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The FAQ is this. When you wield a two-handed wepaon, you can't make off-hand attacks, period. You could have a million hands, doesn't do jack.

What Lelomenia quoted is from a forum post, and not relevant for RAW (obviously, as it talks about intent, i.e. RAI).

Im not sure I can agree with that statement based on the FAQ, as well as knowing the Titan Mauler archetype exists with Jotungrip. They are certainly wielding two-handed weapons in 1 hand, and this is effectively doing the same thing I am, except at a larger penalty, as well as missing out on potentially an increase to strength. I would then think that the armor spikes could have been a technicality, but maybe a technicality specific towards armor spikes.

willuwontu wrote:

There's also this FAQ that everyone seems to have forgotten about.

FAQ wrote:

Alchemist, Tentacle/Vestigial Arm: What does "extra attacks" mean for these discoveries?

It means "extra," as in "more than you would be able to make if you didn't have that discovery."

For example, if you're low-level alchemist who uses two-weapon fighting, you can normally make two attacks per round (one with each weapon). If you take the tentacle discovery, on your turn you can make
* two weapon attacks but no tentacle attack,
* a weapon attack with your left hand plus a secondary tentacle attack, or
* a weapon attack with your right hand plus a secondary tentacle attack.
At no time can you make a left hand weapon attack, a right hand weapon attack, and a tentacle attack on the same turn because the tentacle discovery says it "does not give the alchemist any extra attacks or actions per round." This language is calling out that the tentacle is not a standard natural weapon and doesn't follow the standard rules for using natural weapons (which would normally allow you to make the natural weapon attack in addition to your other attacks).

Likewise, if you instead took the vestigial arm discovery and put a weapon in that arm's hand, on your turn you can make
* a weapon attack with your left hand and one with your right hand,
* a weapon attack with your right hand and one with your vestigial arm, or
* a weapon attack with your left hand and one with your vestigial arm,
At no time can you make a left hand weapon attack, a right hand weapon attack, and a vestigial hand weapon attack on the same turn because the vestigial arm discovery says it "does not give the alchemist any extra attacks or actions per round."
The exact same restrictions would apply if your race had claws or you had some other ability to add claws to your limbs: the text of both discoveries

...

Currently I am in complete agreement with you with that interpretation.

I think the official ruling is ‘that doesn’t work, because hands of effort FAQ.’ Also,

Sean k.reynolds wrote:

The intent is that you have an extra arm for holding stuff, not to turn you into a double-greatsword-wielding maniac.

Is there a link to that FAQ that I can see?

So I recently made a character who multiclassed between alchemist and barbarian who focused primarily of two-weapon fighting. I was only planning to go 6 alchemist because I really cherished some of those later rage powers the barbarian gets, such as pounce and come and get me. That left me with 3 discoveries. Spontaneous healing seemed like a good choice when paired with a barbarian with DR. Currently we are level 3, and I am 1 Wild Rager/ 2 Ragechemist (old save dc and plans to pump will).

But then I thought about and saw the vestigial arm discovery, and a lightbulb went off in my head. By level 7, I could have 2 vestigial arms, as well as 2 normal arms, and I can wield 2 Great Axes. I can use one of the great axes in 2 of my hands, and the other great axe in my other 2 hands.

Would this effectively allow me to fight using Two-weapon fighting as well as Two-handed fighting at the same time? If my understanding is correct, then you still only have 1 main hand, and the other 3 are all considered off-hand. So whatever great axe you use in your main hand would use 1.5 Str since you are using it in 2 hands, and your other great axe would use full strength (since it is halved due to off-hand, but adding .5 due to using 2 hands to wield). This changes to 1.5 Str in offhand with the Double Slice Feat. Not only this, but using power attack in this fashion would increase the damage by .5 for both the main and off-hand great axes due to both using 2 hands, but the off-hand great axe would then lose the .5 due to it being in the off-hand. This would effectively make power attack a lot more feasible with two-weapon fighting.

Is my understanding of this interaction correct?