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I was reading up the action economy for drawing weapons in the 2024 rules of 5e, and noticed this change under the Attack action:

Equipping and Unequipping Weapons. You can either equip or unequip one weapon when you make an attack as part of this action. You do so either before or after the attack. If you equip a weapon before an attack, you don't need to use it for that attack. Equipping a weapon includes drawing it from a sheath or picking it up. Unequipping a weapon includes sheathing, stowing, or dropping it.

This is pretty handy for throwing builds now that it doesn't take your only free interaction to draw your second weapon to attack, but it got me thinking: Now that you can draw a weapon as part of your attack, how does that interact with dual-wielding weapons and the Dueling Fighting Style feat? Notably, this is what it says about Light property in the 2024 rules:

When you take the Attack action on your turn and attack with a Light weapon, you can make one extra attack as a Bonus Action later on the same turn. That extra attack must be made with a different Light weapon, and you don't add your ability modifier to the extra attack's damage unless that modifier is negative. For example, you can attack with a Shortsword in one hand and a Dagger in the other using the Attack action and a Bonus Action, but you don't add your Strength or Dexterity modifier to the damage roll of the Bonus Action unless that modifier is negative.

It notably does not mention having to hold the second weapon in your other hand, unlike the 2014 rules for Two-Weapon Fighting.

Two-Weapon Fighting. When you take the Attack action and attack with a light melee weapon that you're holding in one hand, you can use a bonus action to attack with a different light melee weapon that you're holding in the other hand. You don't add your ability modifier to the damage of the bonus attack, unless that modifier is negative.

Let's say for example I am a level 1 Fighter with the Dueling Fighting Style feat and I am armed with a Shortsword at the start of my turn. Since I only have the Shortsword equipped and I am making a melee attack, that procs Dueling Style for +2 damage. I take an Attack action and hit with my Shortsword, as as part of that attack I sheath my Shortsword. As a Bonus Action I draw my Handaxe and attack with it via Two-weapon Fighting. Since I only have that Handaxe out, that should still proc Dueling Style for +2 Damage.

Does that seem to be correct? Would this still apply if I also had Two-Weapon Fighting Style feat, or used the Nick Mastery?

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Not quite

The rule you quote is for the Attack action:

Attack [Action]

When you take the Attack action, you can make one attack roll with a weapon or an Unarmed Strike.
Equipping and Unequipping Weapons. You can either equip or unequip one weapon when you make an attack as part of this action.

So, you could attack with your Shortsword, with no weapon in your other hand to get the Dueling Fighting Style bonus damage, and then sheathe it for free as part of the Attack action. You also could trigger the Light Bonus Action attack through this, as the Shortsword is a Light weapon, so you attacked with a Light weapon.

However, you cannot draw the Handaxe as part of the Bonus Action, as you do not make that attack as part of the Attack action ("this action" in the Attack action writeup), and the free draw or sheathe only works as part of the Attack action.

If you were to draw a Dagger, which would allow you to shift the Bonus Action attack into the Attack action as it has the Nick property, you could do it based on this rule, because you can draw or sheathe one weapon as part of each attack of the Attack action. (Thanks to @Andrzej Doyle for highlighting this).

In addition, both the dagger and the Handaxe also have the Thrown property (thanks to @Tarod) which says:

If a weapon has the Thrown property, you can throw the weapon to make a ranged attack, and you can draw that weapon as part of the attack.

So in the case of either of these two specific weapons, you could draw it as part of your Bonus Action attack, because the property allows you to draw it as part of an attack (at the very least if you throw it; but it would be weird if you couldn't draw it as part of the attack, just because you opt to use it for a melee attack instead of a ranged one, so I would parse both these sentences separately). This wouldn't work with a Club, which lacks the Thrown property.

You also could use your one free object interaction per turn (either during the Attack action or your movement, p. 20 PHB) to draw the Handaxe or Dagger, and then use that drawn second Light weapon to execute a second attack as the Light Bonus Action, as there is no time limit on when you can take the Bonus Action, other than that it must be later on the same turn.

And, if you also had the Dual Wielder feat, that second weapon you draw and use that way also could be a one-handed melee weapon that lacks the Two-Handed property. Or, if you also had the Two-Weapon Fighting fighting style, you could add your ability bonus to the damage of that Bonus Action Light weapon attack.

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Summary of interactions with weapons

This answer tries to summarize how to equip/draw or unequip/sheath weapons while attacking with them using the 2024 PHB rules:

  • The Attack action lets you equip or unequip one weapon once per attack as part of the Attack action. So if you have more than one attack, you can take advantage of that. See Nobody the Hobgoblin's answer for details related to Nick and Bonus Action attacks.

  • The Ammunition property lets you draw the ammunition as part of the attack itself (you need a free hand to load a one-handed weapon). This isn't necessarily part of the Attack action, so it can also happen when making an attack as a Bonus Action or Reaction.

  • The Thrown property lets you draw the weapon you're using for a ranged attack as part of the attack itself. And again, not necessarily as part of the Attack action.

In addition to the previous interactions:

Sage Advice Compendium

The SAC has an answer closely related to weapon interactions:

Can I make an attack with a Light weapon, then draw a second weapon with my other hand and qualify to make the extra attack of the Light property?

Yes. The only requirement for the Light property’s extra attack is that it’s made with a different Light weapon.

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