Two-handed

Two-Handed is a characteristic of weapon types in all three Diablo games. It is often abbreviated as 2H.

A character may only equip weapons and off-hand items into two hands, and two-handed weapons occupy both. In most cases it means that no other weapons, Shields or off-hand items may not be equipped together with a two-handed weapon, though there are some exceptions:


 * Crusaders can elect to take Heavenly Strength as a passive skill. This allows them to equip any two-handed weapon with their main hand, as long as a shield is equipped. However, all damage dealt is reduced by 20% in this manner.


 * Arrows and Bolts need to be equipped in the off-hand, even though Bows and Crossbows are two-handed weapons.


 * Quivers, much like Arrows, are equippable with a bow or crossbow.


 * In Diablo II, all two-handed swords may be used in one hand by Barbarians, effectively allowing them to wield two of those weapons at the same time. They suffer from dealing reduced damage, along with the item's (usually) slower attack speed, however.
 * The ability of being able to wield a two-handed weapon in one hand was also present for the Barbarian in Diablo: Hellfire. As a matter of fact, it could be argued that this hero has shown a greater degree of strength than the Barbarians seen in the later games; in addition to all two-handed swords, he was able to do the same with a maul. To add further insult to injury, he also dealt full damage with the above mentioned weaponry, and suffered no penalties to attack speed compared to their one-handed counterparts. In return, he was unable to dual-wield even the most simple of weapons, instead leaving that to the Bard.

A general rule is that two-handed weapons deal a higher amount of damage, and can roll higher total stat bonuses for the slot, but suffer from a slower attack speed.

Wands, Daggers, Hand Crossbows, Javelins, Scepters, Ceremonial Knives, Fist Weapons, Throwing Weapons, Spears (Diablo III only), Sorceress Orbs and Katars are always one-handed and do not exist in two-handed variants.