Six Arms. . . Any build suggestions?


Advice


I am playing a character focused on getting the most possible arms.

Right now, it looks like such:

Race-- Kasatha (four arms)

Level 1-2 Alchemist (Discovery extra arm brings me up to 5)

Level 3+ Warpriest (use feat for extra discovery for 6th arm, warpriest to pump the damage dice on the daggers).

Any thoughts?


You could polymorph into something with more arms.

Be sure that you know the vestigial arm rules extremely well, if you're going that route.


Vestigial arms do not grant attacks, but can be used to assist-hold a two handed weapon. Thus, with 6 arms you could wield 3 two handed weapons. I am unsure how the TWF feat would be extrapolated to address this - probably just a further scaling to-hit adjustment on successive attacks. Alternately, you could just use 2 2H weapons and leave the other hands open for bombs/casting/applying poison.


Be a magus.

Four hands for two weapon fighting greatswords, one for casting spells, one for holding a tower shield.

Would it work by RAW? I'm not sure, probably not. Is it hilarious and terrifying? Absolutely.


Is this PFS?

If it isn't, then you might take 5 levels in a psionic class called Aegis. With 5 levels in Aegis, you can grow 2 extra arms that can be used in combat.

Can you play a Thri-Kreen?

Take enough levels in Druid so you can Wild Shape into a Giant Octopus. Since a Giant Octopus has a bite attack, the Tentacles are indeed secondary natural attacks, so you you take a -5 on your attack roll unless you can take Multiattack.

Do they have to be arms? How about a build with lots of attacks? be a Tengu. You can have 2 Claws and a bite, 4 claws if you cast Monstrous Physique and turn into a 4-armed Sahaugin. Take a level in White-Haired Witch and get a hair attack. Get a Mammoth Helm and get a Gore Attack. Get a Tentacle Cloak and get 2 Tentacle Attacks.


I second the magus cause they can't wield two handed very often. A monk would also be a worthy consideration as they could then choose to trip, grapple, or swing with two handed weapons at will without any penalties, dropping weapon, etc. such a monk could even use different weapons to achieve that end (theoretically).


Two weapon fighting longbows, then one hand for a shield and the other free for spells and whatnot.


Synthesist summoner gets a lotta arms. Also has better physical stats.

Warpriest...I don't really know. Rumor has it it's pretty lousy as a class, and every time I look at it it looks terrible. Your sacred weapon damage-die increase is lousy and your Base Attack, lost spells, and shorter spell durations means you won't be hitting much with damage dice that don't really come into their own until the campaign is ending.

Also, there's a better way to increase those damage dice.

So I'm going to make some assumptions. First, you're an alchemist who is fighting, so you probably have a high dex and weapon finesse. This is fine, this is workable. The Vivisectionist alchemist trades not-that-useful bombs for sneak attack, which allows you to take your many extra attacks (multiweapon fighting, light weapons) and add a bunch of damage dice. Your mutagens and your buff spells let you mitigate your lousy BAB, and since you don't sacrifice caster levels with two different classes those spells do a lot better. With a flanking buddy you can get yourself 4 short swords dealing 4d6 damage by level 5. Though Frankly, you're probably better scrapping alchemist entirely and just going slayer because...

Vestigial arms don't offer extra attacks, so there's no reason to bother. The only method I can find in PF for getting extra arms (that count) past the 4 from Kasatha is Mutation or shapeshifting into some critter, and off the top of my head I don't remember any 6+ armed critters out there.

Lantern Lodge

Gunslinger with 5 double-barreled pistols. You really only need 5 levels (for the dex-to-damage).


PRD wrote:
Vestigial Arm (Ex): The alchemist gains a new arm (left or right) on his torso. The arm is fully under his control and cannot be concealed except with magic or bulky clothing. The arm does not give the alchemist any extra attacks or actions per round,[bold] though the arm can wield a weapon and make attacks as part of the alchemist's attack routine (using two-weapon fighting).[/bold] The arm can manipulate or hold items as well as the alchemist's original arms (for example, allowing the alchemist to use one hand to wield a weapon, another hand to hold a potion, and the third hand to throw a bomb). The arm has its own “hand” and “ring” magic item slots (though the alchemist can still only wear two rings and two hand magic items at a time). An alchemist may take this discovery up to two times.

