Battlemage

[Iduno]

What skills does battlemage actually work with, and not work with?

It does not work with Dashing Charge or Dungeon Dervish, even though I meet the requirements of having a 1h weapon, and a weapon in each hand.

It also no longer appears to work with psychomanser skills, but wielding a staff and an empty hand seems weird (weirder than a sword? I guess not?).

[illumina_weasel]

The actual requirements for using Dungeon Dervish skills is a little different than what the listed requirement implies. Not only must both hands be full, they must both have specifically 1-handed weapons in them. Staff + 1-Hander or Polearm + 1-Hander (via bug) do not work.

Aside from abilities without equipment requirements (Necromansy, Southern Gentlemans, etc.), Staves can use 2-Handed weapon skills (Legendary Armsman, Grimdark Darkmans) even without Battlemage, though I Am Death Incinerator! won't work properly.

So what skills do you gain access to by learning Battlemage? Without exploiting bugs, nothing. The intended purpose is to make your single-target melee damage much better, while also providing some decent additional passive boosts.

If you exploit bugs, however, you add 1 or 3 skills to the number of skills available to you. After equipping a weapon in the off-hand, you can then either remove it (to equip a Fist in that slot) or swap it out with a Shield. This gives you access to High Guard and the three Hymns of the Old Century Psychomanser skills (but not Sword and Board skills, as they require specifically a 1-handed weapon in the main hand).

Note that this same bug can be abused to equip a 1-handed weapon in the offhand with a Polearm, though for whatever reason it can't equip a Fist in the off-hand like Staves can. Also note that one of these "illegal" equipment loadouts will not persist through a save and load, so carry a spare sword or shield to fix your loadout if you choose to exploit these.