Do both of the Weapons need the Nick Weapon Mastery for it to work, a specific one of the two or any?

Question

Reading the Nick Weapon Mastery, I am left wondering how exactly it works. Of course both weapons need to be light to be able to make that Extra Attack with light weapons, but which of the weapons needs to have the Nick Weapon Mastery? Is it both or only one? If it's only one does it have to be a specific one, i.e. the one you make the original attack with or the one you make the Extra attack with or does it not matter?

Having now read through the rules of the Light weapon property and Nick several times, I personally don't see any clear indication one way or the other, which is why I am asking if someone here might be able to decipher those rules for me. Nick states that it applies "when you make the extra Attack of the light property", this to me could mean it might be the weapon that does the Extra Attack that needs to have Nick, but I am really not sure if I am intrepreting that correctly, I mean it could also be that, when the Nick Weapon makes the first attack, that that enables the other light weapon (Nick or not) to make its attack as part of the action.

As an example imagine a character is attacking with a Dagger (which has Nick) in one-hand and a Shortsword (which has Vex) in the other hand. Can they make use of Nick? Do they have to attack with a specific weapon first or last for that to work? The rogue in my group, which I DM, has daggers and has recently purchased a shortsword, and we will be changing to the 2024 version in the next couple of months, meaning that this might be something that will come at my table not that for into the future.

Interestingly the Rogue's new starting Equipment (A) now gives them 2 daggers and 1 shortsword and the Ranger's starting equipment (A), as well as the Fighter's starting equipment (B) give them a Scimitar (which also have Nick) instead of the daggers. These setups seem to me to heavily imply, that Nick works with only one weapon having it, though that by itself is not yet a proof.

Answer 1

The weapon used for the extra attack must have the Nick property

The wording of Nick is indeed confusing, and comparing the description of Nick to all the other mastery properties reveals why: Nick is the only mastery property that doesn't include the phrase "this weapon". Despite this, the description of mastery properties can help us here (emphasis added):

Each weapon has a mastery property, which is usable only by a character who has a feature, such as Weapon Mastery, that unlocks the property for the character.

A mastery property is a property of the weapon, and every mastery property's effect involves an attack in some way. This means that for each attack, there can only be one mastery property involved: the mastery property of the weapon used in that specific attack. Specifically, Nick applies only to attacks made with a weapon that has the Nick property, just like every other mastery property. Unlike the other properties, though, Nick further limits its use to "when you make the extra attack of the Light property". Putting these together, Nick applies specifically when you make the extra attack of the Light property using a weapon with the Nick property. Notably, there are no additional conditions placed on how you must trigger this extra attack. In particular, there is no requirement to attack with a Nick weapon first as part of your action in order to "activate" the Nick property. Any extra attack of the Light property is eligible for Nick regardless of how it was triggered.

In other words, the ambiguously worded description of the Nick property in the PHB is equivalent to the following more explicit one (change highlighted in bold):

Nick

When you make the extra attack of the Light property using this weapon, you can make it as part of the Attack action instead of as a Bonus Action. You can make this extra attack only once per turn.

I'm not sure why Nick deviates from all the other mastery properties by omitting the phrase "this weapon," and I wouldn't be surprised if this was changed in a future erratum. But I still think the above is the only reasonable way to interpret the property as it is currently written.

Answer 2

The weapon used for the first attack must have the Nick property

Ryan C. Thompson's answer makes sense, and is a perfectly fine ruling. But I read the Nick property a bit differently. All weapons with nick also have the Light property. So what the Nick property does, in my eyes, is augment the Light property. The relevant part of the light property says:

Light: 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.

And the relevant part of Nick says:

Nick: When you make the extra attack of the Light property, you can make it as part of the Attack action instead of as a Bonus Action.

So in normal circumstances, without Weapon Mastery, when you attack with a Light weapon you can make an extra attack with a bonus action. When you attack with a Light weapon that has the Nick property, you get the opportunity to make an attack as a bonus action as normal, or you can make that attack as part of the Attack action.

The Nick property still only applies to attacks made with the Nick weapon, but instead of affecting the attack itself, it affects what options you get access to after making the attack.