Two-Weapon Fighting with Rapiers is le broken?

[Blue_Wyrm]

I'll take the in-game exemple of Roger:

• Human
• Base Attack Bonus +4
• Dexterity +3 (Weapon Finesse)
• Attack Bonus +1 on each rapier
• Weapon Focus : Rapier
• Two-Weapon Fighting feat (-2/-2 penalty with two light weapons)

Theoretically, unless I'm some dumb, silly stupid idiot, my modified Attack Bonus for each hand, taking into account that rapiers are Light weapons:

BAB + Dex + Size + Weapon Focus + Weapon Attribute - (Dual-wield penalty with two light weapons)
4 + 3 + 0 + 1 + 1 - 2 = + 7

... but my character sheet says only +5 for each hand! What's up with that? Is it a known NWN2 bug? Are rapiers just Light in their description and medium in practice? :~(

[Machiavelli]

Rapiers are medium (as I believe it says in the description) but work with weapon finesse... so if you wield one in the offhand you get the -4/-4 penalty for a medium offhand weapon.

[Gothic Rose]

Machi is dead on right.

Try dual wielding a rapier and a dagger - it looks cool.

[Baelas]

I'm not 100% certain, but I was under the impression that the dual-wield penalties were based on size rather than check wether the weapon type was considered light or not.

Weapon Finesse on the other hand does allow for Rapiers and other light weapons to be used with dexterity.

It may be that my knowledge of dualwielding is outdated, though...
But if you're a medium race, you will incur less penalties while using a "Small" or "Tiny" weapon in your offhand.
As a halfling or gnome, you'd be restricted to only using "Tiny" weapons in your offhand for lowered penalties.

I suspect that it may be possible to dualwield rapiers with lowered penalties while under the influence of an enlargement spell.

Oh, and while we're sort of on the subject, I don't think you get any duelist bonuses while dualwielding, at least not the damagebonus parts.

[Blue_Wyrm]

Rapiers are medium (as I believe it says in the description) but work with weapon finesse... so if you wield one in the offhand you get the -4/-4 penalty for a medium offhand weapon.

Ooooh... did I, by any chance, mistake "Simple" weapons with "Small" weapons? Urgh.. Well what you say makes a lot of sense. Thanks for answering. I feel silly. ^^

Try dual wielding a rapier and a dagger - it looks cool.

Captain Yellowbeard is the one fighting with that weapon style, I was aiming more at a swashbuckler style. So I guess I will endure the penalty, at least I know it's supposed to be so. I could be monkey-gripping two falchions. XD

Oh, and while we're sort of on the subject, I don't think you get any duelist bonuses while dualwielding, at least not the damagebonus parts.

You are right, but it is probably a class feature I will just forget about, because losing two attacks (and more later on) is just not worth 2D6 damage on one hand (because the off-hand attacks each deal 1D6+strenght+bonuses). And Flourish still works. I am not building this character for offense but rather it's silly defensive power against meeleing foes, still it's fun to try to get the most out of it. Thanks everyone for your answers.

[Machiavelli]

Ooooh... did I, by any chance, mistake "Simple" weapons with "Small" weapons? Urgh.. Well what you say makes a lot of sense. Thanks for answering. I feel silly. ^^

Captain Yellowbeard is the one fighting with that weapon style, I was aiming more at a swashbuckler style. So I guess I will endure the penalty, at least I know it's supposed to be so. I could be monkey-gripping two falchions. XD

You are right, but it is probably a class feature I will just forget about, because losing two attacks (and more later on) is just not worth 1D6 extra piercing with the off-hand. And Flourish still works.

There are some very rapier-like short swords available these days at some of the merchants, they're a small weapon so won't incur the penalty and might fit your swahbucklery look

[Blue_Wyrm]

Hmm, I am tempted by your words, necromancer. A main-gauche would be a great compromise!

[Machiavelli]

Hmm, I am tempted by your words, necromancer. A main-gauche would be a great compromise!

Was it Baldur's Gate where there was a Main-Gauche which gave an AC bonus? Anyway, that was cool.

[Blue_Wyrm]

Since then they put in the Two-Weapon defense feat in the updated 3rd edition, so it can be any lightweight weapon I think. But yeah, with a cool-looking shortsword it could work very well as a main gauche. Only thing I'm not sure is that I'm losing Parry if I switch weapons for something else... :S

[Rhifox]

Captain Yellowbeard is the one fighting with that weapon style, I was aiming more at a swashbuckler style. So I guess I will endure the penalty, at least I know it's supposed to be so. I could be monkey-gripping two falchions. XD

Swashbuckler (for a pirate at least) is actually generally cutlass, which is similar to the scimitar, and is generally a one-handed style. It's not really fancy at all. Ti's what you see in the Pirates of the Caribbean films.

Rapier would be fencing, which is generally one-handed rapier or rapier mainhand and a main gauche (small parrying dagger) in the offhand. Dual-wield rapiers is actually a pretty uncommon fighting style. If you're going two-handed, a main hand rapier and dagger off hand with two-handed defense feat is what you should be looking at.

[Blue_Wyrm]

To keep you updated with this, yesterday I took a decision to improve my hit rate while still distinguishing myself weaponry-speaking from the other mates of the Dancing Damsel; I replaced my off-hand rapier with what Roger calls a "Hook", which is a Sickle. ^_^ My AB went from +5/+5 to +7/+6, which is surprisingly a noticeable difference in battle. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread and helped me become less of a D&D newb.