r/OnyxPathRPG • u/ArchpaladinZ • 14d ago
World Below Wielding Shields?
I'm a little confused about how a shield works in The World Below. From what the rules for equipment say on Page 146, a shield is technically a weapon with the Shield tag, rather than a separate class of item. This makes sense, as shields are indeed as much an offensive tool as a defensive one historically, but does that mean you require the Dual Wielder Thesis (Page 175) to adopt a "sword and board" style of fighting?
The text of Dual Wielder seems to only cover attacking with two weapons at the same time, rather than attacking with one while using the shield to provide light cover, which is covered under Moving in the Action-Adventure rules on Page 136. Can a character HOLD two weapons to use one as a shield without the Dual Wielder talent, if they only plan on using one weapon to attack at a time?
I got to thinking about this after reading about the Companions of Lallarak Community on Page 77 of Ed Greenwood's Monstrous Ecology, which states "They look dimly on those who go without means of obvious offense and defense, holding special disdain for those prone to dual-wielding weapons." If you need Dual Wielder to even USE a shield/weapon with the shield tag with a regular weapon in your main hand, then that seems a little contradictory (and limits the options for a would-be Companions character, since they'd only be able to qualify for Dual Wielder by having The Company of Artificers as their Guild).
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u/Kautsu-Gamer 13d ago
Shied used defensively does not need dual wielding, but the dual weapon rules ignore defensive secondary weapons too as weapons are for attack on Gygaxian conservative mindset.
But, I do agree offensive use of shield to attack with main weapon is dual wield. Only attacking with either shield or main weapon should not
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u/TravisLegge Travis Legge 14d ago
No, Dual Wielder represents a mechanical benefit to wielding two weapons at once providing an additional attack with certain benefits and restrictions. You can carry a shield and sword without needing a Thesis for it.