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Two weapon fighting:

When you take the Attack action and attack with a light melee weapon that you're holding in one hand, you can use a bonus action to attack with a different light melee weapon that you're holding in the other hand. -PHB 195

Pact of the chain feature:

Additionally, when you take the Attack action, you can forgo one of your own attacks to allow your familiar to make one attack of its own. -PHB 107

If I attack with a short sword, can I direct my familiar to make an attack in place of my second bonus-action attack?

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No.

If you have enough Fighter levels, you get more than one attack from your Attack Action, so could forfeit one to let your Familiar attack, and use the rest yourself.

Fighter's Extra Attack feature: (PBR 25)

Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.

But, two-weapon fighting doesn't give you extra attacks as part of an Attack Action, it gives you an attack as a Bonus Action. And, you don't get that Bonus Action unless you attack with your other hand first.

Two-Weapon Fighting: (PBR 74)

When you take the Attack action and attack with a light melee weapon that you’re holding in one hand, you can use a bonus action to attack with a different light melee weapon that you’re holding in the other hand.

Bonus actions: (PBR 69)

You can take a bonus action only when a special ability, spell, or other feature of the game states that you can do something as a bonus action. You otherwise don’t have a bonus action to take.

(Quotes are from Player's Basic Rules v0.2)

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    \$\begingroup\$ I think the key part in the p74 bit you've quoted is actually where it says "take the Attack action and attack with a light melee weapon" - as opposed to "take the attack action and let your familiar attack instead". \$\endgroup\$
    – anaximander
    Commented May 21, 2015 at 9:23
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    \$\begingroup\$ Alright, it makes me sad, but this answer makes unfortunate sense. Shenanigans thwarted. \$\endgroup\$
    – Jason
    Commented May 21, 2015 at 17:52
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No, you can't do this. Just as it says, you can forgo one of your own attacks to allow your familiar to make an attack when you take the Attack action, not when you use a bonus action to attack with two-weapon fighting.

Two-weapon fighting does not allow you to make an extra attack with the Attack action - it allows you to make an extra attack with a bonus action. It's a separate action, and your familiar can only replace attacks made with the Attack action.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Just as an addendum: Bonus actions are not something that you have to spend but rather a special action you can only do when called for, and only once per round. So you can't swap two actions just because they are Bonus Actions. They aren't measured of time or speed like Moves and Standards. \$\endgroup\$
    – Jason_c_o
    Commented May 21, 2015 at 6:16
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Now this might be considered to be weaselly, or min/maxy, but what you can do (which is close to equivalent) is to take the Attack action as your full action, and forgo that attack to allow your familiar to attack, but still since you took the Attack action, you can then use your bonus action to attack with your offhand second weapon. So it works out pretty similar, just that your actual swing is with your second weapon, not the first.

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    \$\begingroup\$ You can not do this. See the "and attack with a light melee weapon" In the Two Weapon Fighting text. \$\endgroup\$
    – Patta
    Commented Feb 5, 2018 at 9:05
  • \$\begingroup\$ That's there to be a limit, not allowing you to attack with a weapon that isn't light. Like a number of things that have come up recently, it isn't definitive and there are a couple of ways to rule it. And apparently some people cannot stand that a DM might do it differently than they do. I would require the character to have a light weapon in each hand ready to attack, but would allow the main action to be forgone in favor of the familiar. \$\endgroup\$
    – Phil Boncer
    Commented Feb 5, 2018 at 17:31
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    \$\begingroup\$ I don't care how people rule at their tables, I care about what the rules say. And they say 100% clearly, that you need to actually attack with the weapon. I don't see at all how that is "not definitive". "take the Attack action and attack with a light melee weapon" are the prerequisites for tow weapon fighting. \$\endgroup\$
    – Patta
    Commented Feb 5, 2018 at 18:27
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    \$\begingroup\$ The text requires that the creature attack with a light melee weapon to gain the bonus action, not that they use an attack action while holding a light melee weapon. \$\endgroup\$
    – KingdomGnark
    Commented Feb 5, 2018 at 18:46
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    \$\begingroup\$ The reason simply is that A is what the rules say but B is not. You are of course free to use B as a house rule at your table but the op here clearly wanted an answer according to the official rules and not house rule alternatives. \$\endgroup\$
    – mkl
    Commented Feb 5, 2018 at 22:18

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