G'day all, I'm a DM that's only recently began running Pathfinder 2e games beyond small one off adventures.
Anyway one of my players is falling in love with the gauntlet Bow and wants to use it on an Orc hungerseed exemplar. They want to dual wield it and use hands of the wildling + twin stars as their main weapons. They also plan to take the crossbow infiltrator dedication as a free archetype to get a spam fire ability (Cresent cross) using their crossbows incase enemies run, which I tend to have humanoids do when they fall to 20%-10% max HP.
Anyway my player is taking orc feats that buff unarmed blows and asked me if they can make unarmed strikes even though they'll be wearing the gauntlet bows (not strikes with the gauntlets but regular unarmed attacks such as the hunger seed horn or orcs iron fists). I have allowed it after letting them know they'd need a seperate item for runes (such as hand wraps of mighty blows) to get runes on their unarmed strikes and runes on the gauntlet Bow would only effect the weapon.
Though I likely won't change my ruling for this campaign, I would like to know if others think unarmed strikes should be allowed while wearing free-hand weapons such as the gauntlet Bow or a gauntlet buckler?
Thanks all
Wearing a gauntlet does not prevent fist attacks or claw attacks, etc. Offhand, I'd say no Free Hand weapon could. And yes, the unarmed attacks use Handwraps while the weapon needs separate Runes. That's where it becomes awkward at higher levels.
Wearing a gauntlet does not prevent fist attacks or claw attacks, etc. Offhand, I'd say no Free Hand weapon could. And yes, the unarmed attacks use Handwraps while the weapon needs separate Runes. That's where it becomes awkward at higher levels.
Thanks, didn't see anything saying it would stop them but wanted to check what others thought in case i missed something.
And since i know this is something they want to do and that the other players aren't unarmed I'll add something like handwraps (or reflavoured handwraps that look like a ring or whatever, I'll discuss that with the player closer to level 4-6) and throw an extra potency or fundamental rune into some shops or loot to help get them to midgame with few issues.
Thanks mate
The other thing that makes just using the gauntlet part of the gauntlet bow for your melee is that you can have a gauntlet made out of an unusual material. Triggering silver, cold iron, or adamantine weaknesses can be very useful, depending on the campaign. (though, uh, don't underestimate the impact of saving all that money either)
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The Hands of the Wildling works, but only when using the gauntlet bow as a gauntlet, not as a crossbow.
Crescent Cross/Spray exclusively works with the Crescent Cross weapon, not a gauntlet bow. This is relevant in that the crescent cross isn't a free hand weapon, which means it wouldn't work with Wildling.
In short, your player is mixing some things up and these don't work together.
As far as making unarmed strikes while using the gauntlet bow, yes you can but it wouldn't benefit from any runes on the gauntlet bow. And you could probably wear handwraps, but the cost of keeping multiple weapons outfitted with runes is hard.
The Hands of the Wildling works, but only when using the gauntlet bow as a gauntlet, not as a crossbow.
Crescent Cross/Spray exclusively works with the Crescent Cross weapon, not a gauntlet bow. This is relevant in that the crescent cross isn't a free hand weapon, which means it wouldn't work with Wildling.
In short, your player is mixing some things up and these don't work together.
As far as making unarmed strikes while using the gauntlet bow, yes you can but it wouldn't benefit from any runes on the gauntlet bow. And you could probably wear handwraps, but the cost of keeping multiple weapons outfitted with runes is hard.
Yeah the hand of the wildling was to be used with unarmed attacks not the crossbow part of the gauntlets. The player wanted the bows for if they couldnt reach a target but otherwise played much like a brawler.
They also wanted the unarmed focus since the orc has some feats buffing it they found fun.
And the cresent cross was worded as a specialised gauntlet bow hence why my player mistook that as did i.
Its certainly not a powerful build but if my players find something fun i want to try supporting it
Crescent Spray can be a brutal opening salvo if built around (by choosing a class with certain kinds of damage enhancers, think Thaumaturge or Rogue). Outside of that, making 3 Crescent cross attacks without a damage enhancer for it isn't very impressive and the reload actions to make it work are balancing.