Quote:
Originally posted by Sir Exxon:
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. 
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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.