The way it read it, if I have multi-attack (due to starting at 4 arms as a Kasartha) then the extra arms give me attacks. Took Viv. for Sneak attack

Right now I'm 2 levels Alchemist; have 16 Str, Dex, and Wis; with 14 Int (was rolled states in a home game).

I liked Warpriest because for a character using six arms worth of daggers it ups the damage immediately with only a single level.


Nathanael Love wrote:
PRD wrote:
Vestigial Arm (Ex): The alchemist gains a new arm (left or right) on his torso. The arm is fully under his control and cannot be concealed except with magic or bulky clothing. The arm does not give the alchemist any extra attacks or actions per round, though the arm can wield a weapon and make attacks as part of the alchemist's attack routine (using two-weapon fighting). The arm can manipulate or hold items as well as the alchemist's original arms (for example, allowing the alchemist to use one hand to wield a weapon, another hand to hold a potion, and the third hand to throw a bomb). The arm has its own “hand” and “ring” magic item slots (though the alchemist can still only wear two rings and two hand magic items at a time). An alchemist may take this discovery up to two times.

The way it read it, if I have multi-attack (due to starting at 4 arms as a Kasartha) then the extra arms give me attacks. Took Viv. for Sneak attack

Right now I'm 2 levels Alchemist; have 16 Str, Dex, and Wis; with 14 Int (was rolled states in a home game).

That's now how multiweapon fighting works. You get (or don't get) as many attacks as you have (normal) arms, taking the multiweapon feats merely reduce the to-hit penalties from -6/-10 to -4/-4 (wielding light weapons drops the penalty another 2). RIght now with 4 arms and no feats you can swing 4 morningstars at -6/-10/-10/-10, multiweapon fighting would drop it to -4/-4/-4/-4 but would not suddenly give you a fifth and sixth attack from lupy and stumpy, your mutant extra arms.

Nathanael Love wrote:
I liked Warpriest because for a character using six arms worth of daggers it ups the damage immediately with only a single level.

That's fair, but if you take literally ANYTHING that gives martial weapons you can do the same by just wielding short swords instead. Additionally, a light mace is a d6 simple weapon (worse crit mod though).

Actually, if you want to REALLY get weird, the Slayer who specializes in shield bashes can have a lot of fun. Convert to worshipping Torag, take the additional traits feat next level, get the shield-trained trait (and whatever else), and now you wield 4 spiked heavy shields as light weapons doing 1d6/x2 damage. 16k gold and 4 instances of the Bashing enchantment later they deal 2d6+1/x2 in your hands. At slayer level 10 you have +3d6 sneak attack, you can use the ranger combat style to get get the shield master feat which means your weapons are cheaper to enhance and all of your attacks carry no penalty. Use a vestigal arm to actually put on/take off the shields yourself (or just get help) and party down with something like 6+ attacks.

I didn't add strength mod for damage to the above, since it varies from main hand to off-hand and I don't know what your final strength score is going to end up being.

Edit: on further thought, there is nothing in the rules for vestigial arm that specifically says you can't wield a shield with one. Have an extra arm carry a shield for the +2 AC, wield 3 short swords in your regular hands, and cast with your 4th regular hand as a magus. Or just wield a greatsword in 2 hands, a shield in a 3rd, and cast with your 4th and save your discoveries/feats for more useful things. Admittedly, I assume you already took 1 of those so it may not be an option.


Nathanael Love wrote:
PRD wrote:
Vestigial Arm (Ex): The alchemist gains a new arm (left or right) on his torso. The arm is fully under his control and cannot be concealed except with magic or bulky clothing. The arm does not give the alchemist any extra attacks or actions per round,[bold] though the arm can wield a weapon and make attacks as part of the alchemist's attack routine (using two-weapon fighting).[/bold] The arm can manipulate or hold items as well as the alchemist's original arms (for example, allowing the alchemist to use one hand to wield a weapon, another hand to hold a potion, and the third hand to throw a bomb). The arm has its own “hand” and “ring” magic item slots (though the alchemist can still only wear two rings and two hand magic items at a time). An alchemist may take this discovery up to two times.

