3.5 weapons that don't require hands

[Kennisiou]

So for an encounter for my party in the current game I'm playing, they'll be facing down a marshal/dragon lord half dragon who is improving her three half-dragon martial initiator retainers via mundane auras inside of a large natural anti-magic field. One of those retainers is a two-weapon fighting warblade, and I'd like for him to be able to make his claw attacks at the end of his twf attack routine without having to, like, constantly drop and draw his weapons. While he could totally just have the quickdraw feat and just, like, constantly be drawing and dropping an endless supply of daggers, I'd really prefer he just wield weapons that don't actually need to be held in his hands, even if they're exotic. So are there any weapons in 3.5 that don't need to be held in hands? I know the gnomish quickrazor automatically returns to its wrist sheath after use, so that's a good option, but any others? Like wrist-blades or something?

[Troacctid]

Armor spikes would be the obvious answer. There are also knee blades, elbow blades, sleeve blades, and boot blades in Complete Scoundrel.

The Incarnate Weapon soulmeld automatically returns to your hands next turn if you drop it, so that would work too.

[ComaVision]

The Mouthpick weapon enhancement lets you wield a weapon in your mouth.

[torrasque666]

The Mouthpick weapon enhancement lets you wield a weapon in your mouth.
Provided you have a bite attack, if memory serves.

[Kennisiou]

Thanks for the quick responses!

Armor spikes were my first thought, too, but I'm pretty sure you can't TWF with armor spikes as *both* of your weapons. That said, armor spikes + the complete scoundrel weapons sounds great. I also like the idea of incarnate weapon, since it would let him be a total bastard and use crescent knives. Mouthpick is kind of out, since it means trading in the bite attack as well as the potential to use their breath weapon. Does the incarnate weapon soulmeld function in an antimagic field?

[ComaVision]

Provided you have a bite attack, if memory serves.

I believe you're correct but that shouldn't be an issue for a half-dragon.

[ComaVision]

Mouthpick is kind of out, since it means trading in the bite attack as well as the potential to use their breath weapon. Does the incarnate weapon soulmeld function in an antimagic field?

Soulmelds and breath attacks do not work in an antimagic field.

[Gün]

Footbow maybe?

[Troacctid]

The Incarnate Weapon is either a warhammer, battleaxe, flail, or longsword, depending on your alignment—it can't be a crescent blade.

Note that you do take a -2 penalty to attack with the hidden weapons from Complete Scoundrel, so they're not perfect.

If your character can fly, there's also foot spikes from Races of the Wild, but they're tough to use while standing.

[torrasque666]

Footbow maybe?
Nah, still takes hands to draw and fire. You can just hold it with your feet so that you can use both hands to draw back, netting 1.5x STR to damage (Up to 1.5x the STR rating of the bow)

[Rusvul]

I believe there are rules on kobold tail clubs/spikes, but that might be a Pathfinder thing.

[Esprit15]

Dual wield shields?

[Necroticplague]

Technically, there's nothing in the rules that actually says that a half-dragon can't make claw attacks if they used that hand for weapon attacks.

Regardless, there are armor spikes, armor razors, and any of the 6 or so hidden blades from Complete Scoundrel, spiked gauntlets, gauntlets, axe-bucklers, braid blades,shield spikes (since the shield spikes are a seperate weapon from the shield, when used for bashing). If it wasn't for the AMF, Animated shields could have been used for bashing hands-free.


I believe there are rules on kobold tail clubs/spikes, but that might be a Pathfinder thing.

I think Savage Species had some variant of this as well for 3e.

[PallentisLunam]

Unarmed strikes don't require hands but you may be looking for manufactured weapons

[Kennisiou]

I believe there are rules on kobold tail clubs/spikes, but that might be a Pathfinder thing.

Oriental Adventures has Nezumi Tailspikes, which is an exotic weapon he'll probably be using if he can spare the proficiency feats (he already needs to spend his first level feat to gain a tail, but will be doing that anyways so he has 3 natural weapons to pick up multiattack with). The thing with the tailspikes is that they aren't made like a normal attack, instead they grant another attack with a -2 penalty to all other attacks in the round -- it's like having even more two weapon fighting.

