MRPG Dual-Wielding

Dual-Wielding in Mage Wars RPG will take a somewhat more exciting role than in other games. It is possible to dual-wield any weapon, regardless of practicality, probability, or sanity. It just takes a lot of work.

Melee Dual-Wielding

The rules for dual-wielding Melee Weapons:

Basic Dual Wielding

Each weapon has a strength requirement in order to equip it. In order to equip two 1-handed weapons, the character must have at least double the buffed strength requirement of both weapons(Example: a character wishes to equip a sword with STR 8 and a knife with STR 5, he must have at least STR 16).

One making attacks, the character will automatically alternate attacking from each side(Mage Wars PnP: the player my chose which hand to attack with or both).

Offhand-Penalty

For the off-hand weapon, all checks are done using the unbuffed Strength and Strength Modifier. So even if a formula would call for the buffed check, use the unbuffed if the attack is off-hand.

Advanced Dual-Wielding

If the player has sufficient proficiency with all weapon-types being used("sufficient" to be determined by a combination of weapon strength-requirement, character level, and buffed proficiency), the offhand penalty is ignored. A visual indicator on the player's character sheet will show whether or not the penalty is being imposed.

Over-Sized Dual-Wielding

Over-sized dual-wielding will allow the player, using facets, to dual wield first one, and then two 2-handed weapons(first 2-hand main-hand and 1-hand off-hand, then a 2-hander in each hand). The strength-requirements will be enormous and will probably impose dexterity and stamina penalties, which can, of course, be eliminated with facets.

Over-Sized Offhand-Penalty

For the 2-hander mainhand/1-hander offhand there is no penalty if the player meets the strength, level, and proficiency requirements and already has the offhand-penalty facet. For dual-wielding a second 2-hander, the same penalty(all checks use unbuffed-strength) applies, along with a 50% reduction in damage for the offhand and 25% for the main-hand.

All of this can, of course, be improved with facets, allowing sufficiently-powerful characters to dual-wield two-handed melee weapons and deal full, buffed-damage with each hand.

Ranged Dual-Wielding

Many people will, immediately respond that dual-wielding ranged weapons is stupid and ridiculous. I say "neener-neener-neerner my game is cooler than yours!" to them.

Basic Ranged Dual-Wielding

First of all ranged dual-wielding will require a facet to even equip and off-hand weapon. Second, the players strength and dexterity must be able to meet the requirements for both stats for each weapon.

Example: a player wishes to equip a bow with a minimum DEX of 12 and a sword with a minimum STR of 10. BOTH STR AND DEX MUST BE EQUAL TO 12.

The character will also use unbuffed-stats for all combat calculations while both weapons are equiped(AV, DV, and damage calculation).

When attacking, the character will automatically alternate between bow and melee regardless of whether or not a mob is within melee range.

Ranged Offhand-Penalty

Unlike melee, there is no offhand-penalty for having a melee weapon equiped to the offhand, since the ranged weapon also takes a major penalty from having both equiped.

As usual these penalties are reduced and removed through additional facets.

Advanced Ranged Dual-Wielding

Advanced Ranged Dual-Wielding is the use of two ranged-weapons at once. Players may still only equip one ammo-bag at a time, so they must use same-type weapons(E.G. two longbows, two crossbows, etc). Weapons can be mixed IF they use the same type of ammunition(longbows and shortbows both fire arrows).

Much like with dual-wielding melees, the player must have double the buffed dexterity as required for both weapons(or: higher DEX-requirement X2).

All combat calculations then use unbuffed-dexterity and damage is reduced by 50%.

Removing Ranged Penalties

It is possible, eventually, to remove all penalties form ranged dual-wielding and to thus do full-damage with each equiped weapon. It is not possible to mix weapon-types, however.

Mage Wars PnP

In Mage Wars PnP, Players are allowed to select multiple targets and attack a different ranged target depending on which hand they are using.

Dual-Wielding Facet Chain

Basic dual-wielding will be available to all characters from the start. The first facets of the chain will lower the strength-requirements. Advanced Dual-Wielding will also require a facet, and further facets will lower the requirements to ignore the penalty.

All of these will be required for the over-sized dual-wielding and ranged dual-wielding, hence ranged dual-wielding is only available after the player has mastered melee dual-wielding.

Dual-Wielding and Spellcasting

Dualwielding does not impose any penalty on magic, so it is possible for mages to dual-wield and fight(hybrid classes will find this particularly useful.

Mages have facets which allow them to equip a spellbook to each hand. As covered in spellbooks, spellbooks count as melee weapons and are subject to dual-wielding penalties and rules.

See Also:

• Mage Wars RPG