Question for a beginner DnD player

[ButtonBasher]

Hey there,

me and my friends started playing DnD a little while ago. We're all very new to the game and don't know all the rules yet so I have a question.

I am a Human Paladin with a sword 'n board. If I stand in melee range of a character, haven't done any movement action, am I allowed to attack with my sword AND with my shield?
Or is my standard action turn over after I've attacked with my sword?

This is regarding DnD 3.5.

I do not have the Two Weapon Fighting feat btw.

Thanks a lot!

[ComaVision]

Yes, it's just like fighting with two weapons.

However, since you don't have the relevant feats, you'd suffer a -6 on your sword attack roll and a -10 on your shield attack roll, and lose your shield bonus to AC until the next round.

[Crake]

Yes, it's just like fighting with two weapons.

However, since you don't have the relevant feats, you'd suffer a -6 on your sword attack roll and a -10 on your shield attack roll, and lose your shield bonus to AC until the next round.

It would actually be -4 and -8 if the shield is a light shield

[ButtonBasher]

Yes, it's just like fighting with two weapons.

However, since you don't have the relevant feats, you'd suffer a -6 on your sword attack roll and a -10 on your shield attack roll, and lose your shield bonus to AC until the next round.

Ok great ty for answering.
That does mean I have to say before attacking that I will be attacking with both weapons right?
I cant swing my sword and then decide I also want to bash with my shield?

[ComaVision]

Ok great ty for answering.
That does mean I have to say before attacking that I will be attacking with both weapons right?
I cant swing my sword and then decide I also want to bash with my shield?

That's correct. Glad I could help.

[Immabozo]

Ok great ty for answering.
That does mean I have to say before attacking that I will be attacking with both weapons right?
I cant swing my sword and then decide I also want to bash with my shield?

Two weapon fighting, in D&D is broken in a bad way. Fighting with a two handed weapon is FAR superior.

Basically, there is a whole slew of feats just to make TWF (two weapon fighting) as effective as THF (two handed fighting) is naturally. Compounded by the fact that THF can use all those feats that a TWF uses to be as good as he is, to then build on it and be better at combat.

And there are a lot.

That is not to say that TWF cannot be good, but it takes a lot more work and knowledge of the rules and various books to be really overpowered.

Not that sword and board style is bad, but, if you are like me and like rolling lots of damage dice and want to do massive damage, I encourage THF. I had a character at level 12 who did, between 1 crit and one normal hit, did 16D8 +127 damage, and two shotted an adult blue dragon at the start of round two, who had only taken slight damage round 1.

EDIT: So I encourage you to figure out how you want to play your character, and build for that. If you want to be super tanky and just take the attention away from the squishy casters, al power to you, I really suggest using your shield, as a shield. If you want to do damage, I suggest a two handed weapon, not a sword and board, for pure damage.

Although, remember rule 0, have fun. If you want to do something suboptimal, because it's fun, by golly, do it!

[Darrin]

Ok great ty for answering.
That does mean I have to say before attacking that I will be attacking with both weapons right?
I cant swing my sword and then decide I also want to bash with my shield?

You do not have to state how you are going to allocate your attacks at the beginning of your turn. You can decide to stop attacking, change targets, or do something else even after you've rolled your first attack. From the SRD:

"After your first attack, you can decide to take a move action instead of making your remaining attacks, depending on how the first attack turns out."

The stupid part of this rule is that, if you do decide to use the TWF rules to make multiple attacks, you have to account for the TWF penalty... on an attack that's already been rolled. It's not clear from the rules if this penalty could turn a "hit" into a "miss".

Skip Williams attempted to address this problem in Rules of the Game: Two-Weapon Fighting (Part Two) (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20060905a) by saying, if you don't include the TWF penalty in your first attack, then you give up the option of deciding whether you want to use TWF later. As in, he says if you don't include the TWF penalty on your first attack, then you can't decide later to use TWF. Skip doesn't discuss the other end of it, but presumably if you incur the penalty, notice your roll was "close", and decide not to use TWF, you can't remove the penalty and retroactively turn a "miss" into a "hit".

As far as RAW goes (Rules As Written), it depends on who you ask whether Skip's articles count the same as the actual game rules, but around these forums most of us tend to consider Skip's Rules articles to be "Skip's Opinions" rather than the full weight of RAW.

But anyway, the gist of it is: after your first attack, you can decide to switch targets, switch weapons, do something else, or continue with a full attack.

[ButtonBasher]

I see yeah I have to call it out beforehand but am allowed to change my mind after the first attack.
Got it thanks! I'm ready for tomorrow's session :D

[Divide by Zero]

Skip Williams attempted to address this problem in Rules of the Game: Two-Weapon Fighting (Part Two) (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20060905a) by saying, if you don't include the TWF penalty in your first attack, then you give up the option of deciding whether you want to use TWF later. As in, he says if you don't include the TWF penalty on your first attack, then you can't decide later to use TWF. Skip doesn't discuss the other end of it, but presumably if you incur the penalty, notice your roll was "close", and decide not to use TWF, you can't remove the penalty and retroactively turn a "miss" into a "hit".

As far as RAW goes (Rules As Written), it depends on who you ask whether Skip's articles count the same as the actual game rules, but around these forums most of us tend to consider Skip's Rules articles to be "Skip's Opinions" rather than the full weight of RAW.

It makes sense from an in-character perspective, though: even if you're not sure you're going to make the second attack, if you want the option to be available you still have to make the first attack in such a way that you're in position for the second one. And you can't rewind the attack and say "just kidding!" if you barely miss.

[Mystral]

Hey there,

me and my friends started playing DnD a little while ago. We're all very new to the game and don't know all the rules yet so I have a question.

I am a Human Paladin with a sword 'n board. If I stand in melee range of a character, haven't done any movement action, am I allowed to attack with my sword AND with my shield?
Or is my standard action turn over after I've attacked with my sword?

This is regarding DnD 3.5.

I do not have the Two Weapon Fighting feat btw.

Thanks a lot!

You can shield bash (attack with your shield), but you take penalities on your attack (depending on the type of the shield) and you lose your AC bonus from the shield for that turn. You can only shield bash as part of a full attack, though, which takes a full round action.

[Andezzar]

Not that sword and board style is bad, but, if you are like me and like rolling lots of damage dice and want to do massive damage, I encourage THF. I had a character at level 12 who did, between 1 crit and one normal hit, did 16D8 +127 damage, and two shotted an adult blue dragon at the start of round two, who had only taken slight damage round 1.If you are worried about AC, get an animated shield as soon as you can afford it. Also note that one-handed weapons can be wielded with two hands. The weapon damage does not improve but you get all the other goodies (1.5 STR bonus, 2:1 power attack exchange rate etc.)

[Immabozo]

If you are worried about AC, get an animated shield as soon as you can afford it. Also note that one-handed weapons can be wielded with two hands. The weapon damage does not improve but you get all the other goodies (1.5 STR bonus, 2:1 power attack exchange rate etc.)

All good points!