Also, right, I forgot breath weapons are (Su), so they won't be working. Soulmelds are also (Su) because of course they are.

[Killer Angel]

...or you can give a command to your war-trained dog. :smalltongue:

[Darrin]

In D&D 3.5, you can attack with a two-handed weapon and use your armor spikes as your offhand weapon. In Pathfinder, the designers thought this was stupid and said you couldn't do it in the FAQ (I find their reasoning uncompelling). However, I think you can do this with unarmed strike... I'm kinda fuzzy on the whole TWF thing in Pathfinder.

Other offhand weapons you might consider:

Improved Unarmed Strike can be used as an offhand weapon. If you don't want to spend a feat on it or dip Monk/Battle Dancer, you can get it via magic item: Bracers of Striking (1310 GP, Magic of Faerun), Ring of Might (4000 GP, Magic of Faerun), and the Fanged Ring (10000 GP, Dragon Magic).

Dwarven Buckler Axe (Arms & Equipment Guide, Races of Stone) leaves your hands free, and unlike other bucklers, does not incur a -1 attack penalty if you attack with the arm wearing the buckler. It's exotic, but if you're a dwarf you can swap your racial weapon familiarity with the urgrosh or waraxe to the buckler axe (Complete Warrior pp. 154-155).

Claw Bracer (Arms & Equipment Guide). For some reason, this was a popular favored weapon with several of the Forgotten Realms deities, but didn't get much notice outside of that. The description isn't clear if your hand is still free to wield weapons other than the claw bracer, but I don't quite see how a hand free to make somatic gestures or manipulate spell components wouldn't be able to wield a weapon.

[Flickerdart]

Dragon Tail + Prehensile Tail would let you use your tail as a hand, so you could have both hands free for claw attacks. It also qualifies you for Multiweapon Fighting instead of TWF, so hooray.

[Uncle Pine]

Mouthpick weapons, gauntlets, spiked gauntlets and those eagle claws things in Sandstorm are all options.

[DrMotives]

Serpent Kingdoms has a tail scythe, you don't need a pre-existing tail attack to use one, just a long scaly tail. I'm trying to remember where the spiked & horned helmet weapons come from, those might have been the magazine, but basically armor spikes on your helmet.

[Hazrond]

Mouthpick weapons, Breath Weapons, and Soulmelds are all a no-go because of the antimagic field (because Mouthpick is a magical weapon property, it gets turned off, Breath Weapons are (Su) so they also are down, and soulmelds are (Sp) so they are also unusable)

[vorpalvolta]

Dancing weapon?

[PallentisLunam]

Antimagic field means mundane or (Ex) strategies only.

[Kennisiou]

Since this thread is still active, I figured I'll just post what I've gone with so far. If anyone has better suggestions I'm still open to them.

He's a 13th level Water Orc Half Dragon (red) warblade
His feats are:
Dragon Tail
Prehensile Tail
Multiweapon Fighting
Improved Multiweapon Fighting
exotic weapon proficiency: Nezumi Tailspikes
free bonus feat: multiattack (as long as he's fighting alongside the general and/or the other members of the honorgaurd, the feat remains in effect for 5 rounds after all other honorgaurd and the general are dead or have fleed the fight -- their training together allows them to exploit openings created by their allies to be more accurate with their natural attacks)
Warblade bonus feats: Improved Initiative, Combat Reflexes, Quick Draw

His weapons are: a shortsword (held in tail, might be substituted for a different light weapon, probably one that deals bludgeoning damage), Nezumi Tailspikes, Armor Spikes, and 2 scoundrel kneeblades, 2 scoundrel boot blades, 2 scoundrel elbow blades, 2 scoundrel sleeve blades (is technically only able to wield one of them + armor spikes + tail sword in any given full attack, and only ever attacks with the scoundrel kneeblade because it is the strongest but he has all of the hidden blades because he is made of swords and pain, and also because one of the party members does sundering tricks, and rather than give him multiple adamantine weapons, he's just going to have an adamantine tail sword, and the rest are totally sunderable).

