Post/Author/DateTime	Post
GeNemesis 06-14-06, 08:12 AM	If you're wielding two weapons, but decide for some reason only to make one attack, can you decide which of your hands/weapons you want to attack with or is it always the main hand?
Nom 06-14-06, 08:41 AM	The PH glossary states that you suffer a -4 to-hit with the off hand, as well as 1/2 Str bonus to damage. The wording ("typically the left") suggests that the primary/off hand distinction is fixed, just as in real life, though some people suggest otherwise. The TWF feat explicitly reduces the penalty for the off hand when using the extra TWF attack. It doesn't negate the 1/2 Str bonus to damage limitation, nor does it treat the primary and off hands as equivalent (eg penalties vary depending on whether you are wielding a light weapon in your off hand). Some people consider that TWF negates the -4 off-hand penalty in all circumstances (subsuming 3.0 Ambidexterity), but nothing in the core rulebooks nor the FAQ supports this. This leaves 3 points of view: (1) All characters can vary which hand is primary / off as desired. (2) Characters with the TWF feat can use their (fixed) off hand alone without penalty. The off hand still suffers 1/2 Str bonus to damage. (3) A character using the off hand for attacking - except as a TWF bonus attack with the TWF feat - suffers -4 to hit and 1/2 Str bonus to damage. #3 seems to me to be what the rules say. Thus, you can make a single off-hand attack (or even an off-hand full attack) using your normal attacks, but suffer a -4 to-hit and 1/2 Str bonus to damage.
runestar 06-14-06, 10:13 AM	Handedness is not defined in the game(see Waterdeep). So yes, you are effectively assumed to be ambidextrous(so long as you are attacking with only 1 of the 2 weapons you wield, you can freely designate/change which is your main hand each round). :)
Vegepygmy 06-14-06, 12:26 PM	Handedness is not defined in the game(see Waterdeep).That's not really true (though I haven't seen Waterdeep, so maybe you know something I don't). The PHB has a glossary, and the glossary says: off hand: A character's weaker or less dexterous hand (usually the left). So handedness is defined in the game: characters are assumed to have one hand that is weaker/less dexterous, and it's usually their left hand.
questionc 06-14-06, 02:34 PM	A character without TWF has -4 to all attack rolls using his off-hand weapon. A character with TWF has no penalty to attack rolls using his off-hand weapon (except for 1/2 Str modifier). Some people consider that TWF negates the -4 off-hand penalty in all circumstances (subsuming 3.0 Ambidexterity), but nothing in the core rulebooks nor the FAQ supports this. The 3.5 Update booklet states that "Two-Weapon Fighting gains all benefits [of Ambidexterity]".
_Chaz_ 06-14-06, 04:02 PM	If you choose not to attack with one, you aren't fighting with two weapons, you're only attacking with one, otherwise you'd have to have TWF to use a shield too... and just no. So you can freely switch between two weapons, without suffering TWF penalties.
Vegepygmy 06-14-06, 07:07 PM	If you choose not to attack with one, you aren't fighting with two weapons, you're only attacking with one, otherwise you'd have to have TWF to use a shield too...TWF penalties do apply to attacks made with shields, my friend.
mvincent 06-14-06, 07:17 PM	TWF penalties do apply to attacks made with shields, my friend.Handiness has become pretty muddled in 3.5. Take this entry from the FAQ: "There’s nothing stopping you from declaring your shield bash as your primary weapon. Of course, that means that any attack you make with your other hand becomes a secondary weapon." Also: "Whenever you use armor spikes as an off-hand weapon, you suffer all the penalties for attacking with two weapons (see Table 8–10 in the Player’s Handbook). When using armor spikes along with a two-handed weapon, it is usually best to use the two-handed weapon as your primary attack and the armor spikes as the off-hand weapon. You can use the armor spikes as the primary weapon and the two-handed weapon as the off-hand attack, but when you do so, you don’t get the benefit of using a light weapon in your off hand." These things seem to imply that you get to declare what is a primary and what is an off-hand attack. There are multiple other examples like this. Meanwhile, the off-hand listing in the glossary appears to be a holdover from 3.0 that hasn’t been addressed for 3.5. Until it is sorted out, I'll worry about off-hand penalties only when the extra TWF attack is added.
Nom 06-14-06, 09:03 PM	The 3.5 Update booklet states that "Two-Weapon Fighting gains all benefits [of Ambidexterity]".I'm aware of this. Which is why I carefully specified the core rules and FAQ, not auxilliary documents that may or may not be relevant. I don't think the Shield Bash FAQ entry is ambiguous at all. You missed the first line: "While the rules describe a shield bash as an off-hand weapon, that’s simply an assumption (that your primary hand is holding a weapon)." The comment allows that you could wield your shield in your primary hand and bash with it as a primary weapon, not that you can use an off-hand shield as a primary weapon. Anyway, there are at least 3 different interpretations, and if you only consider the PH, MM and DMG then they support #3 (fixed primary and off hand, can use off-hand to attack but suffer -4 if not using it for extra TWF attack). Decide how to play it in your games.
shift244 06-14-06, 09:57 PM	(1) All characters can vary which hand is primary / off as desired. (2) Characters with the TWF feat can use their (fixed) off hand alone without penalty. The off hand still suffers 1/2 Str bonus to damage. (3) A character using the off hand for attacking - except as a TWF bonus attack with the TWF feat - suffers -4 to hit and 1/2 Str bonus to damage.(4) The character can attack with the off hand, taking penalties and gaining TWF feat bonuses as if s/he were making a full attack to that off hand attack. It still counts as an off hand attack, and takes the appropriate non/light weapon additional modifiers and 1/2 STR to damage. But since the declaration is make ONE attack with the off hand, it uses a standard action instead. This interpretation is slightly different from (2) and still allows characters wielding fire/ice swords (for example) to choose the addition elemental damage type.
mvincent 06-15-06, 12:36 PM	"You can use the armor spikes as the primary weapon and the two-handed weapon as the off-hand attack"[/I]btw: anyone else find it strange that you can declare a Two-handed weapon as an off-hand attack (with the associated stength penalty)? This leads me to believe that your off-arm isn't really half as strong as your dominate one, merely that you focus more of your weight and effort on your dominate weapon (i.e. you 'put your weight behind it' more). Here is another example from the FAQ of someone apparently choosing which hand to designate as the off-hand: "If the monk in our example has two sais to use with the flurry, plus the off-hand attack, she can use both in the flurry (in which case she must make the off-hand attack with an unarmed strike) or one sai for the off-hand attack and one with the flurry. The sai used in the off-hand attack is not available for the flurry and vice versa."
Nom 06-16-06, 12:10 AM	btw: anyone else find it strange that you can declare a Two-handed weapon as an off-hand attack (with the associated stength penalty)?It leads me to believe that the FAQ contains a lot of very wonky rules with respect to TWF, handedness and armour spikes, many of which aren't more than tangentially consistent with the core rules. :eek: