3 armed Alchemist / Magus with Bastard Sword and Spell Combat

[friarzen]

Consider an Alchemist2+/Magus2+ with the Vestigial Arm discovery.

the simple question: Can a 3-armed/handed Magus wield a 2-handed weapon in two of his
hands while Spell Combating with the 3rd Free hand?

RAW, the answer would be "No", Spell Combat specifically says:
"This functions much like two-weapon fighting, but the off-hand weapon is a spell that is
being cast. To use this ability, the magus must have one hand free (even if the spell being
cast does not have somatic components), while wielding a light or one-handed melee
weapon in the other hand. As a full-round action, he can make all of his attacks with his
melee weapon at a –2 penalty and can also cast any spell from the magus spell list with a
casting time of 1 standard action (any attack roll made as part of this spell also takes this
penalty)."

Which seems kinda silly, since you have a spare vestigial hand hanging out doing nothing.

But given that, what about the Bastard Sword, which can be used either 2-handed or
1-handed?

AFTER you initiate Spell Combat, you could shift grip of the OTHER free hand to wield two
handed THEN deliver your attacks. Which seems to be perfectly possible with Two-Weapon
Fighting, 3 Hands and the Vestigial Arms limit on extra attacks. You'd still only have 2
attacks and Spell Combat + Spellstrike is supposed to work like TWF.

This interpretation also limits me to not using a Large Sized Bastard Sword to start
Spell Combat with as well (since then I'd be using a 2-hands required weapon).

So, now the "REAL, niggling" question:

The one grey-area still is whether the combined Spell Combat + Spellstrike Magus Action
can be used with the grip change so the extra spell-delivery attack is also 2-other-handed
or not.

I.e: Can I: Cast, shift grip, deliver spell via weapon attack, normal iterative attacks to use
all two-handed strikes or does it go Cast+deliver-1-handed, shift grip, normal 2-handed
iteratives?

Normally, I'm not this rules lawyer-y, but having an official ruling to point to should
help speed up Pathfinder Society events I've been attending recently.

[Michael Sayre]

friarzen wrote:

Consider an Alchemist2+/Magus2+ with the Vestigial Arm discovery.

the simple question: Can a 3-armed/handed Magus wield a 2-handed weapon in two of his
hands while Spell Combating with the 3rd Free hand?

***

"To use this ability, the magus must have one hand free (even if the spell being cast does not have somatic components), while wielding a light or one-handed melee weapon in the other hand."

If you have Exotic weapon proficiency Bastard Sword and can treat it like a one-handed weapon, this should work. If you're using two hands to wield it it doesn't change what type you treat the weapon as, and you've got the free hand...

[amorangias]

I guess the rules weren't fine-tuned for dealing with three-armed characters. Preposterous negligence, might I add.

Best answer - ask your GM. I'd personally allow it.

BTW, any 1h weapon can be wielded in two hands for 1.5 Str to damage, so don't bother with the bastard sword.

[friarzen]

amorangias wrote:

I guess the rules weren't fine-tuned for dealing with three-armed characters. Preposterous negligence, might I add.

Best answer - ask your GM. I'd personally allow it.

BTW, any 1h weapon can be wielded in two hands for 1.5 Str to damage, so don't bother with the bastard sword.

Yeah, since this is a Society character, asking the GM on this sort of thing tends to get

varied rulings, which is why I specifically went with the EWP: Bastard Sword. Just in case one
GM decides to rule grip swapping out completely, another decides to allow it with 1-handed
weapons only, and another decides I could even go ahead and use a Large Size Bastard Sword
with the -2 oversized weapon penalty (in which case the LSBS is a nice 2d8+1.5str), etc.

[Grick]

friarzen wrote:

Can a 3-armed/handed Magus wield a 2-handed weapon in two of his hands while Spell Combating with the 3rd Free hand?

No. As you said, you must be wielding a light or one-handed melee weapon in the other hand.

friarzen wrote:

what about the Bastard Sword

An appropriately sized bastard sword is a one-handed melee weapon, so it works exactly like using (for example) a longsword.

friarzen wrote:

AFTER you initiate Spell Combat, you could shift grip of the OTHER free hand to wield two handed THEN deliver your attacks.

You need to meet the prerequisites for Spell Combat for the entire full-round action. Meaning the entire time you must have one hand free, and be wielding a light or one-handed melee weapon in the other hand.

Having a third hand helping wield that light or one-handed melee weapon doesn't matter.

friarzen wrote:

The one grey-area still is whether the combined Spell Combat + Spellstrike Magus Action can be used with the grip change so the extra spell-delivery attack is also 2-other-handed

or not.

To make it easier, ignore the grip switch.

One hand free.
2nd hand wielding one-handed weapon.
3rd hand helping wield one-handed weapon.

Any attacks you make with the weapon will get 1.5xStr, extra power attack, etc. because you're using it two handed. Just keep that first hand free and you're all set.

The only sticking point: The intent (via post by James Jacobs) is that without exotic weapon proficiency, you can not wield a bastard sword in one hand. Not even by taking non-proficiency penalties. This means a non-proficient magus cannot use a bastard sword with spell combat.

That's not RAW, just James, but I wouldn't build a PFS character around it unless you're proficient.

[Mousedigits]

there may be a loophale. take 2 levels of alchemist and at first, take the feat extra discovery, and choose vestigial arm. now at 2nd you have 4 arms. use one for a one handed weapon, 2 for a 2 handed weapon, and 1 for casting.

[Kazaan]

Dragonfire5262 wrote:

there may be a loophale. take 2 levels of alchemist and at first, take the feat extra discovery, and choose vestigial arm. now at 2nd you have 4 arms. use one for a one handed weapon, 2 for a 2 handed weapon, and 1 for casting.

That may work, but not as straight-forward as you might expect. Spell Combat allows you to make your iterative melee attacks "with the weapon in your other hand", referring to the light or one-handed weapon aforementioned. So, if using just Spell Combat, you could have 4 arms, a Greatsword wielded with two of them, a Longsword with one of them, and your spellcasting hand as the last arm and cast your spell and make normal attacks with the longsword only as part of Spell Combat. However, if you so choose, you could use the Greatsword to deliver the free melee attack from a touch spell (since it's separate, not part of spell combat) and to make your AoO.