Two-weapon fighting is one of those rules that should be dead simple. You have a sword in one hand, another sword in the other, and you start swinging.
Naturally, D&D found a way to turn that into Light weapons, Bonus Actions, missing damage modifiers, Fighting Styles, Weapon Mastery, the Nick property, and a feat that changes the rules again.
So, let’s untangle it before someone starts insisting they get four attacks at level 1 because they bought two daggers.
Under the current 2024 rules, basic two-weapon fighting is handled through the Light weapon property.
If you take the Attack action and attack with a Light weapon, you can make one extra attack later that turn as a Bonus Action. That second attack has to use a different Light weapon.
So, for example, you attack with a shortsword using your action, then use your Bonus Action to attack with a dagger.
Pretty simple so far.
The first thing people tend to miss is that you do not normally add your ability modifier to the damage of that extra attack.
You still add your modifier to the attack roll because you are making a normal weapon attack. However, if the second attack hits, you usually only roll the weapon’s damage die.
So, if you have +3 Dexterity and attack with two shortswords, your first hit deals 1d6 + 3 damage, while the extra attack normally deals just 1d6.
Unless your ability modifier is negative, because D&D is perfectly happy to let penalties follow you wherever you go.
That said, this is also where the Two-Weapon Fighting Style comes in, and the name makes this more confusing than it really needs to be.
Anyone can fight with two Light weapons. You do not need the Two-Weapon Fighting Style to do that.
The Fighting Style simply lets you add your ability modifier to the damage of the extra attack as well.
So, without the style, you might deal 1d6 + 3 and then 1d6. With the style, both hits can deal 1d6 + 3.
That is really all that part does.
Then we get to Nick.
Nick is a Weapon Mastery property found on weapons such as daggers and scimitars. If you have access to that weapon’s mastery, Nick lets you make the extra attack granted by the Light property as part of your Attack action instead of using your Bonus Action.
This does not give you another attack.
I am saying that again because this is exactly where people start getting creative.
Nick moves the Light weapon attack into your Attack action. It does not create a second Light weapon attack afterward.
So, if you normally attack once and then use your Bonus Action for your second weapon, Nick lets you make both attacks during the Attack action and leaves your Bonus Action free.
For a rogue, that is obviously very nice because now you can still use Cunning Action. For other characters, maybe you have a spell, class feature, or something else competing for that Bonus Action.
The number of attacks from the Light property has not increased, though. You have simply changed where one of them happens.
Once Extra Attack enters the picture, the numbers can start looking a little ridiculous if you do not keep track of where each attack actually comes from.
A level 5 character with Extra Attack normally makes two attacks with the Attack action. If they are using Light weapons, they can then make the Light weapon attack with their Bonus Action, giving them three attacks total.
If they are using Nick, that third attack can happen during the Attack action instead, meaning they make three attacks as part of that action and still have their Bonus Action available.
And then we get to Dual Wielder, which is where the rules decide that we were getting a little too comfortable.
The current Dual Wielder feat gives you another way to make an extra attack after attacking with a Light weapon. The weapon used for that Bonus Action attack does not itself have to be Light, although it cannot have the Two-Handed property.
This is different from the older version of the feat, so if you remember simply grabbing two longswords and going to town, you are remembering the 2014 rules.
More importantly, the Dual Wielder attack is separate from the extra attack granted by the Light property. That means a character using Nick can move their Light attack into the Attack action and potentially still use their Bonus Action for the attack granted by Dual Wielder.
Yes, that means a level 5 character with Extra Attack, Nick, and Dual Wielder can potentially get four attacks on their turn.
Two from Extra Attack, one from the Light property moved into the Attack action by Nick, and one Bonus Action attack from Dual Wielder.
This is the point where I recommend slowing down and actually tracing where every attack is coming from instead of just adding another d20 every time the character sheet contains the word “attack.”
There is also no special “main hand” or “off hand” rule you need to worry about. People still use those terms because they are convenient, but the rules mostly care about which weapon triggered the Light property and which different weapon you use for the extra attack.
Regardless of how optimized you want to get with all of this, though, the basic rule is much simpler than the pile of features built on top of it.
Attack with a Light weapon during your Attack action and you can make one extra attack with a different Light weapon as a Bonus Action. You normally do not add your ability modifier to the damage of that extra attack. Two-Weapon Fighting adds the modifier, Nick moves the attack into your Attack action, and Dual Wielder can open up another Bonus Action attack and give you more flexibility with the second weapon.
And if somebody at the table starts swapping four weapons between their hands to technically squeeze another interaction out of the wording, congratulations. You have left the Two-Weapon Fighting rules and entered rules-lawyer country.
