Unarmed Combat and Two Weapon Fighting

Thanks for all the drive-by clarifications, Pedro!

John

Thanks for all the drive-by clarifications, Pedro!

I’m working on an update to the FAQ/Errata doc over the weekend, once the rest of PCI has a stab at it I’ll post it for general consumption/discussion before it goes official.

while this may require some official errata to enforce, TWF + Unarmed should NOT be able to be preformed while benefiting from a shield.

I think the best way to do so would be to errata the two-weapon fighting talent.

What about Ss’ressen? If the off-hand attack is tail (unarmed or tail bracer), the shield arm is still free to do whatever is needed. I see no reason why Ss’ressen can’t attack (TWF or not) with their tail and still benefit from a shield (and if they can’t when using TWF then why can they when attacking just with their tail?).

Pedro, the simplest eratta / clarification would be to say that “unarmed fighting requires a and open hand or tail and two weapon fighting requires two open hands or an open hand and a tail.”
Does Unarmed require me to drop my sword first then?

Pedro, this seems like an unnecessary ruling? Is it for balancing reasons? Because TWF is sub optimal for an Unarmed, any speed 3 weapon, or any exceptional speed 4 weapon. I don’t see the harm to in a TWF keeping his shield bonus. They TWF and cast unlikeot her twfers. I feel it is another errata entry for no reason.

The spreadsheet I made shows TWF is suboptimal for damage output regardless of weapons until you heavily invest in it with Balanced Blades, and combine Spinning Strikes with other bonus damage maneuvers.

John

john then why did you make a stink about it?

I didn’t make a stink. I answered a question in a rational way with supporting arguments. You came in guns blazing with personal attacks instead of just voicing your thoughts on the matter, which blew it way out of proportion. Apparently, even when an official answer is given, it’s not enough.

The above statement about TWF was to show TWF is already not ideal without shields and is irrelevant to the discussion.

John

For my 2 cents worth, I have no preference. It seems most logical that you would not lose the shield bonus unless the shield was used in the attack. You could kick, knee, elbow, headbutt…whatever. But, if a change is *needed* for balance sake, that is ok, too.

However, I think it is silly to make a Ss’ressen exception. Counting both legs and head, humans would have 3 spare appendages…i fail too see how adding a tail would really change anything.

If the goal is to say that the character can’t benefit from the shield bonus when using two weapon fighting, keep it simple and just say that. This allows for the use of the shield as a second weapon. It avoids making special rules for races.

I can see the logic behind trying to focus on too many things at once. As such actively engaging the shield while making two attacks in rapid succession fits that bill. I don’t see how requiring having a free hand should be a requirement for an unarmed attack. Especially as it’s not if you make a single unarmed strike.

With a sweep of his…

Hat