Zen Archer and the two-handed / two-weapon fighting FAQ

[Durinor]

Can a Zen Archer threaten with his unarmed strike in a round in which he attacks with his bow?

Apologies if this question has been answered recently, but there are a lot of posts on the new FAQ on the use of armour spikes and two-handed weapons and I can't find anything specific.

[blackbloodtroll]

The FAQ has no effect on your ability to threaten.

When making the two weapon fighting full attack action, you cannot utilize two handed weapons, during that full attack action.

That is all that has changed.

[Durinor]

That's great blackbloodtroll many thanks.

[Quandary]

You can always take one hand off your bow at the end of your turn, so no problems in that scenario.

I'm not sure of the implications of the ruling for if you want to simultaneously threaten with both a Pole-Arm + Armor Spikes.
(or UAS by implication, although that's not in the FAQ)
There is a Feat "Snap Shot" letting you make Bow attacks as AoOs, that seems to be in the same boat as Polearm.
(if you took one hand off the bow at the end of your turn, you couldn't use the Bow to make AoOs as you're not wielding it properly)

Normally I would say there is no problem with either of those as long as you aren't trying to use the actual hands (or possibly limb) holding the weapon. Armor Spikes doesn't have RAW anything indicating it uses a hand or limb, but I'm not sure what Paizo's intent is there, in PFS they have ruled that it does, which I believe does mean that conflicts with threatening AoOs simultaneously with a Pole Arm and Armor Spikes, at least unless you have extra arms. But with the new ruling I'm not really sure of the implications, they could bar both the Polearm and Snap Shot (+Armor Spikes/UAS) simultaneous threatening scenarios.

But again, what you did with your Full Attack or other attacking actions on your turn isn't the crucial factor here, it is what weapons you are considered wielding off your turn, and you can drop a weapon (or drop just one hand of a 2H weapon) as a free action at the end of your turn if you wish to use that hand to threaten with a different weapon (/UAS/Armor Spikes/etc). Again, I'm not solid on the ruling, if holding a random non-weapon object in your hand would affect anything besides something that needs to be held in that physical hand in order to be wielded. Hopefully they clarify things soon.

[blackbloodtroll]

You don't need to take your hand off your bow to threaten with Unarmed Strikes.

You do not need a free hand to kick.

[Durinor]

A monk's unarmed strike is specifically usable when both hands are full, although I'm not sure if this applies to the UAS feat if taken by a non-monk.

My concern came from the ruling that using a two-handed weapon precludes use of an off-hand attack (even if the attack doesn't come from something physically held in a hand).

I can see some GMs deciding that this restriction carries on for the whole round rather than just the full-attack action, and ruling that you can't threaten with an UAS in the same round you used a bow - I don't agree, but I can see it happpening.

[blackbloodtroll]

Non-Monks can make Unarmed Strikes that do not utilize hands.

Not every non-Monk is restricted to a Rock'em Sock'em Robot style of fighting with unarmed strikes.

That's silly.

[Durinor]

Perhaps it is silly, but Monks get a class ability called 'Unarmed Strike'. This gives them the Improved Unarmed Strike feat and allows them to fight with head, hands, feet etc. It also states that there is no such thing as an off-hand attack for a monk fighting unarmed.

The Improved Unarmed Strike feat includes no such text.

[blackbloodtroll]

Look here.

[Durinor]

I stand corrected!