TWF penalties

[Shellman]

IMO,

Simply holding/ weilding two weapons out does not incur the TWF penalties.

However, if you choose to take an additional attack in that round, you must incur the normal penalties that apply to all those attacks.

If you soleley hold/ weild two weapons, but only chose to take the number of attacks you would normally have according to your Base Attack, then you do not incur any penalties.

My word of caution would be, fight the same way all the time so your DM is not guessing what your doing.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

I think sjmiller and Nonlethal Force have it right. I will just play this however I like and I will not worry too much. If I am ever going to find some problem, I'll switch to another way to play it. I don't even think that most of this discussion is based on our real experience with problems when running TWF, but rather on mere speculations on the written text.

hrm, well, I have a two weapon fighter in a play by post right now who in a recent fight spent a good amount of the time fighting defensively and only making one attack per round. I simply took it for granted that having both swords out entitled her to the shield bonus from twd (for her long pointy sheild) and used her single attack bonus (modified by defensive fighting) normally. So if my DM agreed with your side of the table, the issue would be quite non speculative. (attacking with only one weaon while having both out is fairly common for my character.)

 

[glass]

IMO, Simply holding/ weilding two weapons out does not incur the TWF penalties.

Except that weilding too weapons explicitly does cause you to incur the TWF penalties. The question is can you be considered to be 'weilding' a weapon even if you don't attak with it. I say yes, some say no.


glass.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

Except that weilding too weapons explicitly does cause you to incur the TWF penalties. The question is can you be considered to be 'weilding' a weapon even if you don't attak with it. I say yes, some say no.

no, it doesn't. If you weild two weapons, you can take a second attack. Just like if your weild a double weapon you can take a second attack. If you take a second attack, you incur the following penalties. OR if you weild two weapons at all you take those penalties. The wording is ambiguous.

 

[brendan candries]

"Except that weilding too weapons explicitly does cause you to incur the TWF penalties."\

This is where people disagree ...

If you wield a second weapon in your off hand, you can get one extra attack per round with that weapon. Fighting this way is very hard ...

It all depends where you hook "Fighting this way is very hard" on.

1. When wielding a second weapon in your off hand, fighting is very hard. You can get one extra attack with that weapon per round.

or

2. You can get one extra attack with a second weapon per round if you're wielding a second weapon in your off hand. Fighting this way is very hard.

 

[Owen K.C. Stephens]

If you all don't mind, let me ask you some questions as a game desginer.

Ignoring what the rules for TWF and TWD currently say:

If you were to redesign this element of the game, which way do you think it ought to work? And, how would you word it to ensure people knew that was the way it worked?

Owen K.C. Stephens
d20 Triggerman

 

[Kurotowa]

If you all don;t mind, let me ask you some questions as a game desginer.

Ignoring what the rules for TWF and TWD currently say:

If you were to redesign this element of the game, which way do you think it ought to work? And, how would you word it to ensure people knew that was the way it worked?

The reason it's so confusing is that you can get an extra attack with a second weapon without a feat. I'd ditch that bit of legacy rules entirely and use the same format as Rapid Shot.

You can get one extra attack per round with a second weapon in your off-hand. The attack is at your highest base attack bonus, but each attack you make in that round (the extra one and the normal ones) takes a -2 penalty. You must use the full attack action to use this feat.

And now there's no confusion about Two-Weapon Defense either. Weilding two weapons or a double weapon gives you a +1 shield bonus. There's no need to seperate holding and weilding because weilding two weapons no longer gives you attack penalties, only activating the TWF feat does.

 

[Li Shenron]

Except that weilding too weapons explicitly does cause you to incur the TWF penalties. The question is can you be considered to be 'weilding' a weapon even if you don't attak with it. I say yes, some say no.

Actually I even say something different. I rule that even using the secondary weapon doesn't give you 2WF penalties, unless you are using it to gain an extra attack.

For example, if you have BAB +6/+1, I would let you do the first attack with your primary weapon and the second with your secondary weapon, without the 2WF penalty. (If you don't have the 2WF feat, you still get the -4 on the off-hand weapon).