The way it read it, if I have multi-attack (due to starting at 4 arms as a Kasartha) then the extra arms give me attacks. Took Viv. for Sneak attack

Right now I'm 2 levels Alchemist; have 16 Str, Dex, and Wis; with 14 Int (was rolled states in a home game).

I liked Warpriest because for a character using six arms worth of daggers it ups the damage immediately with only a single level.

If your DM has allowed 2 Vestigial arms to give you 2 bonus attacks, and now you have 6, then consider 5 levels in Aegis and get 8!


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Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Instead of six arms, how about 4 claws (primary), 2 wings (secondary), 6 tentacles (secondary), 1 gore (primary), 1 tail (primary)? All RAW legal (unlike using vestigial arm for additional attacks).


6 arms interesting you could go two one handed weapons two small shields and the other two can hold the cheese board


Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber
MyCupRunnethOver wrote:

Vestigial arms do not grant attacks, but can be used to assist-hold a two handed weapon. Thus, with 6 arms you could wield 3 two handed weapons. I am unsure how the TWF feat would be extrapolated to address this - probably just a further scaling to-hit adjustment on successive attacks. Alternately, you could just use 2 2H weapons and leave the other hands open for bombs/casting/applying poison.

except the two-handed - armor spike FAQ, suggests that THF requires 2 hands of effort, so the extra hands can't help you there.


Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber
Nathanael Love wrote:
PRD wrote:
Vestigial Arm (Ex): The alchemist gains a new arm (left or right) on his torso. The arm is fully under his control and cannot be concealed except with magic or bulky clothing. The arm does not give the alchemist any extra attacks or actions per round,[bold] though the arm can wield a weapon and make attacks as part of the alchemist's attack routine (using two-weapon fighting).[/bold] The arm can manipulate or hold items as well as the alchemist's original arms (for example, allowing the alchemist to use one hand to wield a weapon, another hand to hold a potion, and the third hand to throw a bomb). The arm has its own “hand” and “ring” magic item slots (though the alchemist can still only wear two rings and two hand magic items at a time). An alchemist may take this discovery up to two times.

The way it read it, if I have multi-attack (due to starting at 4 arms as a Kasartha) then the extra arms give me attacks. Took Viv. for Sneak attack

Right now I'm 2 levels Alchemist; have 16 Str, Dex, and Wis; with 14 Int (was rolled states in a home game).

I liked Warpriest because for a character using six arms worth of daggers it ups the damage immediately with only a single level.

I think you mean MWF not multiattack, as multiattack, is just for natural weapons...


Dragonchess:

The wyvern cloak actually gives a sting attack, not a tail attack, which is important because it means you could use Racial Heritage (kobold) and Tail Terror to get a tail attack. But you have a better racial heritage option.

Your ranger levels could be better used as barbarian (2 claws from lesser abyssal blood, a gore from Extra Rage Power (lesser fiend totem), and a bite from Extra Rage Power (animal fury).

But I would suggest alchemist, because you can use Extra Discovery to get Feral Mutagen, Vestigial Armx2, and Tentacle. You can get claws on your Aspect limbs with Racial Heritage (Catfolk) and Catfolk Exemplar. You can then use your Feral Mutagen to get claws on your Vestigial Arms. Although you cannot use Vestigial Arms to get extra attacks, you are allowed to exchange your iterative unarmed strike attacks for your two claw attacks and your tentacle attack.

This is very directly allowed, but I can see why you would want to avoid all of the controversy that comes with Vestigial Arm nonsense. It only gives you about one more natural attack.

You can get talons on your feet (and a bite) for 5 minutes/day with an Animal Totem Tattoo. And even if you don't have animal fury or the tattoo, you can grab a bite through the trait or a Ring of Rat Fangs.

So that gives you 19 attacks with barbarian, or 20 with alchemist.

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