Dual Wielding clarification, please

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I've just played through NWN 1 and 2, and I played a dual-wielder myself in 1, plus I had a couple of them in NWN2. I tried following the info scroll below to see what was happening with the dualists, but I never really did figure it out. Specifically, how do the game mechanics work in that regard?

It seemed as if the dualists didn't really get an extra attack each round. I used weapons with different elemental damages and saw pretty clearly what the main hand was doing (getting its attacks, causing its elemental damage, etc.), but the off hand wasn't doing anything on a consistent basis by the looks of it. I did see "off hand" here and there, along with hit/damage, but it just wasn't on the regular.

By comparison, BG2 was pretty clear and simple - your character sheet to the right showed an added attack per round when using two weapons. But I see nothing equivalent to that in NWN 1 or 2. Plus that attack scroll below didn't really show me what I expected/hoped to see.

 

NWN2 should have a separate BAB outline for your off-hand weapon on your character sheet, so you should be seeing that if you have it equipped. Been a long time since I played them, but i'm pretty sure it goes mainhand/offhand/mainhand/offhand in terms of attacks. Maybe it's just the BAB difference causing less hits with the offhand?

 

I did see it in the character sheet, but I see nothing indicating number of attacks per round as in BG2. And in watching the info scroll, it just seemed like there was a dearth of lines indicating that my off hand weapon was doing anything at all, regardless of hitting or missing.

 

I would suggest you try an experiment using the console and cheat codes. Put a normal or +1 weapon in your main hand, and cheat in (and enchant) a +4 or +5 weapon with some special effect that would show up in the combat window into your off-hand.
This should make it easier to hit with the off-hand despite the penalties and you can see if you are just having bad luck to miss all the time or if it really is a bug.

BTW, you can find a list of item codes on gamefaqs.com. I thought there was a copy of that list here, but I don't see it.

 

Yep, as previously said dual-wielding is very different in NwN1/NwN2.
Mainhand and offhand will show up with their own different Attack Bonuses in your character sheet:




So if you have three attacks per round, this will show up in your character sheet as Attack Bonus: +x/+y/+z (+x attack bonus on the first attack, +y attack bonus on the second and +z attack bonus on the third) like so:



Same for offhand, except offhand attacks are stuck at 1 attack per round unless you continue to improve your two-weapon fighting skills by getting the Improved, Greater and Perfect Two-Weapon Fighting feats.

 

Yeah, I had elemental damage and specifically watched for it but didn't seem to see anything consistent.

I think what I'll do is just what you said, along with doing it solo (easier to see the rolls). I was going to fire up NWN1 again, then do a colossal XP boost for my PC just to see how a particular multi-class build would pan out, and then play it legit if it is doable.

Paracelsi,

Where did you get the custom portraits? I have tried the ones on this site but had no luck getting them into my actual game. Xzar is always welcome in my game. lol

 

IIRC the bonus CD for BG2 has the artwork and IIRC they have a download for it or a link to it here on Sorcerer's Place.
I might be confusing this with NWN1, but I thought that instructions were included either in the manual or a readme file. You MIGHT have a slight difficulty installing them with a non-administrator account on versions of Windows created after XP if you did not install the game to a custom directory without the restrictions on \program files (x86).
I personally created a \games directory for older games and edited the security permissions despite the risk of viruses.