I went with nezumi tailspikes over greater multiweapon fighting because I felt like, even though it penalizes all attacks by -2 further, one extra attack at full BaB (well, BaB -4 with twf and tailspike penalties) is more useful than two extra attacks at -10 BaB (-12 after TWF penalties).

He fights using tiger claw maneuvers primarily, with some diamond mind, iron heart and white raven maneuvers for utility (iron heart surge, Moment of perfect mind, white raven tactics, that one iron heart maneuver that lets you reroll a failed save, etc). He charges into close range and fights with his spike-covered body and his natural attacks.

[John Longarrow]

Why make him so under-armed?

If ToB is in play, see about Improved Unarmed Strike/Superior Unarmed Strike/Snap Kick for this build. All unarmed attacks would be 1d10 (similar or better than the weapons he's got) plus he'd get an extra attack from Snap Kick. Best of all, since he's not wielding weapons he can't be disarmed.

[Kennisiou]

Why make him so under-armed?

If ToB is in play, see about Improved Unarmed Strike/Superior Unarmed Strike/Snap Kick for this build. All unarmed attacks would be 1d10 (similar or better than the weapons he's got) plus he'd get an extra attack from Snap Kick. Best of all, since he's not wielding weapons he can't be disarmed.

I mean, I listed 11 weapons and 4 natural attacks (counting each claw as seperate). That's really far from underarmed. And I don't want him disarm immune, just to be hard to disarm. I dislike the idea of invalidating a combat approach one of my players has heavily invested in, although making some fights or foes harder for them to do that with I'm ok with. I may actually pare down the number of weapons because, like, 11? Jeez. It didn't feel like that many when I was initially typing it out... Also, those three feats are really hard to fit on there. It would mean, what, get rid of tailspikes, prehensile tail, and improved twf (and downgrade multiweapon fighting to twf as a result). That's losing out on 3 (1 from MWF to TWF, 1 from IMWF being replaced with snapkick, 1 from no tailspikes) attacks for the benefit of not needing to worry about weapons and having some larger damage dice. Large damage dice is nice, but it's small potatoes compared to more attacks meaning the bonus damage he's getting from the marshal/dragon lord leading him gets applied more frequently (+cha mod to damage vs flanked foes, +dragon aura melee attack damage, and possibly also +major aura to damage, although that's more likely going to to-hit -- oh, and +1 to damage vs wounded foes because commander aura from heroes of battle is just, like, a free thing the general of this army gets and provides to all lower-ranked allies within 30 feet of her).

[John Longarrow]

I was looking at your monster, not his boss. Didn't know exactly what the general was bringing. As is it doesn't look like you need anything else on him, just some way to keep a spell caster from locking him down/controlling him. I'm hoping he's got Iron Heart Surge as one of his readied maneuvers. Really good for getting out of a lot of spells.

[Kennisiou]

He does have iron heart surge and moment of perfect mind. The fight is also going to take place in a large anti-magic field. It's pretty much the only way to make a Marshal/dragon lord not just a worse bard (and even then, it's still arguably just a worse support crusader).

[MisterKaws]

Nah, still takes hands to draw and fire. You can just hold it with your feet so that you can use both hands to draw back, netting 1.5x STR to damage (Up to 1.5x the STR rating of the bow)

Taking hands off an item is a free action, just shoot and then leave it to your feet, put elvencraft while at it.

[torrasque666]

Taking hands off an item is a free action, just shoot and then leave it to your feet, put elvencraft while at it.
The NPCs he's talking about aren't Large, so they don't have wings for EX flight, so they have to get prone to use it two-handed. Otherwise its no different from a composite longbow. Which would run counter to the OP's goal of weapons that don't require taking up hands.

[MisterKaws]

The NPCs he's talking about aren't Large, so they don't have wings for EX flight, so they have to get prone to use it two-handed. Otherwise its no different from a composite longbow. Which would run counter to the OP's goal of weapons that don't require taking up hands.

Improved Dragon Wings, done.