Two weapon fighting questions

[Deme]

One of the games I DM features a (nonhuman) level 2 warblade who does Two-weapon fighting (a battle axe and a handaxe, for the record)...

I was going along, contented with the whole situation (other than one rules question, also below) until I heard some mention as two-weapon fighting as requiring a full-round action: am I hearing this correctly, because there is no mention of that that I can find.

My second issue is this: the warblade loves punishing stance. adores it. I've not had a major problem with it yet, but I'm not entirely sure of one thing: should the warblade be able to roll extra punishing stance damage for both attacks, or only one? at the moment, I've been saying both, but I'm always a tiny bit uneasy, which is why I think I need a second opinion.

[AslanCross]

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/specialAttacks.htm#twoWeaponFighting

The general way to get more than one attack per round is to attack as a full round action.
Thankfully, ToB has maneuvers that help solve this problem.

Also, yes, Punishing stance applies to all your attacks.


...you deal an extra 1d6 damage with all melee attacks.

[tyckspoon]

Yes, attacking with both weapons requires a full-round attack. Almost all sources of extra attacks do; you have to be using a full-round attack to get the bonus attack from Haste or a Speed weapon, too. The relevant rules text is under Actions in Combat, Full Round Actions. Quoted here for convenience:


If you get more than one attack per round because your base attack bonus is high enough, because you fight with two weapons or a double weapon or for some special reason you must use a full-round action to get your additional attacks. You do not need to specify the targets of your attacks ahead of time. You can see how the earlier attacks turn out before assigning the later ones.

There are some feats and Tiger Claw maneuvers that let you strike with both weapons as a standard action. If you want to let your player keep using both of his weapons as a normal attack, that'll be fine; two-weapon fighting is mechanically weak enough that it won't be breaking anything under normal conditions.

Punishing Stance says 'all melee attacks', so yes, it does apply to both weapons. It would also apply to any Attacks of Opportunity made while in the stance.

[Deme]

Oh, my! I was looking in all the wrong places for that rule about two-weapon-fighting rule. Thank you ^^

[Ascension]

Focusing on Tiger Blade maneuvers is the obvious choice for a TWFer, but I'd also suggest looking into the Bloodclaw Master prestige class when the time is right. Some of the abilities are quite nice (particularly the total elimination of TWFing attack penalties).