Text in rulebook:
The player must also declare which equipped weapon his hero is using. Heroes may either attack with one equipped weapon or their bare hands. A hero attacking with his bare hands can only target an adjacent space and rolls only the blue attack die for his attack. Only abilities on the chosen weapon may be used; if equipped with two weapons, abilities on the other weapon are ignored for the attack. If the hero wishes to make a Ranged attack, he must choose an equipped Ranged weapon.

Dual Strike:
Exhaust this card when you perform an attack, before dice are rolled. If you have 2 Melee weapons with 1 hand icon each equipped, add 1 surge to the results. You may use the surge abilities on both weapons during the attack.

If a skirmisher have 2 melee weapons with 1 hand icon each equipped:

1. Can he choose to attack with bare hands?

2. If he can choose to attack with bare hands, can he use a "Dual Strike"?

P.S. I apologize, I badly speak English.

RAW

1. Yes, to my knowledge a player may always choose to attack with bare hands regardless of what weapons are equipped.

2. Yes, condition for dual strike is satisfied by having 2 weapons equipped, even if neither is being used for the attack. (interstingly, this may also apply to ranged weapons that are trinkets or search cards, such as the fire flask or pocket crossbow)

1. I agree with Silidus.

2. Yes, think that surge abilities of both weapons should be accessible when attacking with bare hands. However, ranged weapons cannot be used.

Quote

CRRG, p52, based on an uFAQ

The Skirmisher cannot use Dual Strike during ranged attacks (e.g. when attacking with Fire Flask with two Melee weapons equipped).

Ahh curse you uFAQ.... just when you think you have things sorted out.

I am bewildered that it is possible to break quest "Respected Citizen" encounter 1 (Shadow of Nerekhall).

Many quests can be broken by specific heroes or classes (anything with an objective on the other side of a locked portcullis comes to mind). It would not be the first time.

Thanks for the help.

22 hours ago, Sadgit said:

2. Yes, think that surge abilities of both weapons should be accessible when attacking with bare hands. However, ranged weapons cannot be used.

That UFAQ response seems like it might be extrapolated to cover bare hands, too. That is, I know the response only specifically addresses ranged weapons- but it's possible the reasoning behind it is, "the skirmisher is attacking with not one of said equipped melee weapons, so he can't use Dual Strike".

Current RAW and solid responses, yes the skirmisher could use dual strike bare handed. However, I suspect that if the matter were to be pursued further, the answer would be "he can't, or he isn't supposed to be able to."

Yeah they really need to stop addressing these under the FAQ model and start accepting them as Errata.

ie text on card SHOULD read;

Exhaust this card when you perform an attack with a melee weapon, before dice are rolled. If you have 2 Melee weapons with 1 hand icon each equipped, add 1 surge to the results. You may use the surge abilities on both weapons during the attack.

Two vaguely related questions:

1. Is bare hands attack considered a melee attack? Is it an attack with melee weapon?
2. Does One Fist roll BY or B for his bare hands attack, if he is equipped with 1 one-handed melee weapon?

1 hour ago, d20familiar said:

Two vaguely related questions:

1. Is bare hands attack considered a melee attack? Is it an attack with melee weapon?
2. Does One Fist roll BY or B for his bare hands attack, if he is equipped with 1 one-handed melee weapon?

1. A bare-handed attack is a melee attack (as opposed to a ranged attack). It is not an attack with a melee weapon, as it is explicitly an attack without a weapon.

2. One fist would roll BY, since his normal bare-hand roll of B would receive an additional Y thanks to his hero ability.