[Bishophawk]

My Mystic Adept duel wields stun batons, has a lvl 4 weapons foci on each one,  question is can she have both foci activate  at the same time since they are on 2 different weapons?

[Michael Chandra]

You can have both active, but both in SR5 and SR6, you only get the dicepool bonus from one at a time. So if you were to go 'I'm using both weapons to execute 2 attacks', you would only get 1x the Force pre-splitting. If you use either by itself, you also get 1x the Force as dicebonus. And if both are active weapon foci, then both bypass Immunity to Normal Weapons.

[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

Shadowrun has never been a game that really incentived dual wielding.  Due to the way multiple attacks work, there's no real benefit to two weapons other than still having one if one gets destroyed or taken away mid-fight.

[Xenon]

The benefit of dual wielding is that you can attack the same target twice with the same attack action (by splitting the pool + spending a multiple attack action).

[Michael Chandra]

Which often isn't worth it, and even less in SR6 due to targets always having an evasive pool. So there's no big incentive.

[Lormyr]

Well as a mystic adept, if you want to devote your resources to doing that proficiently, it will work out pretty well against most standard enemies. Focused concentration or quicken increase agility, and spend 3 power points on improved ability close combat and you'll still have 10 dice for each attack.

Personally I think there are more efficient things to spend power points on, but to each their own.

[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

The benefit of dual wielding is that you can attack the same target twice with the same attack action (by splitting the pool + spending a multiple attack action).

The bolded part is not true.   Not in 5e/6we, at any rate.

In 5e, attacking with 1 weapon twice is mechanically identical to attacking with 2 weapons once each.

This action represents both
attacking multiple times from a single melee weapon
and attacking with two different weapons (firearms
or melee).

Also note that the redundant writeup for Multiple Attacks inside the Combat chapter (on pg. 164) omits any permission for attacking the same target more than once in the same pass.


In 6th edition, the only means possible for attacking the same target more than once is via the Full Auto firing mode.  Multiple Attacks does not permit attacking the same target more than once (see pg. 42, 6WE CRB)

[Xenon]

I disagree, but at the same time I also acknowledge that the rules are ambiguous and can be read in more than one way ;-)

If you are wielding one weapon then you can attack multiple targets if you are using a melee weapon (both SR5 and SR6). You can also attack two different targets if it is a firearm in BF mode (both SR5 and SR6) or three different targets if it is a firearm in SA mode (SR5 only) or up to ten different targets or even the same target more than once if it is a firearm in FA mode (SR6 only).

If you are wielding two weapons then you can attack twice (both SR5 and SR6). Nowhere in any of the two editions you mention do they say that you are not allowed to attack the same target with both your weapons at once. Quite the opposite actually:

SR6 p. 111 Multiple Attacks
Whether it’s shooting a bunch of bullets at multiple people, throwing shuriken at a marauding group, or using a sword in each hand, there may be times you want to deliver multiple attacks at once. This can be against multiple targets, or you could attempt two attacks against the same target. Whatever the case, to make multiple attacks, divide your attacking dice pool by the number of attacks made as evenly as possible, then make the rolls. If you are making two different kinds of attack (like, say, a gun in one hand, a knife in the other) divide each of your normal dice pools by two, rounded down. Defenders will defend as normal; if the multiple attacks are made against a single target, they only have to roll once, and their hits will be compared to all of the attacker’s rolls to determine success.

Also note that the action you use to combine with your attack action is called multiple Attacks (not multiple Targets).

[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

Interesting catch.  For what it's worth, that looks like a conflict with pg 42, and I'd say that page 42 trumps page 111.  I've got some work behind the scenes to do now, heh.

[Xenon]

For what its worth, I think it is perfectly balanced that you can attack the same target twice if you are wielding two weapons.

Its not 'overpowered' or anything as you kinda need to invest into the Ambidextrous quality. And you have to split the pool when attacking. And the defender also get to defend twice. In some cases (many cases) you are probably better off just making one single attack anyway and the real advantage (if you are ambidextrous) would come from wielding a BF firearm in one hand (for the option to use anticipation) and a melee weapon (for the option to use wrest) in the other. Not from having the option to attack the same target twice.

Also, if the game allow that you aim two different weapons at two different targets and then pull both triggers then it also make perfect sense that you are allowed to aim both weapons at a single target as you pull both triggers...

And dual wielding axes to attack the same target with both of them at the same time is just too cool to give up.

[Michael Chandra]

And Anticipation works per target, not per attack.

[Xenon]

Hence why I said you should wield a burst firing weapon in one of your hands (so you could anticipate while wide bursting two different targets).

You can also not do anticipation (nor wrest for that matter) with your offhand (which is why I also mentioned the ambidextrous quality).

[Xelian]

A bit outside of the discussion but - Can you make a Monofilament Whip a Foci weapon? Our street samurai wants to do one as Spirits started giving him troubles with that Immune to Mundane Weapons.

[Michael Chandra]

Yes but you need to be an adept to be able to activate it. A mundane cannot activate a weapon focus.