Offhand Weapon skill

Offhand Weapon represents a characters ability to use a weapon in their offhand (left hand currently). It has been explicitly stated that this skill solely covers non-brawling weaponry, as brawling is considered to be a full body attack, without any sense of on- or offhand.

Offhand is often referred to as 'Dual Wielding' since one is capable of wielding a weapon in both hands and attacking with either one at any point in battle. The weapon wielded as offhand can be anything from a sword to a throwing dagger (yes, you can throw with your off hand while still holding your main weapon in your right).

Offhand attacks are a two skill contest, using 70% of your Offhand skill and 30% of the appropriate weapon skill. Likewise, the experience gained from attacking this way is also distributed 70/30.

The main use of this system is training secondary and tertiary weapons. In addition to being able to train two skills at once, due to a large portion of the skill contest being determined by Offhand Weapon, it can be highly effective for training secondary and tertiary weapon skills. A character who possesses 100 ranks in Offhand Weapon, regardless of the weapon used, will always have an effective 70 ranks when fighting offhand.

Training

Dual weilding allows a fighter to hold a lower-skilled weapon in their left hand and a higher-skilled weapon in their right, parry is still counted against your right hand weapon so you count no penalty for training the lower-skilled weapon in your left hand.

Syntax and Use

To use the offhand skill, the word "left" must proceed whichever attack verb is being used, as in "slice left." It is fully compatable with feint+attack and ambush.

A good strategy for Dual weilding is to carry a heavier weapon in your right hand and a lighter one in your left. This allows you to change off, if you find your attacks are taking too long to execute, you can use the lighter weapon to attack faster. If you find your attacks arn't hitting hard enough, you can use the heavier weapon to cause more damage.

Combos in Dual wielding are simply maneuvered, as well. If both weapons are edged of the same size and type, slashing or thrusting, you simply follow your combo in a line no matter which hand you attack with. In the case of both weapons being edged, one being medium and one being light, you simply move to the next attack in the sequence for the weapon you are switching to. For example, if your right hand is Medium Edged/slicing and your left hand is Light edged/thrusting, and your last attack was a sweep (right), your next attack would be: thrust left. This will maintain your balance and make sure you're still in good position.

Other combinations of weapons are effective as well, it is fully possible to wield a longsword in one hand and a hammer in the other, provided neither is a two handed weapon. Thrown weapons are highly effective from offhand since you need not lose your parry weapon when you throw them nor do you need to wield a new weapon into an empty right hand.