4 arms, multi-weapon fighting, monk levels...how many attacks?

[Taloras]

Say a creature has 4 arms and the Multi-Weapon Fighting feat. If it has monk levels, how many unarmed attacks can it make with a furry of blows? Does it get extra for the extra arms or not? Since a monk doesnt make off hand attacks, he attacks with all parts of his body, it made me wonder

 

[shilsen]

The number of arms don't matter for the attacks in a flurry per se. But IIRC, according to the latest FAQ from WotC, during a flurry a monk can also make additional attacks with secondary natural weapons. I'm not sure if that would apply in this case, but if it did, that's a LOT of attacks.

Hopefully someone else will show up to clarify and/or correct me here.

 

[Darklone]

Well, let's assume a monkish giant octopus (8 tentacles, natural weapons) ...

Nah. Thrikreen thingie with 6 arms? Whatever. X arms. TWF, ITWF, GTWF. The multidex feats.

That means 6 arms with 3 attacks each. plus one attack for BAB 16 with the main hand, +2 with the main hand/weapon for flurry, +1 for haste, +Y possible natural extra attacks (+1 perhaps for Style feats such as Axespike).

 

[Taloras]

6 arms with three attacks each? Hmm...that could get nasty. The race im looking at is the Knük from Minions: Fearsome Foes(by Bastion Press). 4 arms, +4 dex +4 wisdom, multidexterity (natural ability, they use all arms at the same bonus and without any penalty to strength for damage....in effect, none of the arms are off hand). Add multiweapon fighting and youve got a nasty combo....at first level.

 

[noeuphoria]

You don't get 3 attacks with each arm. Creatures with multiple weapons (i.e. marilith) choose one of their arms as their primary attack. Every other arm gets one secondary attack. I don't know that multiattack actually works with twf; otherwise someone would already have posted their marilith that makes 18 attacks a round.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I think the key issue is whether there is multiple attacks from BAB or multiple attacks from additional limbs because in most cases those two sources of multiple attacks don't interact.

 

[yoippari]

The way I see it there is no additional attacks made from having multiple limbs. When a two handed monk attacks he is limited by his BAB, not his number of arms. I think the PhB addresses this by saying that the monk is his own (one) weapon and doesn't have an off hand attack when making an unarmed strike. However if you were weilding monk weapons I think you could make a full attack and use all of the weapons in one round. As for furry of blows I think you are limited the same as a two armed monk.

 

[Sejs]

You would gain no extra Monk-Brand Unarmed Attacks (tm) for having extra arms. Monk attacks are not linked to any speciffic body part.


If those extra arms had natural weapons on them, like say claws, then you could take those as a secondary natural attacks when taking the appropriate action (eg, a full attack), at the appropriate penalty (-5 to hit, 1/2 str mod to dmg, multiweapon fighting would reduce the to hit penalty down to -2). You'd get only 1 swipe per claw.

 

[cantrip]

The FAQ doesn't address multiweapon fighting, but it's functioally identical to two-weapon fighting.

To add an off-hand attack to a flurry of blows, stack
whatever two-weapon penalty the monk has with the penalty (if
any) from the flurry. Attacks from the flurry have the monk’s
full damage bonus from Strength, but the off-hand attack gains
only half Strength bonus to damage. If the off-hand attack is a
weapon, that weapon isn’t available for use in the flurry (if it
can be used in a flurry at all, see the previous question).

And to add natural attacks to the equation...

If the creature normally is allowed to make both weapon
attacks and natural weapon attacks as part of the same full
attack routine, the monk can do the same (making unarmed
strikes in place of weapon attacks). Since a centaur can make
two hoof attacks in addition to his longsword attack, a centaur
monk can make two hoof attacks in addition to his unarmed
strike attack (or attacks, depending on his base attack bonus).
The monk can’t use his natural weapon attacks as part of a
flurry of blows, but he may make natural weapon attacks in
addition to his flurry. Such attacks suffer the same –2 penalty
as the monk’s flurry attacks in addition to the normal –5
penalty for secondary natural attacks.

I don't know if I'd let someone try those, but YMMV

Oh, and the original 4-armed character could make 3 off-hand attacks in addition to flurrying. With a -2 on all attacks from MWF and another -2(or whatever it currently is) from flurrying.

-cantrip

 

[Taloras]

Well, the race in question has 4 claw attacks and a bite attack. It has a special multidexterity where it says it gets its full strength mod to all damage from its arms (bite still gets 1/2 strength). So If I have multi-attack, multi-weapon fighting, 13 monk levels....thats....4 attacks for base attack bonus, 3 extra claw attacks, and a bite attack? Hmm....