Creatures with multiple hands

[InaVegt]

The rules for creatures with multiple hands (that is, more than two) are awfully scarce and you have to look all around the rules for it, so I thought I'd place the rules together and fill in where I couldn't find the rules, my additions are underlined.

Multiple hands and fighting
Multiweapon fighting
All hands except one are off hands, as such those hands only gain half the strength bonus and when not trained in multiweapon fighting have a -10 penalty instead of the -6 penalty for the primary hand. When wielding a one handed weapon in two off hands it is considered light for the purpose of multiweapon fighting penalties, similarly when wielding a two handed weapon in three off hands it is considered a light weapon for multiweapon fighting penalties.

Multiple hands on a single melee weapon
A weapon wielded using only off hands gains only half the normal amount of damage bonus due to the wielders strength. Every additional hand on the weapon wielded by the primary weapon increases the damage by the strength bonus. Power attack increases damage as much as the total amount of times the strength bonus is added rounded down.

Multiple hands and ranged weapons
Every hand after the first two to wield a bow increase the effective strength modifier by half the standard strength modifier.

Examples

A Thri-Kreen warrior with the multiweapon fighting feat wielding a greatsword in his primary hand and one of hand and a longsword in the rest of his hands has a -2 penalty on attack rolls with both weapons, deals damage as a normal two handed fighter with his greatsword and damage as a normal one handed fighter with his longsword.
A Thri-Kreen warrior wielding a composite longbow (+6 strength bonus) in four hands only needs a +3 strength bonus to use the weapon effectively, dealing the full bonus damage from the strength bonus on the weapon.

[brian c]

I don't think it makes sense though that you can jsut put more arms on a weapon and use it better. Most weapons are designed to be used with either 1 or 2 hands (actually I think almost all of them); if you're already wielding a Greatsword 2-handed, is there room left on the hilt for two more hands? I would argue that either it has to be a specially made weapon, or you would need a different feat (separate from MWF, but perhaps with MWF as a requirement) to let you use more hands on a weapon than is normally allowed.

[InaVegt]

Special made weapon sounds good, but a lot of one handed weapons wouldn't be made to be wielded in 2 normally anyway, yet you still can.

[brian c]

Special made weapon sounds good, but a lot of one handed weapons wouldn't be made to be wielded in 2 normally anyway, yet you still can.

Well yeah, but at some point you have to say "the weapon isn't big enough for that many hands", and I don't think that point is at two hands. I can see a dagger being held with two hands, even though it's not designed for that, but I can't even imagine how you could stab someone with four hands; it seems like it would be easier to just use four daggers, or at least two of them as two-handed.

[InaVegt]

If you're going to 4 hand a weapon a dagger is never a good choice, better to use something like a spear.

[brian c]

If you're going to 4 hand a weapon a dagger is never a good choice, better to use something like a spear.

Right, but I don't see anything in the rules that you wrote which would prevent someone from 4-handing a dagger.

[InaVegt]

Right, but I don't see anything in the rules that you wrote which would prevent someone from 4-handing a dagger.

You shouldn't make thousands of exceptions in the base rules, besides the no bonus on damage for two handing a light weapon applies to multiple handing it as well, making it a waste of good hands usable for other things.

[Inyssius Tor]

See, everything you (Brian C.) have mentioned already exists; it's in Savage Species, on p. 42.

To sum it up: Light weapons can't be made for use with more than two hands. One-handed weapons can already be used with two hands, and can be designed for use with four. Two-handed weapons can be designed for use with up to eight hands. Weapons designed for nonstandard hand configurations such as this must always be masterwork weapons.

Additionally, as you (Gezina) have already written: "Provided that a weapon is designed for more than two hands, each additional hand used increases the damage dealt with that weapon. Each hand used beyond the first adds 1/2 the wielder’s Strength bonus to the damage."

[Rift_Wolf]

Is there a multi-weapon feat that allows multidexterity (-2 on all hands when holding light, -4 with one-handed)? I like the idea of the Shiva Statue from Sinbad... I'm gonna go draw up a Construct...

[InaVegt]

Is there a multi-weapon feat that allows multidexterity (-2 on all hands when holding light, -4 with one-handed)? I like the idea of the Shiva Statue from Sinbad... I'm gonna go draw up a Construct...

The multiweapon fighting feat, essentially two weapon fighting for more than two weapons, only requires 13 dex instead of the 15 of two weapon fighting.

[Matthew]

Looks okay to me. Multi Weapon fighting is very confusing. What the hell happens when you use two Off Hands to use a Two Handed Weapon with regard to Strength Bonus Multipliers? Does Savage Species hold the answer?