A while ago I put up a question for a balance pass on a homebrew fix for the Two-Weapon Fighting Style found here: Is this change to the Two-Weapon Fighting fighting style balanced?
A lot of people gave good advice and critiques by pointing out that my proposed solution had nothing/little to do with the problems I stated were the issues fueling the fix. So I changed my angle and took some time to really boil it down to what was needed and, hopefully, what would help.
To reiterate, the issues that I have with vanilla Two-Weapon Fighting are as follows:
In order to have both weapons out at the start of any fight a player has to either always have one weapon drawn, take a feat, or use an action. This one is almost entirely flavor oriented, but it makes it feel very clunky.
It is the most costly of the various methods of fighting to engage in (sword and board, great weapon, ranged, etc) since it requires a bonus action to get the extra attack (note this is not referring to the Extra Attack Feature). None of the other ways of fighting require this level of a player's combat resources to work and as the player gets more uses for their Bonus Action, it becomes costlier.
It doesn't scale in any shape other than increasing your fighting stat or acquiring a second magical weapon. It doesn't benefit from Extra Attack features and so for most classes, it has diminishing benefits for an increasingly expensive cost.
All these issues work together to make the mechanic feel both underwhelming and underperforming. So I figured that the Two-Weapon Mechanic, its Fighting Style, and the Dual Wielder feat all had to be addressed simultaneously to work.
Taking all of this into consideration, do the above alterations to the mechanic, Fighting Style, and Feat address the raised issues in a way that retains the innate elegance the Vanilla versions have while also not being better than competing methods of fighting, such as great weapon or sword and board? Does it allow for multiple flavors of dual Wielders? Or is there any edge case that makes this go topsy-turvy in a bad way?
If you could show the math involved with answering any of these or leaving a link to a spot that does would be very appreciated. Thoughtful answers are welcome though!
Two-Weapon Fighting Mechanic: proposed alteration
When you take the Attack Action and you attack with a light melee weapon that you are holding in one hand (called your Main-hand), you can make an equal number of attacks with a different light melee weapon in our other hand(called your Off-hand). You don't add your ability modifier to the Off-hand damage unless it is negative.
If you do this, the damage die of both weapons is capped at 1d4 and you cannot disengage or hide this turn and stop disengaging or hiding if you already are.
If either weapon has the thrown property, you can instead throw the weapon, instead of making a melee attack with it.
Two-Weapon Fighting Style- proposed alteration
When Two-weapon Fighting you add half your ability modifier, rounded up, to both weapons instead of all of it to one. You can draw or stow an additional weapon, if it is one-handed.
Dual Wielder- proposed alteration
You master fighting with two weapons, gaining the following benefits:
You gain a +1 bonus to AC while you are wielding a separate melee weapon in each hand.
You can use two-weapon fighting even when the one handed melee weapons you are wielding aren’t light. Both weapon's damage die is capped at 1d6 instead of 1d4.
Once per round, if you are wielding a light melee weapon in each hand, you can make an Opportunity Attack without using your Reaction. You may, at this time, make a second Opportunity Attack against the same target if you wish.
