Author Topic: Two Weapon Fighting & Ambidexterity Talent  (Read 1477 times)

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Offline HawksNut

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Two Weapon Fighting & Ambidexterity Talent
« on: September 26, 2017, 01:29:13 PM »
A player recently pointed out to me that if his character has the Ambidexterity Talent that he does not need to develop Two-Weapon Fighting as he receives no off hand penalty. Having studied the rules in the Standard Rules and the Language "When a combatant develops skill with a weapon, he must develop the skill with his dominant hand (usually his right hand) and skill with the non-dominant hand separately. A weapon used in the non-dominant hand automatically gets a -20 modification to its OB." Then the language of Two Weapon Fighting "Switching either weapon to the other hand incurs the normal -20 penalty for use with the off-hand." This would not apply if you have the Talent, "You may use either hand equally well. There is no penalty for using a weapon in your "off' hand." it seems to me that having this talent negates the need to develop Two-Weapon Fighting?? 5 DP's for Ambidexterity is a very small price for this potentially huge bonus?

Offline jdale

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Re: Two Weapon Fighting & Ambidexterity Talent
« Reply #1 on: September 27, 2017, 12:49:29 AM »
In general, I wouldn't require a character to specify which hand he is learning a given weapon with. Certainly if you normally fight with a weapon in your right hand, you'll be at a disadvantage using it in your left, but I don't know that the disadvantage is greater than the -20 off-hand penalty. This is my personal opinion and not what the rules say (as you quoted, RMSR pg 96), but it does eliminate the potential issue about whether or not an ambidextrous character is getting a point break if they use the same type of weapon in each hand and only have to train that weapon skill once and not twice (once for each hand).

But that aside, the point of Two Weapon Fighting is not about holding a weapon in your wrong hand, it's about using two weapons at once. Without it, sure, you can use your longsword in either hand with no penalty with ambidexterity, but you still can't use two longswords at once.
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Offline RandalThor

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Re: Two Weapon Fighting & Ambidexterity Talent
« Reply #2 on: September 28, 2017, 12:45:18 AM »
Having the ability to fight equally well in either hands does not grant the ability to fight well with both at the same time. Ambidexterity allows you to use your "off" hand as well as your dominant, basically making it so you don't have an "off" hand. But, being able to wield two weapons at the same time (effectively) is another matter entirely. For that you need to train and develop the Two-Weapon Fighting skill, and do so with 2 specific weapons (longsword / dagger OR longsword / shortsword OR shortsword / dagger, etc...).
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Offline HawksNut

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Re: Two Weapon Fighting & Ambidexterity Talent
« Reply #3 on: September 28, 2017, 09:25:13 AM »
That makes perfect sense. Thank you for clearing that up.

Offline Cory Magel

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Re: Two Weapon Fighting & Ambidexterity Talent
« Reply #4 on: September 29, 2017, 07:04:45 PM »
Likely repeating what has been said, but...

Ambidexterity doesn't mean you can fight with two weapons at once. It means you can fight with the same weapon in either hand, individually, just as well.  As someone who has participated in amateur sword-fighting, I can confidently say those two things are not remotely the same.  Even if it were, it's more a question of balance in my opinion.

So how we treat it is you have to learn a weapon in a specific hand.  Ambidexterity does away with that need.  But you still need to develop two-weapon style to fight effectively with both.  If you are using two of the same weapon, you benefit.  If not, you don't.  Although, if you use different weapons you can potentially switch back and forth without a drawback - not sure if that'd come into play too often (maybe a sword with a wrap around hand guard intended for a specific hand).

My personal general rule is you cannot fight with two long swords (Broadsword for example).  So you need to fight with, say, a Broadsword and Short Sword, 2 Short Swords, Short Sword and Dagger, 2 Daggers, etc. 
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