Armor Spikes Question

[Extra Anchovies]

Can I make both main-hand and off-hand attacks with armor spikes in the same round, as long as I do not attack with any other natural weapons?

ETA: Are there any other ways to make both main-hand and off-hand attacks with the same weapon? My main goal is finding a weapon that I can enchant once and use for both main-hand and off-hand attacks.

Furthermore, since putting a hand on or taking a hand off a weapon is a free action, couldn't I make my main-hand attacks with a weapon, put my off-hand onto the weapon, remove my main-hand from the weapon, and make my off-hand attacks with the weapon?

[Gwendol]

I would say yes, simply because unarmed strikes are RAI allowed to be used for TWF.

As for striking twice with the same weapon: probably not. Letting go of a weapon wielded in two hands is a free action, two weapon fighting means wielding two weapons and attemting to strike with them. I don't think it's meant as a sequence of events, but rather an abstraction of a more complicated set of feints and jabs using both weapons.

[The Viscount]

You cannot use armor spikes for this, because they count as one weapon. One could TWF with armor spikes and armor razors, but that's not quite what you want either, since they're still two separate weapons.

As for what you want, the Haft Strike Feat from Dragon Compendium will I believe do what you want.

[Darrin]

Can I make both main-hand and off-hand attacks with armor spikes in the same round, as long as I do not attack with any other natural weapons?


No. If you designate one weapon as your primary weapon, it can't be your offhand weapon, and vice versa.

Attacking with natural weapons has no effect on your primary or offhand attacks. Any natural weapon that isn't currently wielding a manufactured weapon can be added to your full attack as a secondary attack with a -5 attack penalty.

Since armor spikes presumably have multiple spikes on different striking surfaces, you could ask your DM to consider adding a houserule to allow you to treat them as both primary and offhand.

There are a few oddball corner cases where your armor spikes are considered both manufactured and natural weapons. For example, the Spiker race (Planar Handbook), or the Osteomancer (Dragon Compendium). In both cases, the designers appear to be confused about whether they count as manufactured or natural weapons.



ETA: Are there any other ways to make both main-hand and off-hand attacks with the same weapon?

Some DMs may allow unarmed strikes to be both primary and offhand in the same attack sequence, or at the very least allow monks to do so, but the rules on unarmed strikes are a bit muddled.



Furthermore, since putting a hand on or taking a hand off a weapon is a free action, couldn't I make my main-hand attacks with a weapon, put my off-hand onto the weapon, remove my main-hand from the weapon, and make my off-hand attacks with the weapon?

Skip Williams suggested this, and it makes sense because otherwise no normal humanoid could operate a bow/arrows (you have to take your hand off the bow to draw ammunition). Presumably, if you can take your hand off your two-handed melee weapon, it stands to reason that you could also make an offhand unarmed strike or spiked gauntlet attack. As you can take free actions between iterative attacks, this would allow you to mix your offhand strikes in between two-handed attacks. However, some DMs may balk at this, citing that it would make TWF "too powerful" (do your best to conceal your sniggering).



My main goal is finding a weapon that I can enchant once and use for both main-hand and off-hand attacks.


This is prevented by the Two-Weapon Fighting rules, which specify at least two weapons must be used. Once you designate a weapon is offhand, you can't use it as your primary or any other type of attack (although switching your primary weapon is probably still allowed). Even with double weapons, you have two striking surfaces that must be enchanted separately.

Even if you tried to attack with a single one-handed weapon, and change your grip from left-hand-grip to two-hand-grip to right-hand-grip as a free action, you're still only using a single weapon, and don't get an extra attack by the TWF rules.