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I would like to have a shield attached to my character's left hand as he wields a melee weapon in his right hand.

How would I do this? I have the obj I want to be the shield but what I don't know is how to attach it so that when the melee weapon is equipped, the shield also appears. (Character has a ranged weapon as well)

I'd like to prevent making the shield an addon but if necessary, I would be okay with that, would just like to know how to make it an addon as well.

I know this is a late reply but here I go.

You would unfortunately have to make a change to the character skeleton, and therefore all of the character's animations. Maybe use the Aayla Secura skeleton? Essentially the thing you need is a hardpoint attached to the left hand where you can have a secondary mesh attached. See Aayla's lightsaber .odf for reference of how to get a second "weapon" mesh attached to the offhand hardpoint. So it would take some work but it can definitely be done. Does that make sense?

You don't have to change the skeleton at all. I did a similar thing with my ninja pack which you can find in released assets. I think I included a small tutorial or reference. Jedimoose is right though you would have to set up the weapon like Aayla's lightsabre. Just model it as if you were making an addon mesh then attach it via the lightsabre odf.

Oh yeah, you're right. For some reason I got mixed up and thought you need a specific hard point for the offhand weapon but the default skeleton already has everything you need.