Need tips on Battle Master build

[Lahoo Eckbert]

So I rolled a Thiefling Fighter, picked battle master as a sublcass. Lvl 6 right now.
I also picked dual weapon fighting as a feat and my initial specialization, although I'm not sure if I'm getting the most out of Dual weapons. I dropped my sword in a fight and I was using a single long sword and it felt like I was doing more damage. My offhand damage is meager.
Should I respec ? And what do you guys would suggest I do?

I'm playing with 2 of my friends one of which is a two hander barb so I don't want to use two handed weapons since I'd much rather prefer we don't fight over some loot.

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

Two Weapon Fighting will do less damage than a greatweapon even with the extra offhand attack, but...

With two magical weapons you get twice as many magic effects and/or procs from them, so sometimes it can be worth the trade off.

[Lamprey Unbirthing]

Did you choose Two Weapon Fighting or Dueling? Cause Dueling increases damage when you are not holding a weapon in the offhand, and two weapon fighting means both your weapons should be doing the same amount of damage, so the offhand damage shouldn't be meager.

[Wuorg]

A Dual Wielder Battle Master could totally work. Use your main action for battlefield control and support, and your bonus action can deal out some nice chip damage. If your friend is playing a two-hander barb, you are never going to keep up with him in terms of raw damage (maybe not until level 12 anyway), so don't try. Dealing big damage shouldn't be your goal here, so don't worry too hard about not doing that and try not to get big number envy watching your friend chunk down enemies lol.

Also, as a fighter, you have the whole arsenal at your disposal, so consider pulling out a magic bow or other ranged weapon where appropriate (they work with most of your Battle Master Maneuvers, and switching from Melee to Ranged or vice-versa is free)!

As a side note, you really don't need to have a super optimized build to succeed in this game, so just try to have fun with it playing what sounds cool to you.

[Kernest]

If you have Two-Weapon fighting, your off-hand should do basically the same damage as your main hand attack, except for the Battlemaster manoeuvres, or if you're using a better weapon in your main hand.

Using a Longsword as a 2-hander will do up to 2 damage more, that's it.

Therefore, if your off-hand damage is "meager", your assumption is mistaken or you've done something wrong.

[Lahoo Eckbert]

Originally posted by Lamprey Unbirthing:

Did you choose Two Weapon Fighting or Dueling? Cause Dueling increases damage when you are not holding a weapon in the offhand, and two weapon fighting means both your weapons should be doing the same amount of damage, so the offhand damage shouldn't be meager.

Two weapon fighting I'm sure. Does my character use both weapons when I execute a superiority dice move like "disarming strike" or does he use just the mainhand weapon?

Originally posted by Wuorg:

A Dual Wielder Battle Master could totally work. Use your main action for battlefield control and support, and your bonus action can deal out some nice chip damage. If your friend is playing a two-hander barb, you are never going to keep up with him in terms of raw damage (maybe not until level 12 anyway), so don't try. Dealing big damage shouldn't be your goal here, so don't worry too hard about not doing that and try not to get big number envy watching your friend chunk down enemies lol.

Also, as a fighter, you have the whole arsenal at your disposal, so consider pulling out a magic bow or other ranged weapon where appropriate (they work with most of your Battle Master Maneuvers, and switching from Melee to Ranged or vice-versa is free)!

As a side note, you really don't need to have a super optimized build to succeed in this game, so just try to have fun with it playing what sounds cool to you.

Yeah I honestly prefer to play character that I want vs a character that plays well. So my goal is not to min max a meta build, but I'm just trying to figure out if I'm doing something wrong or not. While I'm not going to min max, I also don't want to play an inefficient build.

I like the battlemaster class, being able to disarm or trip enemies or even repost em is super cool and extremely useful. Although I'm wondering do I get diminished damage when I hold 2 weapons vs 1 ?

[Wuorg]

Originally posted by Lahoo Eckbert:

Two weapon fighting I'm sure. Does my character use both weapons when I execute a superiority dice move like "disarming strike" or does he use just the mainhand weapon?

It always uses your mainhand weapon. While switching from your Melee loadout to your Ranged loadout is free, note that swapping the handedness of your weapons is not.

Originally posted by Lahoo Eckbert:

I like the battlemaster class, being able to disarm or trip enemies or even repost em is super cool and extremely useful. Although I'm wondering do I get diminished damage when I hold 2 weapons vs 1 ?

