I havnt got the game yet, though i should get it this week, so i just wanted to ask if you can dualwield. I know you can dual wield in IWD2 and its based on the same roles, so...?

Yup you can dual-wield

thats a relief, i happen to like dual wielding elves very much.

<font color="gold">If you're going to dual wield, I suggest you start out as a ranger, as they get the feats Ambidexterity and Two Weapon Fighting for free at 1st level.
If you don't start with a ranger, you really should get those aforementioned feats. Without them, dualwielding won't be such a good idea. ;) </font>

You definitely need both feats to dual wield. You get a -6 penalty to-hit with your main hand and a -10 penalty to-hit with your off-hand if you don't. Ambidexterity lowers the penalty by 4 to the off-hand (from -10 to -6), and two weapon fighting lowers the penalty to both hands by 2 (from -6 to -4).

Rangers get the Improved Two Weapon Fighting Feat at 9th level (a second attack with the off-hand at a -5 penalty). However, then you are stuck wearing light or no armor (none of the ranger's bonus feats work when wearing heavier armor). They also cannot use those feats with double weapons (you stated you wanted to use two weapons instead of one double weapon, so no big deal for you). A fighter can wear any armor, and can take all 3 feats with their regular or bonus feats, and can use double weapons with them. However, you end up using up 3 feats that you would normally use for stuff like Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, etc.

Also, you only get half of your strength bonus to damage with your off-hand weapon, no matter what you use in the off-hand.

Finally, when you fight with two weapons, you need to keep track of what kind of weapon you have in the off-hand. Any weapon of one size or more smaller than your character is considered a light weapon (for example, humans are medium size, so any weapon of size small or smaller is considered a light weapon for a human). If you have the 3 feats from above, and use a light weapon in your off-hand, you only get a -2 penalty on to-hit rolls with each weapon. However, if your off-hand weapon is not light, you get a -4 penalty with each weapon. The advantage with the two larger weapons is you can do more damage with the off-hand (smaller weapons do less damage on average), and if they are the same type, the you only need one weapon focus feat to cover both weapons, etc. However, you get larger penalties. If you use a smaller weapon in the off-hand, you get smaller penalties, but do less damage with the off-hand and have to get two weapon focus feats, etc. since your weapons will be different (unless you use the same type light weapon in your main hand, in which case you will be able to use one weapon focus feat, etc. for both weapons, but do less damage across the board).

I guess the best way to sum it up is to say that the 3rd edition rules do a pretty good job of balancing things out. To get an advantage in one area, you have to take a hit in another area. Kind of like life. :D

Alrighty then. Perhaps ill start out with something a tad bit easier, like the regular sword and shield fighter, just to get used to the game. im somewhat familiar with 3rd edition rules, mainly by playing Icewind Dale 2. But i will play a dual wielding elf someday! Well, thanks for the info.

Oh no problem! But don't give up on your character concept that easily! Just know that you need 2 feats (Two Weapon Fighting and Ambidexterity, both of which you get for free if you are a ranger). Choice of weapon(s) are just up to you (if you want to do the Driz'zt dual-wielding scimitars, just take the above 2 feats and grab a couple of scimitars). You may get some penalties to your attack rolls, but you get an extra attack (2 if you take Improved Two Weapon Fighting, which you cannot even get until 9th level), which makes up for it. It may seem complicated at first, but really it is not that difficult once you get playing (the prelude of the official campaign is a great place to train yourself, as it is pretty easy to wipe everything out regardless of what you are wielding).

Best of luck!

It really can be worth it if you're going to give serious thought to weilding two weapons. one of my Favourite characters is my Human Ranger9/Rogue11. I use him as an assassin [img]smile.gif[/img]

i dont really like using two large weapons. I prefer something like a long sword/short sword or short sword/dagger combinations, at least for elves. but i wont be able to play before i get it to work properly. currently its very slow, guess ill have to update it first.

Like I said, as long as you have those two feats, you'll be fine. You'll get only -2 to hit with each weapon; you can get half of this back by getting the Weapon Focus feat with each of the weapons (+1 to hit with weapon selected). And, if you take Improved Two Weapon Fighting at 9th level, you'll be quite vicious (at highest levels, you'll get 6 attacks a round :D ).