Two-weapon fighting simple fix for barbarian character (PEACH)

[Ghost Dragon]

Hi all,

I'm running a game that is porting 3.5 characters to 5e, in which a player of mine has a dwarf barbarian/frenzied berserker PrC that used two weapon fighting. I have scoured this site and others to come up with a simple a fix as possible due to the incongruences between two weapon fighting rules and bonus action economy in general, dual wielding feat, and Frenzy ability of the Barbarian subclass (I have added in here a change to the exhaustion rule, as I find it overtaxing for the feature). Please give me your thoughts as to my below fixes so far (much of this is a blend of my ideas and others from this site, so thanks go to all those before me who have posted regarding these issues).

Add in the following sentence at the end of the first paragraph:
When you take the Use and Object action, you can draw or stow two one handed weapons instead of only one.

Dual Wielder (Errata)
You master fighting with two weapons, gaining the following benefits:

• You gain a +1 bonus to AC while you are wielding a separate melee weapon in each hand, and you can use two-weapon fighting even when the one handed melee weapons you are wielding aren’t light.

• Your additional two-weapon fighting attack is now made as part of your Attack action instead of your bonus action. Additionally, if you hit a single target with one of your main hand attacks and your additional two-weapon fighting attack, you deal extra damage of the same type as the weapon used equal to your proficiency bonus.

Warrior (New)
Prerequisite: Strength or Dexterity 13 or higher
You have trained in a particular style of fighting as your specialty.

• Increase your Strength or Dexterity score by 1, to a maximum of 20.

• Choose one fighting style of those available to the Fighter. You gain the benefit of this fighting style. You can’t take a Fighting Style option more than once.

Instead of causing one level of exhaustion, the barbarian now suffers from the poisoned condition until they complete a short or a long rest. The poisoned condition is subject to anything that would normally remove it, such as the lesser restorationspell.

So there you go. This essentially means:

• Anyone can draw or stow two one handed weapons (in my mind a silly benefit to have in a feat, and something I believe anyone with the most basic training could do, hence changing it so everyone could do it).

• Someone who takes dual wielder gets the existing benefits, but can still use their bonus action (in this case for Frenzy attack) and get a little extra scaling damage for their trouble (to help mitigate its original lacklustre performance beside GWM or PAM).

• The warrior feat means he could get the two weapon fighting style without dipping into fighter (Something my player doesn't want to have to do for his character).

• Frenzy still has a downside to it, but that I think is more in line with its benefit.

Comment away!!!

[DracoKnight]

I don't like that by RAW Frenzy incurs exhaustion, but there is a reason for it that I've begrudgingly accepted: you can use that bonus action attack even if you don't take the Attack Action on your turn. So no matter what, you're Ragin'.

[Ghost Dragon]

I don't like that by RAW Frenzy incurs exhaustion, but there is a reason for it that I've begrudgingly accepted: you can use that bonus action attack even if you don't take the Attack Action on your turn. So no matter what, you're Ragin'.

Hey there,

Thanks for the reply. I didn't consider that before, in regards to being able to attack even if you don't use the Attack Action. I wouldn't mind the exhausted condition so much if it could be removed more easily, but as it stands it's pretty heavy (perhaps I should just allow lesser restoration to remove one level of exhaustion). Also with being poisoned it imposes the first two levels of exhaustion onto a player anyway, but is easier to remove. What if I added in that they cant frenzy while poisoned? Either way I will play test both ways as I haven't seen it on the table yet.

Can I assume that the other adjustments to two-weapon fighting and feats are good/reasonable seeing as you didn't mention them?

[thoroughlyS]

Two-Weapon Fighting Errata Add in the following sentence at the end of the first paragraph:
When you take the Use an Object action, you can draw or stow two one handed weapons instead of only one.

You normally interact with an object while doing something else, such as when you draw a sword as part of an attack. When an object requires your action for its use, you take the Use an Object action. This action is also useful when you want to interact with more than one object on your turn.
You don't take an action to draw a weapon; it is considered part of the attack action. Just move the sentence from Dual Wielder to here instead.