Really appreciate the way you analyze and present material. In those games that only go up to around 10, dual wielding is always fun. The playtest for OneD&D looks like it will make dual wielding even better! I do have one criticism for your videos, would you ever consider changing the presentation colors? It's quite bright on a large screen.
Honestly it doesn’t even need to be black (though that is the most viewer friendly). When I did digital art in high school, I’d always put a grey background before anything to reduce eye strain.
Loved the video. I'm actually playing a Dex based character that is duel wielding rapiers in a Spelljammer campaign. Through level 5 I've really enjoyed it, but I decided to go Battle Master over Two-Weapon Fighting since I valued the Battle Maneuvers over the extra damage (Especially Push Attack and Trip Attack). I do plan to multiclass back into College of Swords Bard to get Two-Weapon Fighting later though. I have had a lot of fun with the character in combat, but I'm not sure if occasionally shoving someone off the ship to their death and attacking with advantage on prone enemies from Trip Attack is actually better than if I had taken the extra damage every hit from Two-Weapon Fighting.
My first 5e character was based on a character I made up years ago, and my DM worked with me. He gave me a magic Longsword from level 1 (turns out it’s a Moonblade, but he unlocked abilities from it as he spent time with it), so I played a Hexblade and took the Dual Wielding feat so I could use the Moonblade in one hand as my Hex Warrior weapon and an Improved Pact Weapon in the other, with Hex. At Level 5 I picked up Eldritch Smite, Thirsting Blade, and Spirit Shroud and hit a White Dragon for over 100 damage in a single round. My party and I were quite satisfied with the build
I would think to really compare these, you'd have to compare survivability too. People don't go sword and board because they want to do less damage, know what I mean?
I talk about this a little in the summary, but depending on fighting style and feat choices, weapon + shield will have 1-2 more AC than a dual wielder which will have 0-1 more AC than a polearm user. One of the other interesting things is that weapon + shield passes dual wielding in damage output once the primary attribute is capped, while having better AC. For a quick and dirty survivability check, let's assume all sample builds have plate armor (base AC 18). Our shield user has 20 AC, our dual wielder has 19 (feat gives +1), and our polearm user has 18. Let's look at enemy to hit bonuses of +4 and +8. Against +4, enemy hit chance is 25%, 30%, and 35%. Shield user has about 20% more effective HP than a dual wielder and 40% more than a polearm character. Against +8, enemy hit chance is 45%, 50%, and 55%. Shield user has 11% more effective HP than a dual wielder and 22% more than a polearm user.
Avoid dual wielding investments for any class... keep that second weapon handy and take a 4 level dip in Ranger Hunter. You get a fighting style you can use on something better(Mariner, Defensive), 3 skills, at least 3 languages, a skill expertise, wilderness flavor, Horde Breaker extra attack and the Menacing feat. Now, replace that bonus action second weapon attack with Menacing without penalties to damage due to dual wielding AND you gain an additional attack via Horde Breaker a solid half of all rounds. You haven't lost any attacks or damage output, saved a fighting style, gained an Extra fighting style, and now have a fear effect that targets Insight(rare on stat blocks).
Alternatively drop the menacing and add tunnel fighter... use that bonus action for multiple attacks instead of a single dual wield attack, relegating the dual wield bonus action to a rarity
Dunno how you did those calcs, but none of these mechanics are new and somehow your conclusions are very different from everyone else that has done these calcs. GWM ends up being THE thing, all by itself, that pushes heavy weapons ahead. Without advantage, or any other buffs, as soon as the first feats are in play, GWM (and SS for ranged) crush everything else. ...and that's just talking about damage. Hex cannot be cast while dual wielding except where the caster can use his weapon as a focus... and likewise cannot cast any other spell with a material or somatic component. Even the idea of weaponizing your bonus action ends up in favor of the GWM user, as his BA attacks will always be a d10 or better and always include his attack modifier. Sorry bro, but without showing your math and specifically where everyone else's math is wrong, I can't see it.
All my math is on the slides; feel free to extract the numbers and run them for yourself. I allowed a single setup round and then looked at the damage on all subsequent turns. You can very easily cast hex even as a dual wielder or shield and weapon user. Just start combat with an empty hand, cast the spell, and draw your weapon. Transferring requires no special spell components. GWM PAM BA attacks use a d4 damage dice, so not sure where you were going there. Referring to the flat +10? Yes, this was included. Long story short accuracy matters a lot when contesting higher ACs. An early damage rider such as hex or hunter’s mark goes a long way in the early levels. However, if the PAM GWM character has advantage (like a barbarian), they will out damage a dual wielder. In the case where you don’t have advantage reliably, dual wielding is relevant for more levels.
Really appreciate the way you analyze and present material. In those games that only go up to around 10, dual wielding is always fun. The playtest for OneD&D looks like it will make dual wielding even better! I do have one criticism for your videos, would you ever consider changing the presentation colors? It's quite bright on a large screen.
