Polearm in the offhand

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Dom

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If I'm holding a polearm in my offhand, I can still attack with a 1 handed weapon in my main hand I just cannot block anything with the polearm and if anything hits the polearm that counts as hitting me. correct?

The main reason I'm asking this is because I'm wondering if I can waylay with a 1 hander while holding my polearm in the offhand.
 
I'd be very careful of that fighting style. While, sure, it's a technically kosher interpretation and so long as you take all the hits on polearm you're not breaking the rules, you're edging them closely.

First off, if your victim spins on you or is resistant to your Waylay, you have to instantly drop or toss the 1-H edge - this will create problems. Weapons flipping about in the middle of combat due to Disarms and Shatters are dicey enough; add a style which intentionally creates that situation and it becomes even dicier. In addition, if they do spin, you'll need to immediately disengage and back-up to get in safe-distance for the polearm all while your victim is pressing her short-range advantage. There are just a lot of things that might go wrong.

Second, though you're not technically breaking the proscription against fighting Two-weapons with 2-Handers, you are, in effect, doing so. That is, you're using a melee skill but you're not fighting. It's like fighting with two Long Swords simultaneously and randomly switching which is the "real" long-sword for striking/defending and which is the "fake" long-sword which would take damage when struck. That's an obvious and extreme example, but it highlights what I'm thinking: creating a fighting style that intentionally muddles in the grey area's just seems off colour.

Now, I might be overreacting to all this and I'm sure there are plenty of Marshals and players who would scoff - but, I'm just saying, be prepared for the likelihood that using this style will create more problems than it solves. Better still to fully separate the 2-Handed fighting and the Waylay skill. After all, quickly sheathing your polearm (with that snazzy sling you devised) or just dropping it wouldn't take all that long and would cut through all the legal fog.
 
my intention was to make a small weapon such as a hatchet just for waylaying since my primary fighting style is polearm. Honestly if I was able to sneak up on somebody to land a waylay I would just start attacking them with the waylay weapon. Most of the time if I'm going for a waylay my polearm would be on my back I was just trying to find out if it was a legal attack if the situation struck where I was able to sneak up on somebody and waylay them without having to throw my polearm down.
 
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