I tested this for fun. I made a 23rd level thief and went around stealing and backstabbing for fun (my rep was 1 almost immediately).
He was dual wield. I scored the damage multiplier if I hit with EITHER hand the first hit. After one BS, the second hand did not get this damage.
Example:
+1 longsword in main hand
+2 dagger in off hand
X5 damage
Hide in shadows successful.
Attack with main hand misses.
Attack with off hand misses.
Attack with main hand hits, 7 points of damage X5 = 35 points of damage.
Attack with off hand hits, 4 points of damage.
ect - all attacks from here do normal damage.
Next....
Hide in shadows successful.
Attack with main hand misses.
Attack with off hand hits, 4 points of damage X5 = 20 points of damage.
Attack with main hand hits, 7 points of damage.
Attack with off hand hits, 4 points of damage.
ect - all attacks from here do normal damage.
So it is only the first hit that gets the damage, and it can be either hand. Obviously since the thief can only get one prof in dual wield, this is usually the main hand, but this tell u something important - to avoid the negative "to hit" modifiers for dual wield, you should ALWAYS SINGLE WIELD FOR BACKSTABS so that you increase your chance of hitting with whatever weapon is better for damage. If they are both similar, it doesn't matter, but if you want to score a better hit with a particular weapon, go with that weapon.
Now, it seems confusing that you are "leaving shadows" when you attack, you would think that this nullifies the BS damage, but this only happens if they are hostile. If they are not yet hostile, you may attack until you hit. If they are hostile, they may or may not see you thus nullifiying your BS damage. I need to do more testing with this.
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