Question about dual wield bonuses on weapons

[Rontu23]

Anyone know if the bonuses on dual wield weapons affect both weapons?

 

For example if my offhand has 0.5 bonus to crit damage, will that affect my main hand swings?  same applies for accuracy bonuses and proc affects like "Stun/Prone on Crit".

 

Lastly, do the bonuses stack?  i have 2 weapons with 0.5 bonus to crit damage and unfortunately it does not list it as an active affect in my character sheet. (i guess this question will be answered depending on whether bonuses affect both weapons or not).

 

thanks in advance!

[AndreaColombo]

Hi.

 

No, bonuses only apply to the weapon that carries them and do no affect any other weapon you may be wielding at the same time.

 

Yes, those bonuses don't show up in your character sheet but they do work. They can't "stack" because they don't affect each other as mentioned above.
 

[Pax_Empyrean]

The one (sort of) exception to this is hatchets. They each give a +5 bonus to deflection, so using a pair of them will boost your deflection by +10.

[Loren Tyr]

That's not really an exception, though. All weapon bonuses stack, with each other and with bonuses from other sources. It's just that as AndreaColombo pointed out, they generally apply only to the weapon they originate from. There's an implied "when attacking with this weapon" clause tacked onto them, so there is never anything to stack. But that doesn't apply to bonuses to other stats not (directly) related to attacking, like defense scores, ability scores, skills, health, endurance, etc. 

[Pax_Empyrean]

I stand by my decision to call it a "(sort of) exception" since that's exactly what it is.

They asked if the bonuses stack. These kinds of bonuses are an odd case which is handled differently from the offensive bonuses native to other weapon types. As such, it's worth pointing out.

Responding to calling it a "(sort of) exception" by saying that it's not really an exception seems pointless. That's what the "sort of" part means. As in, it's kind of like that in some ways, but not completely so.

[Dr <3]

I always found strange that every hatchet gives you + 5 def (so you can stack +10 def), but every dagger/rapier/lance gives +5 accuracy only to itself.

[Boeroer]

Yeah, it would make more sense if hatchets would generally cause "interfering" (-5 ACC) on hit like some unique weapons do instead of having another form of interfering that just adds +5 deflection.

[Clerith]

Attributes and defenses stack, but the rest don't. So con +2 or -5 will or deflection +5 stack, but attack speed, crit multi, wounding, lashes, etc don't and only work for that weapon.

 

Hmm. Could it be said that everything that shows up in the character sheet stacks?

[Loren Tyr]

In terms of implementation, all passive and weapon bonuses (and penalties) stack. The whole non-stacking issue only occurs within the "non-weapon/shield equipment effects" and "passive/modal effects". The reason that many weapon bonuses don't affect each other isn't lack of stacking. Rather, as noted above, it's that they simply aren't general bonuses; they're specific to the weapon they're on, and only apply when you attack with that weapon.

 

This distinction may seem pedantic, but it is actually quite important: if it were the case that the weapon bonuses were general but just didn't stack, the result would potentially be quite different. Firstly, the highest bonus would apply: in this scenario, if one weapon had +10 ACC and the other +5 ACC, you would get +10 ACC when attacking with the +5 ACC weapon as well. Secondly, they would apply to spells and spell-like effects as well. Neither is the case, and would also be rather counterintuitive anyway (a weapon being Exceptional should say something about the quality of that weapon; it would be weird if having a very finely made weapon in one hand suddenly improved the plain dagger you have in the other).  

 

So generally I would say it is best to think of this in terms of "bonuses to the weapon" and "bonuses to the wielder". Anything that can reasonably thought of as reflecting on the quality of the weapon itself or a specific side effect of attacking with it, is almost certainly going to be specific to that weapon. Anything that makes more sense to think of as a function of whomever is wielding that weapon, is very likely to be a general bonus. These should indeed show up on the character sheet as well (can't think of any exceptions right now, anyway), so that's a handy guide.