any disadvantages for dual wielding?

[jackdog3]

As title question. still learning the game mechanics. Of course you can't use a shield if you dual wield and I understand that without two weapon style you are less effective/to hit etc with the offhand weapon, but does it affect anything else, speed, damage of main weapon. Essentially if your not using a shield or two handed weapon, even if you don't have two weapon proficiency, is there any reason not to dual wield?

[bad_fur_day1]

I think it's generally considered to go with two weapons style to increase your damage and like attacks per round. I think the only downside is decreasing your AC without a shield, or if you are wanting to use two handed weapons.

[AlexMBrennan]

Dual wielding comes with a massive -8 penalty to hit with your main hand weapon if you do not have any points in two weapon fighting style so you should not dual wield unless you have two points in two weapon fighting.

The third point is not necessary because the purpose of the offhand weapon is not to hit the enemy but to boost your stat (e.g. set strength to 25 with Crom Faeyr, gain +20% damage resistance from the Defender of Easthaven, or gain an extra attack per round with your mainhand weapon from Belm/Kundane/Scarlet Ninjato)

Dual wielding negatively affects damage because single weapon style allows you to crit on 19 (in addition to slightly improving your armour class) but the above mentioned stat boosts make up for this.

[jackdog3]

Thanks, -8 is indeed massive so defo not doing that.

[bad_fur_day1]

Yeah, other than the significant downsides if your not proficient in it.

[Damn_Monkey]

I see very little downside to Dual wielding. Drop 2 points into it early on and then just swing away. So many good 1h weapons in the game. Shields are only situationally useful. And you can always toss one on if needed.

[jackdog3]

Yea but started with BG2ee SoA, don't really want to do BG1 first (which I know plenty disagree with) and levelling is really slow. Spending so many hours messing around in chapter 2 to make life easier later and to learn but the XP isn't big. 6 levels to get two points to use seems like a world away, but I think I will.

[AlexMBrennan]

If you pick a fighter then you start BG2 with at least 6 points which is enough for high mastery in your chosen weapon plus two points for two weapon style so this would be a reasonable option to consider at character creation if you know which weapon you want to use.

[Rob DiGiorno]

Also I am not an expert on dual wield mechanics, but it does not work the way you might expect, of each weapon making an equal number of attacks or something like that.

yes, there are many downsides if you don't have mastery, but tremendous potential if you do. as others said, there are many great 1h weapons with useful abilities.

[bad_fur_day1]

Your offhand weapon gets 1 or two hits if your hasted I think, additional attacks get added on to your main hand weapon I believe. The reason why Belm and Kundane in your off hand works well to increase your main hand weapons amount of attack per round.

BG2 you seem to start immediately at level 7 or so, the idea playing through BG1 first you can pick up some extra stat points for your character and start BG2 with say 19 Strength. It's not a big deal but it's nice.

[Damn_Monkey]

Originally posted by bad_fur_day1:

Your offhand weapon gets 1 or two hits if your hasted I think

You only ever attack with your off hand once per Round, with the exception of Improved Haste, which doubles your APR. So your off hand would swing twice (although you're still only swinging once per round in a technical sense. Imp. Haste just halves the Round timer if I recall correctly). Normal Haste simply adds +1 APR to your main hand.

[bad_fur_day1]

Yep, it is (improved) haste.

[Morris en 8 Bits]

Ranges have 2 point free in dual wielding you can give 1 more point and your dominate hand has no penalties, dualwield is situational in certain classes like cleric rouge, mage since it doesn't get much THAC0. oh and no use celerity potion o normal haste(lvl3 spel) in dualwield because is bug use improved haste always