Should rogues dual wield from that start or is there a feat that helps later on?

[One Punch Ace]

^

[Wanderlost80]

there is a feat for dual wielding I believe

[Make clash permanent]

Google the benefits of dual weilding 5e dnd.

[HoboOfSerenity]

Everyone can dualwield, as long as the weapon in both hands has the "light" tag. The feat lets you dualwield weapons without the "light" tag. You can make Gale dualwield daggers if you wanted to.

[One Punch Ace]

A single rapier seems to do more damage than 2 shortswords.

[***]

Any benefit leaving left hand empty?

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

It's not really worth it.

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

Most of your damage as a Rogue comes from Sneak Attack.

Hypothetically, you could stack bonus actions along with the Two Weapon Fighting Style and Dual Wielder feat to proc magical effects of specific weapons if you needed to, but generally speaking, for the investment, Barbarian Berserkers are better at attacking with their bonus action and even then they do it better with a two handed weapon.

A Barbarian-Rogue otoh...

[SqueezeMeNow]

I tinkered around a lot trying to do a dual wield build. I have learned a few very important things about it:

- Your bonus action is incredibly useful/powerful and shouldn't be tossed away on an offhand attack without considering your other options. Drinking a potion, shoving an enemy, dashing or disengaging as a rogue are a few off the top of my head. Some weapons even have a once a rest extra strike that is a minor action as well.

- You will likely want the two weapon fighting style that rangers or warriors get. That lets you add your damage stat to your offhand. An extra attack that is just a d4 or a d6 is only at about 50% of potential without adding your stats to the strike.

- The two weapon fighting feat lets you dual wield weapons that are not light and increases your AC by one when you dual wield. Not really worth a feat if you're not going with a strength dual wield, as you will still be using light weapons.

- There are several items in the game that let you add damage to your attacks, so the economy of dual wielding does improve. The thief subclass for rogues also gets a second bonus action.

Overall I don't really feel I am gaining a ton out of dual wielding. But it's what I wanted to do and I am having fun with it. I can burn all my smites in record time! XD

[Drake]

Originally posted by ***:

Any benefit leaving left hand empty?

Unless you're a one handed duelist style fighter, no. Either use a shield or dual wield (I usually prefer shields).

Also for people wanting to play dual wield with dzx weapon, multiclass into one level of fighter and pick the dual wield style to use dex instead of str for damages.

[Dagungus]

Thief rogue gets a secondary bonus action, which lets you use the offhand attack every turn + disengage for maximum hit and run strategies.

[Oubley]

Originally posted by SqueezeMeNow:

- There are several items in the game that let you add damage to your attacks, so the economy of dual wielding does improve. The thief subclass for rogues also gets a second bonus action.

Overall I don't really feel I am gaining a ton out of dual wielding. But it's what I wanted to do and I am having fun with it. I can burn all my smites in record time! XD

I'd agree with these parts.

From what I remember from EA the 2nd bonus action and "fun" aspect made the rogue worth it in my opinion. (don't normally do rogues).

I think I did a dual wield from the start in EA.

[***]

Originally posted by Drake:

Originally posted by ***:

Any benefit leaving left hand empty?

Unless you're a one handed duelist style fighter, no. Either use a shield or dual wield (I usually prefer shields).

Also for people wanting to play dual wield with dzx weapon, multiclass into one level of fighter and pick the dual wield style to use dex instead of str for damages.

Oh well guess my bard gonna be dual wield then, she can't use shield
I turn Karlach into bard for dex, sleight of hand, performance and intimidation

[SqueezeMeNow]

I will say I went with ranger for my dual wield purposes since you get so much out of taking levels in it. Not just combat stuff, but proficiency and/or resistance as well. Paired with a thief rogue with the extra bonus action you could also throw in hunter's mark for an extra D6 on all your attacks.

Word of warning, the spells that "refresh on kill" like hunter's mark do not last forever. It's still pretty much a spell slot per combat at best. My paladin/ranger rarely uses any of there cool as hell class bonus actions unless I know I'm hitting something that isn't going to explode in a turn.

Which isn't much if I'm burning multiple smites TBH. Multi classing spell casters in 5th edition is way different.

[SqueezeMeNow]

Originally posted by ***:

Originally posted by Drake:

Unless you're a one handed duelist style fighter, no. Either use a shield or dual wield (I usually prefer shields).

Also for people wanting to play dual wield with dzx weapon, multiclass into one level of fighter and pick the dual wield style to use dex instead of str for damages.

Oh well guess my bard gonna be dual wield then, she can't use shield
I turn Karlach into bard for dex, sleight of hand, performance and intimidation

I did find a pair of gloves that gives +1 to ac and gives an extra use of bardic inspiration or what not. Plus a pair of boots that also give ac and a bonus to acrobatics. If you want to try a rapier and shield tank bard that would work very well.

[***]

Originally posted by SqueezeMeNow:

Originally posted by ***:

Oh well guess my bard gonna be dual wield then, she can't use shield
I turn Karlach into bard for dex, sleight of hand, performance and intimidation

I did find a pair of gloves that gives +1 to ac and gives an extra use of bardic inspiration or what not. Plus a pair of boots that also give ac and a bonus to acrobatics. If you want to try a rapier and shield tank bard that would work very well.

Nice find, btw I don't steal and look into red named things and chests
wonder how many magical items I missed