That’s good feedback! I’ll see if I can make a black background theme I like.
Honestly it doesn’t even need to be black (though that is the most viewer friendly). When I did digital art in high school, I’d always put a grey background before anything to reduce eye strain.
Loved the video.
I'm actually playing a Dex based character that is duel wielding rapiers in a Spelljammer campaign. Through level 5 I've really enjoyed it, but I decided to go Battle Master over Two-Weapon Fighting since I valued the Battle Maneuvers over the extra damage (Especially Push Attack and Trip Attack). I do plan to multiclass back into College of Swords Bard to get Two-Weapon Fighting later though. I have had a lot of fun with the character in combat, but I'm not sure if occasionally shoving someone off the ship to their death and attacking with advantage on prone enemies from Trip Attack is actually better than if I had taken the extra damage every hit from Two-Weapon Fighting.
My first 5e character was based on a character I made up years ago, and my DM worked with me. He gave me a magic Longsword from level 1 (turns out it’s a Moonblade, but he unlocked abilities from it as he spent time with it), so I played a Hexblade and took the Dual Wielding feat so I could use the Moonblade in one hand as my Hex Warrior weapon and an Improved Pact Weapon in the other, with Hex. At Level 5 I picked up Eldritch Smite, Thirsting Blade, and Spirit Shroud and hit a White Dragon for over 100 damage in a single round. My party and I were quite satisfied with the build
Sounds like you made great use of two weapon fighting! Stacking a bunch of damage riders with a bonus action attack indeed works well!
I would think to really compare these, you'd have to compare survivability too. People don't go sword and board because they want to do less damage, know what I mean?
I talk about this a little in the summary, but depending on fighting style and feat choices, weapon + shield will have 1-2 more AC than a dual wielder which will have 0-1 more AC than a polearm user. One of the other interesting things is that weapon + shield passes dual wielding in damage output once the primary attribute is capped, while having better AC.
For a quick and dirty survivability check, let's assume all sample builds have plate armor (base AC 18). Our shield user has 20 AC, our dual wielder has 19 (feat gives +1), and our polearm user has 18. Let's look at enemy to hit bonuses of +4 and +8. Against +4, enemy hit chance is 25%, 30%, and 35%. Shield user has about 20% more effective HP than a dual wielder and 40% more than a polearm character. Against +8, enemy hit chance is 45%, 50%, and 55%. Shield user has 11% more effective HP than a dual wielder and 22% more than a polearm user.
Avoid dual wielding investments for any class... keep that second weapon handy and take a 4 level dip in Ranger Hunter. You get a fighting style you can use on something better(Mariner, Defensive), 3 skills, at least 3 languages, a skill expertise, wilderness flavor, Horde Breaker extra attack and the Menacing feat.
Now, replace that bonus action second weapon attack with Menacing without penalties to damage due to dual wielding AND you gain an additional attack via Horde Breaker a solid half of all rounds. You haven't lost any attacks or damage output, saved a fighting style, gained an Extra fighting style, and now have a fear effect that targets Insight(rare on stat blocks).
This also adds Longstrider and Jump to what is likely a mobile character.
Alternatively drop the menacing and add tunnel fighter... use that bonus action for multiple attacks instead of a single dual wield attack, relegating the dual wield bonus action to a rarity
Dunno how you did those calcs, but none of these mechanics are new and somehow your conclusions are very different from everyone else that has done these calcs.
GWM ends up being THE thing, all by itself, that pushes heavy weapons ahead.
Without advantage, or any other buffs, as soon as the first feats are in play, GWM (and SS for ranged) crush everything else.
...and that's just talking about damage. Hex cannot be cast while dual wielding except where the caster can use his weapon as a focus... and likewise cannot cast any other spell with a material or somatic component.
Even the idea of weaponizing your bonus action ends up in favor of the GWM user, as his BA attacks will always be a d10 or better and always include his attack modifier.
Sorry bro, but without showing your math and specifically where everyone else's math is wrong, I can't see it.
All my math is on the slides; feel free to extract the numbers and run them for yourself. I allowed a single setup round and then looked at the damage on all subsequent turns.
You can very easily cast hex even as a dual wielder or shield and weapon user. Just start combat with an empty hand, cast the spell, and draw your weapon. Transferring requires no special spell components.
GWM PAM BA attacks use a d4 damage dice, so not sure where you were going there. Referring to the flat +10? Yes, this was included.
Long story short accuracy matters a lot when contesting higher ACs. An early damage rider such as hex or hunter’s mark goes a long way in the early levels. However, if the PAM GWM character has advantage (like a barbarian), they will out damage a dual wielder. In the case where you don’t have advantage reliably, dual wielding is relevant for more levels.