Can multiple items be held in your off hand?

Question

I am trying to come up with a interesting build for a dagger thrower (Champion fighter/Thief rogue).

What I was wondering is if you weren't counting the daggers in your offhand for Two-Weapon Fighting, could you hold knives in your hand in the same way that throwing magicians hold multiple knives in their off hand?

Example. Level 5 fighter with Extra Attack and optional rule for feats allowing Dual Wielder. They make two attacks drawing the daggers as part of attack. Followed by the Thief's Fast Hands feature to draw one or two more weapons. Then on the following turn you draw two more daggers.

Is there any ruling against holding multiple in your off hand if you aren't using Two-Weapon Fighting and if it's not getting the bonus from the Dueling fighting style?

I just want a RAW or RAI answer if possible, because looking at the Player's Handbook I can't find anything on it.

Answer 1

There is no explicit general rule one way or the other

There are many times when a character probably does hold multiple items in their hand at one time. For example: paying a bar tab, a character might hand the publican a handful of coins. This would require holding multiple objects in one hand at the same time.

If a fight breaks out right behind that character, a DM could reasonably allow the character to throw those coins as a distraction, if not as a weapon.

Other items like ball bearings or caltrops are deployed from a (singular) pouch:

Ball Bearings: As an action, you can spill these tiny metal balls from their pouch...

Caltrops: As an action, you can spread a single bag of caltrops ...

However, a character could presumably pull a handful of ball bearings or caltrops out of the bag to use. That would qualify as holding multiple items in one hand.

There is no rule stating that this is or is not legal because it falls within the narrative gray area of the game. If you wanted to do something more advanced, it would fall to the DM's discretion.