Me and I am sure others would love to be able to carry dual longswords or blunt if you prefer that. I have thought of a couple of systems that could work:

Blade's master skill is the ability to dual wield any one handed sword. The same applies for blunt

Then there could be a dual wield blade skill & blunt skill.
Dual Wield Blade
Novice-Dual wield daggers cannot do power attacks
Apprentice-Dual wield daggers can do power attacks
Journeyman-Dual Wield short swords can do power attacks
Expert-Dual Wield longsowrds can do power attacks
Master-Can paralyze enemy with forward power attack, can disarm with sideways power attack.
This also applies for blunt & I have not used blunt so I don't know about it.

The fall back is no blocking & more fatigue. The birght side is you will do 2x the damage faster. There can also be a power attack were you hit them with both swords at once.

The Final way is just dual wield in itself as a skill. LIke it would not be blade or blunt, but all applicable weapons.

If this is in Skyrim I will use it no matter what.

I'd rather have a dual wield skill.

To be honest I find double wielding quite cheesy. If it were a dagger or a short sword I'd be Ok with it, but definitely no dual wielding warhammers...

I don't want dual wield... I think it doesn't fit with the TES world to be honest.
Fits more for a ninja game... but not TES.

Exactly. Think about how hard in life it would actually be to dual weild long swords or warhammers. It would be very ineffective. Maybe daggers would work, but I think that they wouldn't utilize dual wielding.

I think the only way that dual wielding would be appropriate is with a main weapon and offhand weapon like a sword and dagger. I don't think it's really feasible to run around with two big maces in each hand. Also, not being able to block while dual wielding wouldn't really make sense since it is possible to block with a single one handed weapon as of oblivion.

I'd rather not have dual wielding in elder scrolls though, and I'd like to see shields play a larger role in survivability. Right now they give a small benefit, but realistically, not having a shield in a sword fight is a huge disadvantage. I mean, Oblivion allowed you to block a warhammer with a dagger, which made no sense. Whether you are able to block an opponent's attack should be based off of a mix between your weapon's weight, your strength, and your weapon skill.

Shields should for sure play a bigger role. It would for sure make it harder to play a stealth character, because they would not use a shield, which would make it more practical for a stealth character to avoid combat at all costs.

I could also see a small forearm mounted shield for light armor or stealth characters, to make it easier to maneuver while sneaking.

I reckon dual weilding should be available only for items up to a certain weight, depending on your strength, and even at max, the most would be 2 lightish longswords such as katanas.

I'd also prefer an improvement in the shield system rather than dual-wielding, out of fear of the latter being cheesy and the former needing improvement and is more necessary if I were to chose only one of the two... I'm also thinking especially of the warhammer blocking dagger issue here..

No, if it is in, only dual wielding daggers. Anything other than that, no.

Normally I think it should be a normal one-hand weapon in the main hand, and a small weapon (like a dagger) in the off-hand. Maybe add a weight limit to the off-hand, that increases with your strength and dual wield skill (if that is included)?

If I have a really strong character with a really high weapon skill I'd see no problem in wielding two longswords. Two bastard swords could probably bring some trouble though.

There's a reason dual weilding isn't very common in real life: while it looks cool, it's not particularily effective.

I don't understand why so many people are against dual-wielding. I mean if you don't like it, don't use it. I agree, that when dual-wielding, you should only be able to carry a dagger in your off-hand. And you should be able to block light blows with it. But there should be very few NPC's who can dual-wield. Maybe only assassins.

unless the combat is drastically changed in this one theres no reason to dual wield

I'd like some form of dual wielding, with balancing of course. Defence would be reduced, but attack power would be increased. The maximum thing that should be doable should be Medium Length weapons, so nothing longer than a shortsword or war axe. Naturally Daggers would be the easiest to use in a dual wield format. An improvement on the shielding system would be great alongside this system, thus providing more distinct combat variations and choices.

what dual wielding a dagger and a sword is not fantasy material for you!!!

honestly I think your disagreeing for the sake of disagreeing :wink_smile:

I can totally see a Nordic warrior wielding two small axes and charging madly into battle.

I think dual wield could be allowed but it should not include 2 long weapons, in rl it was rather rare fighting style and offhand weapon was mainly used for parrying(hence parrying dagger http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parrying_dagger) and ocasional suprise attack, not like some people think to double number of attacks.

Foolishness.

Dual-Wielding is a convention of cinema and video games that has led to a degredation of the art of combat. There is no "dual-wielding longswords" in real life. It's cumbersome, and has only ever been seen in history by fools who are quickly murdered on the battle-field because they decided to go out with two swords! The idea of "dual-wielding" blades (like guns akimbo) originally comes from early Hong Kong Cinema, as a stylization of fighting for action movies.

The idea of dual-wielding arises from Main Gauche Fencing, in which the "main gauche," a parrying dagger, is used in the off-hand. The Parrying dagger is usually a Poignard (but can also be a sword-breaker, or a trident-dagger), and the standard length is 22 inches en totale, with a 14 inch blade. Many parrying daggers can double as bucklers, depending on the size of the hand guard. Hand guards on parrying daggers are often very large, as the dagger is used to catch and deflect an opponents blade. Main Gauche Fencing became popular in the late middle ages and the early renaissance amongst the nobility, and was considered an art form, often depicted in illustrations of the time. However, this has led to uninformed appreciators of medieval times to think that it is useful to use two long blades at once. It's not. It's suicidal.

The samurai had a similar form of combat to the Main Gauche in which they wielded a katana in the main hand and a wakizashi in the off-hand, but it is still dagger and sword combat, with the dagger used for parrying and surprise attacks.

I have loved the Elder Scrolls games not simply for the story or the cultures, but because they don't rely on the trite fantasy conventions that so many video games like Dragon Age and WoW fall prey to. There is sword and shield combat, there is single weapon combat, and their is zweihander combat. There is none of this fantastical, unrealistic bull-[censored]e that is Dual-Wielding. The Elder Scrolls is above such things. And in this sense, I respect TES for following realism, and not popular opinion.

(I would approve of dual-wielding a dagger and a main-hand weapon, however)

Like I said, allow it, just put a total weapon weight limit.

EDIT: And while they're at it, how about making that limit universal based on your strength and skill in that weapon?

Okay, I realize I knew nothing about dual wielding.

Anyways... I still think you should be able to have a dagger or another short blade in the off hand, or a weapon designed for parrying, not any big main hand weapons in the off hand.

Nah you need your left hand free to throw ninja stars... just saying.

There we go.

Requests like these are useless, because at this stage of development, they aren't going to add any significant features.

yes absolutely duel wielding should be in. but only if its done right, with some style.

my vote goes to adding a dual wield skill, and having your offhand only be able to be a dagger/wakasashi/tanto/something blunt about the size of a nightstick? if there is such a weapon. Or, expand the block skill into an offhand skill which includes the ladder weapons, and bucklers/shields, you can then use the offhand to block (shield/buckler) or to assist in blocking (previously mentioned weapons) and you could also do offhand attacks with your selected offhand which would vary by what you have equipped. shield = block, shield bash, shield swing. buckler = block, bash, jab/svcker punch. small weapons could assist the mainhand in blocking and/or parrying, do a basic swing, and a basic thrust.


if only if only...


edit: all we need is some basic freedom with animations and we can mod this in if it is not implemented