It depends. It mostly comes down to whether or not you think you'll be using your Bonus Action for anything else. Versatile weapons will do *marginally* more damage with both hands per attack, but then you might have a hanging Bonus Action that goes unused (edit: that is to say, using your Action + Bonus Action to attack with dual wielded one-handers will do more damage than a versatile weapon wielded with both hands that only gets to attack with an action. This diminishes as the Fighter gets more attacks per action, though). For a Battle Master, you don't have a *ton* of options for your Bonus Action, so honestly Dual Wielding sounds perfect for them. I think you might even be able to do something like: Ranged Shot disarm/trip/anything else -> switch to melee -> bonus action off hand attack (this wouldn't be possible on tabletop, but I think it works in BG3). With both the dual wielding feat and fighting style, you might consider putting the stronger weapon in your off hand, honestly, depending on how you end up playing the character.

[Kernest]

Originally posted by Wuorg:

Ranged Shot disarm/trip/anything else -> switch to melee -> bonus action off hand attack

I do not recommend this.

Ranged weapons use DEX for hit chance and damage, while most D8 melee weapons use STR (There's like 1 or 2 exceptions and Rapiers that can use DEX).

And if you decide to go DEX dual-wielder, you don't need the Dual-Wielder Feat, better to just increase stats early on.

[Lamprey Unbirthing]

>Two weapon fighting I'm sure. Does my character use both weapons when I execute a superiority dice move like "disarming strike" or does he use just the mainhand weapon?

Pretty sure all weapon actions in the game use only one weapon. Here's another question. You can only dualwield light weapons unless you have the dual wielder feat, and most light weapons have low damage and are finesse. Are you strength or dex based? Are both your main and offhand weapon running off the same stat? What weapons are you actually using?

Dual-wielding can increase damage output because you can use a bonus action for another attack, assuming you're using two weapon fighting and both hands have the same damage number, for fighter, it means three attacks per turn at level 6 rather than 2. The downside is that without the dual-wield perk, you are stuck with light weapons, which overall have lower damage numbers in general, which isn't a problem if you're a rogue and using finesse weapons anyhow as they tend to be light and finesse but might be an issue if you're a fighter and can't duel-wield longswords.

Fighters can run pretty much any weapon set-up, it's one of their specialties, so it's not that dual-wield fighter can't work, and again, the two weapon fighting style should mean that both weapons in each hand gain proficiency damage bonus and should be doing the same damage. Like Kernest said, if the offhand weapon is doing meager damage, something must be off.

[Wuorg]

Originally posted by Kernest:

Originally posted by Wuorg:

Ranged Shot disarm/trip/anything else -> switch to melee -> bonus action off hand attack

I do not recommend this.

Ranged weapons use DEX for hit chance and damage, while most D8 melee weapons use STR (There's like 1 or 2 exceptions and Rapiers that can use DEX).

And if you decide to go DEX dual-wielder, you don't need the Dual-Wielder Feat, better to just increase stats early on.

Ya, I mean, you are probably right, but just in case it wasn't clear from the ongoing conversation, I was hardly approaching this from an optimized standpoint.

Edit: Cut out a sentence where I was needlessly digressing.

[Lahoo Eckbert]

Originally posted by Lamprey Unbirthing:

>Two weapon fighting I'm sure. Does my character use both weapons when I execute a superiority dice move like "disarming strike" or does he use just the mainhand weapon?

Pretty sure all weapon actions in the game use only one weapon. Here's another question. You can only dualwield light weapons unless you have the dual wielder feat, and most light weapons have low damage and are finesse. Are you strength or dex based? Are both your main and offhand weapon running off the same stat? What weapons are you actually using?

Dual-wielding can increase damage output because you can use a bonus action for another attack, assuming you're using two weapon fighting and both hands have the same damage number, for fighter, it means three attacks per turn at level 6 rather than 2. The downside is that without the dual-wield perk, you are stuck with light weapons, which overall have lower damage numbers in general, which isn't a problem if you're a rogue and using finesse weapons anyhow as they tend to be light and finesse but might be an issue if you're a fighter and can't duel-wield longswords.

Fighters can run pretty much any weapon set-up, it's one of their specialties, so it's not that dual-wield fighter can't work, and again, the two weapon fighting style should mean that both weapons in each hand gain proficiency damage bonus and should be doing the same damage. Like Kernest said, if the offhand weapon is doing meager damage, something must be off.

I checked the stats and you are right on paper they do the exact same damage. Two weapon fighting style allows me to use other weapons than just "light" so I have two long swords. The mainhand weapon is the one that can create an aura buff for 5 turns and the off hand is just a githyanki long sword +1.

