Can you make iterative attacks with your offhand weapon?

[theillway]

I have a player that's using two pistols. He's got a +6/+1 base attack bonus and wants to make one attack with his main hand weapon and one attack with his off-hand weapon without taking the penalties for two-weapon fighting (a brutal -4/-4 because pistols aren't light weapons).

The Two-Weapon Fighting feat says "If you wield a second weapon in your off hand, you can get one extra attack per round with that weapon. When fighting in this way you suffer a –6 penalty with your regular attack or attacks with your primary hand and a –10 penalty to the attack with your off hand." The feat reduces this penalty. The bold text is what got me thinking.

By contrast, if you had two guns with one tucked in your belt, you could fire one, drop it as a free action, Quick Draw the second, and then fire it as well. Because the game doesn't have right- or left-handed characters anymore (we miss you Ambidexterity!), you could fire with the opposite hand.

Is there any reason that you couldn't alternate attacks between your right and left hands without penalty for two-weapon fighting, as long as you weren't getting extra attacks from it?

[born_of_fire]

TWF penalties apply when you are making an attack over and above the attacks you are granted by your BAB. If he's only making the first attack at +6 and the iterative attack at +1, there is no penalty for using one weapon in your main hand and one weapon in your offhand.

Note: If it were a melee weapon, he'd be getting only 0.5 Str damage to his offhand attack but it's not so that's a whole other discussion.

[Lord Wimpy]

The wise skull is correct. I'll link the FAQ to confirm.

http://paizo.com/paizo/faq/v5748nruor1fm#v5748eaic9onf

[blackbloodtroll]

Lord Wimpy wrote:

The wise skull is correct. I'll link the FAQ to confirm.

FAQ here.

Linktified.

[born_of_fire]

Team effort, yo!

[theillway]

Thanks guys!

[Kazaan]

born_of_fire wrote:

TWF penalties apply when you are making an attack over and above the attacks you are granted by your BAB. If he's only making the first attack at +6 and the iterative attack at +1, there is no penalty for using one weapon in your main hand and one weapon in your offhand.

Note: If it were a melee weapon, he'd be getting only 0.5 Str damage to his offhand attack but it's not so that's a whole other discussion.

Correction; if you're not using TWF rules to get extra attacks, you have no off-hand weapon so neither weapon gets reduced Str or Power Attack to damage. That only applies if you're using TWF rules (take a penalty on attack to get extra attacks).

[blackbloodtroll]

No extra attack? Then you are not two weapon fighting.

No penalties. No off-hand.

[Byakko]

You can't use an offhand to make iterative attacks.

However, unless you're using 2-weapon fighting rules, every part of your body is a "main hand".

Thus with +6 BAB, you could make a "main hand" attack with your right hand, immediately followed by a "main hand" attack with your left hand. This doesn't count as 2-weapon fighting so "offhand weapon" rules don't apply.

[born_of_fire]

Byakko wrote:

You can't use an offhand to make iterative attacks.

However, unless you're using 2-weapon fighting rules, every part of your body is a "main hand".

Thus with +6 BAB, you could make a "main hand" attack with your right hand, immediately followed by a "main hand" attack with your left hand. This doesn't count as 2-weapon fighting so "offhand weapon" rules don't apply.

Makes sense. Thanks for the correction.