Post/Author/DateTime	Post
GibberingMouther 04-11-04, 11:11 AM	I need some help working out this character. I decided to create a 4-armed human monk of 13th level. I don't have the template for a multi-armed character (I'm assuming it's in the Monster Manual II) so I looked at a Xill and figured that adding two arms wasn't that big of an advantage, seeing as how it required 3 feats (Multiattack, Improved Multiattack, and Multidexterity) to use them properly. I didn't change anything about the Human race, I just added two arms, and decided that such an adjustment increased the ECL by only 1. Thus giving a 13th level Monk an ECL of 14. Deciding ECL isn't even the biggest problem. I need to know how many attacks a 4-armed humanoid would get, provided it has the 3 aforementioned feats. As far as I could gather, it gets its base attack bonus for attacks for each arm, with its strength modifier for the three "secondary" arms halved. That makes for a 13th level monk with 12 attacks, each attack doing an average of 14 damage (given a Str of 26, from various items, and Rings of Force Armor). If every arm hits (My char has a minimum attack of 19/16/13), that's an average of 168 damage with a full attack! I tested him against a Very Old Red Dragon and killed it in two rounds. My knowledge of multiple-weapon fighting is either terribly flawed, or else this character's ECL is far beyond 14. But it doesn't seem to be the ECL... two more arms doesn't seem to add up to a huge ECL. Anyone that could give me some insight, give me the proper template, or explain multiattacks would be greatly appreciated.
Schmendrick 04-11-04, 04:34 PM	What you want is to look at the Natural Weapons entry in the MM (the first one). That's what extra arms give you. A monk's attacks are not made with any particular body part; Improved Unarmed Strike has to deal with the "unarmed" weapon, which is your whole body as a unit. Natural weapons don't get successive attacks from a high BAB. The feat chain you're looking at and BAB of 11 lets you get four attacks (one for each arm) at +11 each. Or you could make monk attacks at +11, +6, and +1 (or flurry). But the additional limbs don't do diddly for a monk. You might houserule something if you want, but there aren't really rules for what you're trying to do; none that I know, anyway.