[Limdood]

menacing strike is crazy strong for anything that it can affect, due to the way BG3 handles "Frightened."

BUT, it doesn't really do much unless you're applying it at range or use the Mobile feat (or some other anti-opportunity attack trick) to leave an enemy impotent. Many enemies don't have ranged attacks, and many more won't do much with that disadvantage.

I suppose you could move into close range and use trip attack first but that requires 2 different hits and 2 different failed saves...or you could use hilt smash 1/short rest to make enemies unable to do reactions...

But the big advantage of battle master over other options is being able to hamper the enemies. They excel at targeted control and making enemies unable to effectively do much of anything.

With how movement becomes an issue in this game quite often (big, open maps with lots of space in between, different elevations and spread out enemies), using that melee weapon all the time while STILL having a bonus action can be tough, when you're sitting there using your bonus action to jump to extend your range.

Generally you're going to need lots of range extenders (wood elf, longstrider, monk or barbarian splash for more movement, 3 levels of thief rogue for an extra bonus action for dashing), OR high strength + use your bonus action to jump, OR deal ranged damage.

If you haven't considered it yet, you could always try a ranged battlemaster that uses rapier + shield and longbow. Shield gives nice high AC without needing any feats, Dex focused build means ALSO nice high AC (start with medium armor and go light if AC goes high enough, or even no armor + mage armor from a wizard). Archery fighting style for consistency in applying status effect strikes, or defense fighting style to bolster an already high AC and let you lock down ranged enemies into melee combat (after menacing a melee target with your bow).

[Lamprey Unbirthing]

Originally posted by Lahoo Eckbert:

Originally posted by Lamprey Unbirthing:

>Two weapon fighting I'm sure. Does my character use both weapons when I execute a superiority dice move like "disarming strike" or does he use just the mainhand weapon?

Pretty sure all weapon actions in the game use only one weapon. Here's another question. You can only dualwield light weapons unless you have the dual wielder feat, and most light weapons have low damage and are finesse. Are you strength or dex based? Are both your main and offhand weapon running off the same stat? What weapons are you actually using?

Dual-wielding can increase damage output because you can use a bonus action for another attack, assuming you're using two weapon fighting and both hands have the same damage number, for fighter, it means three attacks per turn at level 6 rather than 2. The downside is that without the dual-wield perk, you are stuck with light weapons, which overall have lower damage numbers in general, which isn't a problem if you're a rogue and using finesse weapons anyhow as they tend to be light and finesse but might be an issue if you're a fighter and can't duel-wield longswords.

Fighters can run pretty much any weapon set-up, it's one of their specialties, so it's not that dual-wield fighter can't work, and again, the two weapon fighting style should mean that both weapons in each hand gain proficiency damage bonus and should be doing the same damage. Like Kernest said, if the offhand weapon is doing meager damage, something must be off.

I checked the stats and you are right on paper they do the exact same damage. Two weapon fighting style allows me to use other weapons than just "light" so I have two long swords. The mainhand weapon is the one that can create an aura buff for 5 turns and the off hand is just a githyanki long sword +1.

Are you sure you didn't pick dual wield feat too because I'm pretty sure the fighting style only balances the damage.

[Kernest]

Originally posted by Lamprey Unbirthing:

Are you sure you didn't pick dual wield feat too because I'm pretty sure the fighting style only balances the damage.

This is correct, you can dual-wield only Light weapons unless you have the Dual Wielder Feat.

[Wuorg]

Originally posted by Limdood:

If you haven't considered it yet, you could always try a ranged battlemaster that uses rapier + shield and longbow. Shield gives nice high AC without needing any feats, Dex focused build means ALSO nice high AC (start with medium armor and go light if AC goes high enough, or even no armor + mage armor from a wizard). Archery fighting style for consistency in applying status effect strikes, or defense fighting style to bolster an already high AC and let you lock down ranged enemies into melee combat (after menacing a melee target with your bow).

Heartily agree with your entire comment, and this right here is a classic strategy that's proven to work. Thankfully, the game makes respecing pretty painless, so this is something you could fall back on if you feel it is necessary, OP.

[seeker1]

Dual wielding magic weapons can indeed be awesome, but make sure you read one key piece of fine print on the tooltip descriptions. Some have properties that work in the Main Hand only, and will NOT have those properties/special actions in your offhand.

A limitation to be aware of when trying to do dual weapons with either some of the magic vanilla weapons, or also modded ones.