Dual weapon attack & offhand weapon

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by corwyn

If anything, i would just allow them to use both parries up and give a +1 parry for the extra weapon and call it a day. Simpler, no extra rolls involved, and there is a price to pay if their opponent has some way to provide an extra attack (Rapid Attack, All Out Attack, Dual Weapon).

Cross Parry (from MA 121) is actually better than that. You get +2 to parry and significant improvements to restrictions on what you can parry. Though it had the more severe downside that neither weapon can parry again for the turn.

[Varyon]

In hopes of avoiding derailment (and potentially confusing a new player), I think I'll bow out of the DWA debate for this thread.

Have we sufficiently answered your questions, AllySanders?

[AllySanders]

Originally Posted by Varyon

In hopes of avoiding derailment (and potentially confusing a new player), I think I'll bow out of the DWA debate for this thread.

Have we sufficiently answered your questions, AllySanders?

Yes, I think you have!

Originally Posted by McAllister

if you gave me the skill levels she's looking at, I can help with the math. I've been using the rules for years and I still have to re-read the whole section whenever I want to use it.

The character she is making has ST 10 DX 14 and HT 10, with broadsword at 16 [DX+2] and shortsword at 15 [DX+1]. The broadsword is wielded in the right hand, the short sword in the left.

I don't have the martial arts book, so the basic set rules are all I have to go by, but I did talk her into just taking ambidexerity as an advantage to do away with the need for the off hand training technique. She has purchased dual weapon broadsword and dual weapon shortsword at 5 pts each to fully buy off the penalty for both weapons.

The game is to be a high fantasy style, and cinematic traits will be allowed.

Thanks all for the help! :)

[roguebfl]

Originally Posted by AllySanders

I don't have the martial arts book, so the basic set rules are all I have to go by, but I did talk her into just taking ambidexerity as an advantage to do away with the need for the off hand training technique. She has purchased dual weapon broadsword and dual weapon shortsword at 5 pts each to fully buy off the penalty for both weapons.

The game is to be a high fantasy style, and cinematic traits will be allowed.

Thanks all for the help! :)

Ok this bring up an important change to dual weapon wielding the MA introduced over the Basic Set.

in the Basic Set Off Hand Weapon Training (knife) is a technique that cost [5] to full pay off the offhand penalty, however when compared to Ambidexterity it was found to be too expensive for buying off the penalty for only a single weapon skill. so MA introduced Off Hand Weapon Training (knife) as a perk and only cost [1] to pay off the full -4 penalty for using a weapon in your off hand of a given type.

GURPS Dungeon Fantasy introduced Deal Weapon Attack (Rapier/Main-Gauche) as a unified single technique as RAW for the sub-genre, while DF's genre rules are not exactly backwards portable to apply in any GURPS game but it is mostly a fit for what you've been describing so the rule should work in your campaign. The main difference DF strips "Town/Society" from the Campaign priorities and focuses only on Dungeon crawl, so traits like Status are unnecessary for the campaigns Knights, but the Campaign also doesn't do thing like court intreague like other High fantasy styles do

[CraigM]

Some last points that haven't been raised:

Dual weapon attack is not the only reason to carry two weapons. Cross parries (+1 to parry and helps in resisting weapon breakage by combining weapon weight, at the cost of preventing multiple parries; it's from Martial Arts, but the concept is pretty simple) are very useful, as is the ability to throw the off-hand weapon to even the numbers or create shock penalties just before charging into melee (especially if it's an axe...).

Always having a spare ready weapon in case of disarms or arm locks is handy, too, as is having ready weapons with different reach profiles (e.g rapier/main-gauche).

[EDIT TO ADD: cross parties actually give +2; see below]

[Myrion]

In terms of community and people who might play/help you play, I feel that the GURPS Discord server might also be helpful:

https://discord.gg/yEyrENY

It's faster paced than the forum, but you'll get a lot of good feedback from there too!

[corwyn]

Originally Posted by CraigM

Some last points that haven't been raised:

Dual weapon attack is not the only reason to carry two weapons. Cross parries (+1 to parry and helps in resisting weapon breakage by combining weapon weight, at the cost of preventing multiple parries; it's from Martial Arts, but the concept is pretty simple) are very useful, as is the ability to throw the off-hand weapon to even the numbers or create shock penalties just before charging into melee (especially if it's an axe...).

Always having a spare ready weapon in case of disarms or arm locks is handy, too, as is having ready weapons with different reach profiles (e.g rapier/main-gauche).

As has been said, cross parry is at +2. Technically, you don't even need to be trained in both weapons as you use the best parry of the two. On the other hand, they break as the cheapest weapon and it's always the lighter one that breaks.

[CraigM]

Originally Posted by corwyn

As has been said, cross parry is at +2. Technically, you don't even need to be trained in both weapons as you use the best parry of the two. On the other hand, they break as the cheapest weapon and it's always the lighter one that breaks.

Whoops, mea culpa; you're right, +2. As good as a cloak or medium shield in DB terms.

The lighter weapon being the one that breaks strikes me as another benefit. Better to snap a knife than a rapier; inexpensive and easy to carry spares.