Baldur’s Gate 3 Dueling Explained (BG3): What Weapons Work for This Style?

Learn how to duel wield in Baldur's Gate 3 with this article.

by Noah Nelson
Image: Attack of the Fanboy

One of the coolest fighting styles in Baldur’s Gate 3 is duel wielding weapons. To avoid confusion up top, there is a class passive called Dueling that gives you plus two attack when you wield a one-handed melee weapon. That’s a nice class passive Fighters, Rangers, Paladins, and Bard College of Swords get to enjoy, but this article is all about how to duel wield in Baldur’s Gate 3.

Related: All Baldur’s Gate 3 Origin Characters, Ranked (BG3)

How to Duel Wield in Baldur’s Gate 3

To duel wield in Baldur’s Gate 3, you need to start with two Light weapons. Light weapons in Baldur’s Gate 3 that you can use to dual wield are clubs, daggers, hand crossbows, handaxes, light hammers, scimitars, shortswords, and sickles.

I’ve found the easiest way to dual wield in Baldur’s Gate 3 is to click on your main hand to see all the options in your entire party’s inventory. Then, do the same thing with your off-hand. Select two Light weapons and, boom, you’re dual wielding.

If you are trying to dual wield but can’t in Baldur’s Gate 3, it’s most likely because you aren’t using the right weapons. If you have a rapier, longsword, mace, quarterstaff, warhammer, or anything else that isn’t a Light weapon, then you won’t be able to dual wield. It’s very important to remember that this only works with Light weapons.

Every class can dual wield in Baldur’s Gate 3, so this isn’t a class-gated action. However, level one Fighters, level two Rangers, level two Paladins, and level one Bards College of Swords are get the Fighting Style class feature which includes a proficiency in dual wielding, and it’s called two-weapon fighting. With two-weapon fighting, you add your damage ability modifier to your off-hand attacks.

Now that you know how to dual wield in Baldur’s Gate 3, you might want to look into why your saves aren’t working.

- This article was updated on August 5th, 2023

About The Author

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From his early days of blog-style music, movie, and game reviews to working as the Esports Writer at Coastline Community College, Noah Nelson now works fulltime as a Staff Writer for Attack of the Fanboy and PC Invasion. He has been helping gamers everywhere with Destiny 2 god rolls, Warzone 2 DMZ missions, and collectibles in any indie game for over a year and a half. His Bachelor's Degree in English Rhetoric and Composition with a minor in Journalism from CSULB has shaped him to be a strong writer and editor. His fondest gaming memory is playing Sly Cooper 2 after begging his mom (for hours) to play it before his birthday and he still cries myself to sleep remembering the time he accidentally saved over his 99% completion save file in Kingdom Hearts 2.