Mod to buff running an empty off hand?

[Peluceus Donmian]

Currently I see no incentive to run an empty hand with a weapon in the main hand, other than for roleplaying reasons. I don't think roleplayers should be punished, so I was wondering if it would be possible/easy to give a buff to having an empty off hand. If you aren't running a shield or extra weapon currently, you're putting yourself at a disadvantage. Some of my running ideas include:

1. Increasing movement speed by 3 meters (AKA 33%).

2. Conferring disengage as a bonus action regardless of class

3. Allowing SOME spells, primarily defensive spells (such as mirror image, fog cloud, blur, invisibility, etc) to be cast as a bonus action

4. Starting at level 5 of a magic-using class, you can cast cantrips and level 1 spells as a bonus action

5. Riposte triggers on damage, not just misses (doesn't exactly make sense from a realistic standpoint but it effectively means you're making it more likely to be hit but with more consistent damage retaliation if you have the superiority die for it)

6. Confers additional reaction (riposte and defensive duelist would be made stronger and could theoretically even stack with shield spell)

7. some combination of any or all of the above

In short, you should get situational advantages if you don't want a flat +2 AC or additional bonus action attack.

[Orion Invictus]

Not every race and class has shield proficiency. And worrying about mechanics and metagaming is kinda the opposite of roleplaying.

With that said, I'd say 1, 3, and 6 are probably the best ones. 4 as well if you're looking to give casters a serious boost.

[vanDyck]

Besides the rules, I think one part of the problem is the ability to change between melee and ranged weapons for free. ALso, you should maybe think more about, in terms of realism, get penalties or make some stuff not doable with both hands occupied:

-throwing
-drinking potions
-casting (maybe with staffs only)
-pushing
-looting
and probarbly much more. A free hand could allow you this or make it easier. Why cant i put a torch in my offhand...? I think that a lot of people would be offended, as casual easy going gameplay is more important as realism....

[Thorak]

There is only one way to make empty offhand viable currently and that is a weapon you get in act 3 after saving a certain child from a hag...

[jonnin]

An expanded offhand BA list would make sense, including using wands (Missing from bg3) or possibly dex roll to use other stuff (throw, activate magic items, ...)

[Heu, Iterum Id Feci]

I don't know if BG3 respects that, because I always run my casters with an empty offhand out of habit, but RAW to cast spells with somatic components you need either an empty hand or feats/items that allow the use of spells with somatic components while holding an item.
For melees on the other hand for me personally it only makes sense to want a shield if you don't use both hands for your weapon(s)...you are the one most likely to get hit after all...
Most of your suggestions are rather powerful and/or encroach the territory of other class features, which robs those classes of their special features...

[KRON]

Originally posted by Peluceus Donmian:

6. Confers additional reaction (riposte and defensive duelist would be made stronger and could theoretically even stack with shield spell)

This is actually a special feature of the Duellist's Prerogative rapier. With no mods.

[Mike Garrison]

Every class can use a staff. That's a 1d8 weapon when used in both hands. The only issue is that it is not a finesse weapon, so it relies on strength unless your class lets you use another attribute for it.

For the race/class combinations who can't use shields, they have various choices.

Characters with decent STR can use a staff two-handed. (If they can use a longsword, even better.)

Characters relying on DEX want a finesse weapon, and the basic choices there are either twin shortswords or a rapier or twin daggers (because every class can use daggers).

The only one of these options which is actually one-handed is using a rapier, and it probably only gets selected if you are rapier-proficient but not longsword-proficient, which probably means you are drow or a rogue or a bard. Those are likely the only race/class combinations in the game whose best option might be one-handed.

[guard65]

You can make just about any passive function in the game. To do what your talking about you just create a passive with the following condition line, easy.

data "BoostConditions" "IsOffHandSlotEmpty()"