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

Dual-wielding 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.

Staves

Pure-magic classes(Endo-Mage, Exo-Mage, and Lifebringer) may equip a staff(nromally a 2-handed weapon) in one hand and a shield or spellbook in the other, without having taken any special facets. However, doing so makes them unable to attack with either.

Martial Weapons

Certain martial weapons can automatically be dual-wielded without imposing an off-hand penalty. These include:

• Tonfu
• Knuckler
• Hand Wrap
• Kama
• Nunchaku

If one of these weapons is used, the attack is treated as a normal attack reguardless of whether it is main-hand or off-hand.

See Also:

• Mage Wars RPG