DnD One Dual Wielder Feat Guide

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The dual wielder guide it one that is designed to bring in the idea of a player carrying two weapons at once as opposed to just one weapon or a weapon and a shield. For a player whose image of their character is one wielding two weapons in a flurry of activity while diving into the fray, it can be really tempting to look at the dual wielder feat as a necessary part of the build.

But does that hold up?

The One DnD Dual Wielder feat allows a player to take a +1 to either Strength or Dexterity, allows a non-Light weapon in the off-hand to be treated like a light weapon as long as it doesn’t have the 2-handed modifier, and allows a player to draw or stow two weapons at once instead of the regular one.

So how does this hold up in the new system? Is the feat any good, and how does it compare to the 5E version of this feat?

Let’s dive in and find out!

crossed shadow swords dual wield
Why wield one sword when you can wield TWO?

Dual Wielder Feat DnD One Review

The best way to break down a feat is to check out the exact wording.

From Unearthed Arcana, Expert Classes:

4th-Level Feat

Prerequisite: Proficiency with Any Martial Weapon

You master fighting with two weapons, gaining the following benefits:

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

Enhanced Dual Wielding. When you are holding a Weapon with the Light property in one hand, you can treat a non-Light Weapon in your other hand as if it had the Light property, provided that Weapon lacks the Two-Handed property.

Quick Draw. You can draw or stow two Weapons that lack the Two-Handed property when you would normally be able to draw or stow only one.

Unearthed Arcana, Expert Classes 2022

Let’s break down these benefits to see what this feat really brings to the table.

Benefit #1: Increase your Strength or Dexterity (player’s choice) by 1.

Customary Half Feat choice and makes sense for a martial build since all weapons are going to be wielded with either Strength or Dexterity. That makes this Ability Score Improvement as one that makes sense for the feat, though it’s nothing too special as a benefit in and of itself.

Benefit #2: Enhanced Dual Wielding means one of your weapons doesn’t have to be Light, the off-hand weapon is considered automatically to be Light as long as it doesn’t have the Two-Handed property.

This is a mechanical thing bringing the feat in line with the new language for mechanics used in One DnD versus 5E, but it’s hard to judge. It wasn’t worth much of anything in 5E because it applied to…Lance, Battle Axe, and Longsword. At most.

And what made this worse is that DMs who I played with who liked using “sniff-test” rulings, the battle axe could be wielded effectively with one hand anyway so no one treated it any different than a light weapon, and a lance…well most just didn’t buy it. If it ever came up, because who played a mounted combatant in 5th Ed?

So while this is a useful mechanical shift for precision “100% RAW” type DMs, that isn’t most DMs and because of that this doesn’t have the weight I think the designers thought it would.

Benefit #3: With Quick Draw a player can draw or stow two weapons at once instead of just drawing one, as long as they don’t have the two-handed modifier.

I think the reason why some feats seem focused on rules no one uses (this is a theory, an educated guess) is that the play testing in WOTC is all done in-house and since outside gamers aren’t consulted or brought in, the designers keep using rules and mechanics everyone else disregards completely within the first few weeks or months.

This is one of those mechanics. I get it’s necessary for RAW, but no one cares.

How Does Dual Wielder Feat Measure Up?

Not too well. Unless there’s a major shift in weapons and which have the two-handed tag versus those that don’t, that doesn’t really matter and a +1 just isn’t that impressive whether it is +1 DEX or +1 STR.

There isn’t much here, and unless you are insistent on a super specific build and have a really strict RAW DM, then this feat isn’t going to make sense for the overwhelming majority of players.

Dual Wielder Feat: DnD One Vs 5E

In my opinion the 5E version is better, and that’s not saying a lot because the 5th Ed version was pretty overwhelming. That said the big difference is that DnD One took away a +1 AC and added the +1 STR/DEX instead.

Related Article: 5E Dual Wielder Feat Guide

Honestly, I think a good Dual Wielder feat should have combined the two. Why not have that +1 and why not have a +1 or even a +2 AC when dual wielding because of your mastery of wielding two weapons.

So what if it’s combined with Defensive Duelist to get ridiculously powerful? Honestly if a martial character wears studded light armor and survives to Level 20, then I would assume they’re so good to have a +8 AC between the two feats.

The 5th Edition version is better, but both honestly fall short.

Who Should Take the Dual Wielder Feat in DnD One?

I would honestly say no one. There is a better way to do what you want to do with this feat, and at most tables if you talk with a DM they just don’t care about you drawing two weapons at once or using a reasonable versatile weapon like it’s a light weapon.

Because of this it’s just one of those feats that doesn’t just feel like it comes up short but feels like it left virtually everything on the table and that’s a shame because there are multiple ways to make a great dual wielding feat and considering how cool these characters could be, it’s an outright shame they don’t have the chance in the current system.

Take the +2 DEX, DnD One Defensive Duelist Feat, or another feat as opposed to this clunker.

DnD One Dual Wielder Feat Final Grade

While changes in the system and potential upgrades can happen, all indications is that this is a clunker of a feat and it’s looking at a D to F grade. D if you have to play to the exact rules details and an F if you have a DM who uses the sniff test and makes all those mechanical rules a non-factor.

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