dueling fighting style bug

[Will]

playing as a college of blades bard with the dueling fighting style and the bonus damage keeps vanishing off my actions and in character screen. it comes back if i take everything off then reequip it all. but at some point it randomly vanishes. just would like to know if it still functions or if its completely broken. hard to do the work around in combat.

[BucklingSwashes]

Hi Will! I actually just submitted a bug report to Larian regarding this, and came across your post here while searching for more information about it. The character inventory screen doesn't appear to show/indicate that the Duelling passive feature is active when you are properly equipped for it, but you can check the Combat Log to see if it's still being applied when attacking enemies or objects. (The combat log will show a breakdown of the damage you deal with a weapon.) I tested this several times because I was unsure if the +2 damage from Duelling was being applied as well, and confirmed via the combat log that it is indeed being applied as long as you:
- Are wielding a weapon with one hand (your main hand)
- Do not have a weapon in your off-hand (shields are "armor" and do not count as a weapon)

However, I also discovered that the feature is applying the damage bonus in some cases when it should not be, specifically when using a weapon with the Versatile property. So you'll likely notice in testing that even if you're using a weapon that's Versatile - like a longsword or spear - you'll still gain the damage bonus from the Duelling feature as long as you have a shield or other non-weapon item in your off-hand. Based on the description of the Duelling feature, I don't think this is intentional.

That said, rest assured that if you check the combat log, you'll be able to confirm whether you're doing the bonus damage from the Duelling feature. Just don't be surprised if it's being applied to weapons it should not be as well, at least until Larian fixes this.

[simply .rove]

Originally posted by BucklingSwashes:

Hi Will! I actually just submitted a bug report to Larian regarding this, and came across your post here while searching for more information about it. The character inventory screen doesn't appear to show/indicate that the Duelling passive feature is active when you are properly equipped for it, but you can check the Combat Log to see if it's still being applied when attacking enemies or objects. (The combat log will show a breakdown of the damage you deal with a weapon.) I tested this several times because I was unsure if the +2 damage from Duelling was being applied as well, and confirmed via the combat log that it is indeed being applied as long as you:
- Are wielding a weapon with one hand (your main hand)
- Do not have a weapon in your off-hand (shields are "armor" and do not count as a weapon)

However, I also discovered that the feature is applying the damage bonus in some cases when it should not be, specifically when using a weapon with the Versatile property. So you'll likely notice in testing that even if you're using a weapon that's Versatile - like a longsword or spear - you'll still gain the damage bonus from the Duelling feature as long as you have a shield or other non-weapon item in your off-hand. Based on the description of the Duelling feature, I don't think this is intentional.

That said, rest assured that if you check the combat log, you'll be able to confirm whether you're doing the bonus damage from the Duelling feature. Just don't be surprised if it's being applied to weapons it should not be as well, at least until Larian fixes this.

thanks! It seems i am not alone with this. The bug doesn‘t seem to have been resolved so far (at least on PS5).