Why is dual-wielding so lackluster?

[Quadsword]

I'm doing a playthrough as a ranger knight and was using dual long swords up until about halfway through act 2. Respecced to the protection fighting style and started using a greatsword. I'm actually doing more damage overall because I'm free to always use my bonus action to cast / recast hunter's mark, rather than having to decide whether it's better to use hunter's mark or attack with both weapons.

I love the aesthetic of being a heavily armored knight walking around with two swords on my back, but it just doesn't seem practical in the long run.

[Unfriendly Fire]

Ideally, dual-wielding is just so you can hold another weapon with a great buff, you'd still mainly attack with just the one main hand weapon. Take all the feats/perks that give you bonuses while you're dual-wielding. If you're doing any kind of spellcasting, Acuity is basically necessary.

Also, with dual wielding, you can also potentially use staves in your off-hand.

[Brian_the_Brute]

Ranger class does seem lackluster in general compared to a straight fighter or a Paladin. Dual wield is nice with 2 scimitars for a non-fighter. Have poison ring (dipped in poison when healed) and put adamantine scimitar in off-hand as it will always do max damage. The double poisoning helps make it worth it.

[ToasterLlama]

This is generally an issue with 5e dnd as a whole, and not just Baldurs Gate. Dual Wielding ends up being fairly lackluster for anything but rogue and even then its still competing with cunning action.

[Wokelander]

It's pretty good for a Fighter/Thief build

[Tingly]

Dual-wielding hand crossbows feels amazing, though!

[Dexter in the Dark]

there is a dagger you can buy from the gith merchant, that make a dual welders rouge very deadly

[FlyingTorcensoredWhale]

Because you can't attack with your second weapon as part of an Attack Action like in older editions. You have to use your Bonus Action, which can be used for many things.

[jayman760]

Originally posted by Unfriendly Fire:

Ideally, dual-wielding is just so you can hold another weapon with a great buff, you'd still mainly attack with just the one main hand weapon. Take all the feats/perks that give you bonuses while you're dual-wielding. If you're doing any kind of spellcasting, Acuity is basically necessary.

Also, with dual wielding, you can also potentially use staves in your off-hand.

Yes, there is a certain club in Act 1 that takes your strength to 19. I use it in my off hand on my Ranger/Archer plus Titanstring.

[seanj.plunkett]

In D&D 5E dual wielding is known to be the weaker option, so considering the BG3 mechanics mostly mirror their mechanics, it makes sense.

A two-handed weapon + great weapon master feat and you’re killing all the things. Dual wielding is still playable, though.

[Pat Fenis]

Seems to be the way to go when you can reliably apply prone/paralyse conditions. 2 handed performs better when hits and crits aren't guaranteed.

[Metallicus]

Originally posted by ToasterLlama:

This is generally an issue with 5e dnd as a whole, and not just Baldurs Gate. Dual Wielding ends up being fairly lackluster for anything but rogue and even then its still competing with cunning action.

This ^

5e destroyed a lot of fun aspects of DnD for ‘balance’. Even the magic items suck in 5e.

[Quadsword]

Originally posted by ToasterLlama:

This is generally an issue with 5e dnd as a whole, and not just Baldurs Gate. Dual Wielding ends up being fairly lackluster for anything but rogue and even then its still competing with cunning action.

At least with rogue, you can get 2 bonus actions with the thief subclass. I really wish two-weapon fighting also included the ability to do an offhand attack as a free action once per turn, or something similar, but maybe that'd make dual-wielding too good.

[jonnin]

dual is just a hungry, late blooming build. Its fine, once you have
- fighting style
- feat
- rogue 3
- level 5 in a martial class
- 2 weapons worth using it with
at that point you are approaching levels 8-10 and probably already gave up on DW. All this effort nets you 4 attacks at full bonus with probably a couple of 1d8+1d4 swords, which is about the same as 8d6 per round damage.

meanwhile the monk-rogue is laughing at you.

Its not a problem with the ranger, a fighter or whatever other martial class has most of the same problems. Fighter 6/rogue 3 is a little nicer because you get a feat a 4th&6th, making up for the 'lost' feat from rogue 3. The ranger... marks with 1 of the bonus actions, but he should have 2 as all dual wielders have rogue 3, right?

And, you can do a very nasty dual wield build using hand crossbows and the crossbow feat. That lets you shoot it point blank at no penalty, and on top of that, you also don't need the feat to do full damage with the offhand. You do need rogue 3, but that looks like a high dex guy with a great 2h weapon, chop and shoot-shoot. This is the best dual wield setup, in terms of costs (no feat, no martial class needed either, only 1 melee wewapon, can even use a shield, etc).

[Quadsword]

Originally posted by jonnin:

dual is just a hungry, late blooming build. Its fine, once you have
- fighting style
- feat
- rogue 3
- level 5 in a martial class
- 2 weapons worth using it with
at that point you are approaching levels 8-10 and probably already gave up on DW. All this effort nets you 4 attacks at full bonus with probably a couple of 1d8+1d4 swords, which is about the same as 8d6 per round damage.

meanwhile the monk-rogue is laughing at you.

Monk casually sprinting across the entire map and deleting half of a boss's HP in one round.

[RhodosGuard]

You only need to cast Hunters Mark once, and then basically benefit from it twice each turn because each weapon attack triggers it.

If you kill your target to fast, you can just make your Ranger solo an enemy while your team concentrates on the rest. That way you mostly utilize your Bonus Action for Off-Hand attacks.

Also the Dual Wielder Feat (which I guess replaces GWM) has the same value as the Defence Fighting Style, added to the benefit of not requiring weapons to be light to dual wield.

A Drow Ranger could easily utilize the Sword the Drider in Act 2 drops.