Dual Weapon Attack and Parry

[Dusqune]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

I think by "potentially" he means with the use of Technique Mastery.

Yes, that was what I was using.

Originally Posted by Kuroshima

First, a shield is a weapon, albeit one with a primarily defensive purpose, but it can be used to push, bash, and slam. It certainly wasn't used ONLY to defend. It was used in most of the world, and always combined with another weapon. Dual eskrima sticks is an also valid combination, and so is rapier/main-gauche.

What doesn't happen in real life, and does happen in RPGs, is that people dual wield long weapons (I know, there are dual rapier fencing schools, but the style didn't become dominant, and I'm pretty sure it didn't use the longest rapiers).

See, I forget about that 'shields are weapons' nonsense (I say 'nonesense' in the most lighthearted manner). I usually think of them as a category of their own, but still closer to armor than weapons.

But yeah, if you count shields as weapons that adds a HUGE exception to what I was saying earlier.

...I wonder if you could build a viable dual-shield weilder? The ultimate turtle character! Probably a topic for a different thread, though.

Originally Posted by Bruno

When comparing DWA with Rapid Strike, don't forget that DWA at -4 includes a -1 penalty to defend if you apply both attacks to the same target. This is pretty nice!

Taking two parries from two different weapons simultaneously is All Out Defence: Dual Defence or (as noted previously) Cross-Parry.

True, DWA's have other advantages to them, which makes it a viable choice. In fact, I don't think there's much wrong with the balance of DWA as is, it's just that, in my mind, if you build a cinematic character with the base concept "I want to attack as much as possible per turn" you intuitively think of a Dual-Wielder, maybe a 'double' weapon (Like a quarterstaff). GURPS seems to lean away from those builds by making Rapid Strike the 'attack as much as possible' move.

I suppose I'm trying to reconcile this without nerfing Rapid Strike down to "you can only use it once, like DWA."

Also, slightly off-topic, is there an equivalent Triple Weapon Attack for a race with an extra arm? Or a [#] Weapon Attack formula? Can't think of one off the top of my head, other than just buying Extra Attack (Which is, in my mind, an expensive way to get the same results as DWA).