Two weapon fighting in 1e has always been complicated for me, rules-wise.
My understanding is that the only way a typical PC under normal conditions could use both melee weapons once as a standard action is to take the feat Weapon Trick: Dual Strike. Is this correct?
J
A fighter with two-weapon warrior archetype can do at level 9. Further there is the Twin Fang Style chain, the second feat (requires level 6) allows you to strike with two daggers / kamas at once, albeit with a -4 penalty.
From my gut feeling there are a few more.
Two weapon fighting in 1e has always been complicated for me, rules-wise.
Yeah, these complicated rules are yet another reason why people often go the easy way and pick up a two-handed weapon instead...
Two weapon fighting in 1e has always been complicated for me, rules-wise.
My understanding is that the only way a typical PC under normal conditions could use both melee weapons once as a standard action is to take the feat Weapon Trick: Dual Strike. Is this correct?
J
Correct. Without this feat, or without class abilities like Sheepish mentioned, you would only be able to use the Attack Action as a Standard Action, which allows 1 attack as an Attack Action.
BASHING FINISH could do it, but not reliably. I'm sure there are other feats with similar benefits.
There's a bunch of things that allow you to somehow attack with more than one weapon as a standard action, usually conditional. The easiest way is actually Cleave, you can make the second attack with a different weapon, there just isn't usually a reason to do so. The phrase "the only way" should probably not be used in Pathfinder, because there are multiple ways to do just about anything.
But since this was intended as a rule question: For every attack you want to make, you need a rule option to grant you it. This is a general concept that's important to understand. By default, a character has three ways of making attacks, namely a) the standard attack action (a single attack with one weapon as a standard action), b) attack of opportunity (a single attack with one weapon as a conditional non-action), and c) the full-attack action (multiple attacks as a full round action). The TWF rules say "" CRB pg. 202, but since they don't mention any specific action to do that, you have to use other rules to make that additional attack, which means you are still bound by the above listed options, with of course the full-attack action being the only valid one by default. If you want to have other options, you need to have an ability that says so.
For clarity, the Dual Strike weapon trick grants a forth option (two attacks, one with each weapon, as a standard action), it does not alter the standard attack action.