)

Special: A 2nd-level ranger who has chosen the two-weapon combat style is treated as having Two-Weapon Fighting, even if he does not have the prerequisite for it, but only when he is wearing light or no armor.

A fighter may select Two-Weapon Fighting as one of his fighter bonus feats.

1. If you wield a second weapon in your off hand
2. You can get one extra attack per round with that weapon

When fighting in this way....

So, does "this way" apply to 1 or 2?

Basically, can I wield two short swords without penalty and make my normal number of attacks?

Or if I wield two short swords, do I take a penalty, and have the option of taking an extra attack?

 

[Jdvn1]

You can wield two short swords and use just one to make your normal number of attacks, with no penalties.

You can wield two short swords and use both, gaining an extra attack, with penalties.

 

[kenobi65]

Yup, it's using the weapon that's in your "off hand" that triggers the penalties. If you get more than one attack (due to high BAB), and have a weapon in each hand, you still make all those attacks with the weapon in your "primary hand"; you can't use the off-hand weapon for those attacks.

 

[interwyrm]

Can you make AoOs with the offhand without penalty?

 

[JimAde]

Once you do your full attack, gaining the extra attack with your off hand, ALL your attacks have the penalty until your next turn. This includes AoO with either hand. But yes, you can choose to use either one.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

For my interpretation, "fighting in this way" means "using the two-weapon fighting rules to make more attacks in a Full Attack action than would normally be allowed by your BAB."

If you have two BAB attacks per round (+6 / +1), are wielding two short swords, and take a full attack action, you have a couple choices:

1. Make two attacks with one short sword (+6 / +1)
2. Make one attack with each short sword (+6 and +1)
3. Make two attacks with one short sword and one attack with the other (+4 / -1 and +4)

Note that if you do not have the Two-Weapon Fighting feat, your attacks with your off-hand sword have a -4 penalty (which, generally speaking, I house rule away).

Hypersmurf rules differently. "Fighting this way" means "whenver you choose to wield two weapons." There is, then, a distinction between a weapon that is wielded and one which is merely held in the hand. For instance, if you chose to only wield one short sword on your turn, you would not suffer the TWF penalties, but you also could not gain any additional attacks, make an AoO with the unwielded sword, or benefit from it if it were a Defending sword. Similarly, if you chose to wield both weapons, you immediately would gain the penalties and would have the option of making extra attacks.

EDIT:

Note that the TWF rules do not specifically say that the penalty lasts until your next round. Under my interpretation, you would not suffer the penalty on any AoOs you made. Under Hyp's, you would.

 

[werk]

Can you make AoOs with the offhand without penalty?

No, you determine 'what way you are fighting' during your turn and it sticks until your next turn.

 

[argo]

This is one of the great unending debates of 3.x There has never been an official ruling on the subject and, from a puerly gramatical POV, both intrepretations of the rule are equally correct.

Personally I choose to impose the TWF penalties only when the player takes the extra attack. To my mind this is consistent with other d20 rules which imply that a bonus attack is balanced by a -2 penalty to hit (Rapid Shot, Flurry of Blows). This means I allow my players to interchange attacks from either weapon and also to use either weapon for AoO's.

If you do rule that "fight this way" means to wield a second weapon (regardless of weither or not you avail yourself of the extra attack) then yes, a player cannot use his off-hand weapon for an AoO unless he also takes the TWF penalty. If he is not "wielding" the off hand weapon it is not ready to use, he is simply holding it. (yeah, that doesn't make that much sense to me either, as I said I rule the other way).

Hope that helps.

 

[Ranger REG]

Can you make AoOs with the offhand without penalty?

An AoO is simply one melee attack. So, you can use either weapon for that one attack and at no penalty. Two-weapon fighting (with or without the feat) does not allow you to make both attacks in a single provocation.