Re: 3.5 E Spear Warrior

Donald Tsang wrote: 
Bradd W. Szonye <bradd+news@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Geoff Watson wrote:
Ed Chauvin IV wrote:

Nothing stops you from doing an unarmed trip while holding a sword. 

True, although you must decide to either take TWF penalties or cease
threatening with your sword.


Why? TWF penalties are only appropriate if you try to attack with the
sword and a trip at the same attack bonus. Likewise, there's no reason
to cease threatening when you make an unarmed attack.



There's some very-old FAQ entry (may even be 3E, but I'm too lazy
to look it up) that states that, in order to threaten with a weapon
*and* attack with an Unarmed Strike, you must take TWF penalties,
even if you don't actually attack with the weapon.  Otherwise,
you're considered to be "holding but not weilding" your weapon (and
thus not threaten the squares around you with the weapon; if you
don't have IUS, that means your don't threaten the squares around
you at all).


That would be from the 3.0 FAQ:

"If a monk wields a one-handed weapon, can she use her
unarmed damage if she kicks or headbutts someone? Or
does the monk have to actually be unarmed to get this
damage? What if the monk is armed with a two-handed
weapon?"

"A monk wielding a one-handed weapon (other than a special
monk weapon) can use the rules for fighting with two weapons
and can use her unarmed strike as an off-hand attack, with all
the appropriate penalties (see page 39 in the Player’s
Handbook). The unarmed strike is considered a light weapon.
Although the Player’s Handbook mentions using the
unarmed attack only as an off-hand attack, there’s no reason
why a monk couldn’t make her unarmed attack her primary
attack. In this case, the monk still must use her (lower) armed
attack rate.
If the monk wields a two-handed weapon, she can use a kick
or similar attack as an off-hand attack. This works just like an
off-hand attack made along with a one-handed weapon attack."

However, the 3.5 FAQ seems to reverse this with a related article on armor spikes (I know armor spikes aren't unarmed strikes, but humor me for a second). I've only copied the relevant parts of the Sage's response, not the whole entry:

"If you attack only with your armor spikes during your turn
(or use the armor spikes to make an attack of opportunity), you
use them just like a regular weapon. If you use the full attack
action, you can use armor spikes as either a primary light
weapon or as an off-hand light weapon, even if you’re using a
shield or using a two-handed weapon. In these latter two cases,
you’re assumed to be kicking or kneeing your foe with your
armor spikes.
Whenever you use armor spikes as an off-hand weapon,
you suffer all the penalties for attacking with two weapons (see
Table 8–10 in the Player’s Handbook). When using armor
spikes along with a two-handed weapon, it is usually best to
use the two-handed weapon as your primary attack and the
armor spikes as the off-hand weapon. You can use the armor
spikes as the primary weapon and the two-handed weapon as
the off-hand attack, but when you do so, you don’t get the
benefit of using a light weapon in your off hand.
You cannot, however, use your armor spikes to make a
second off-hand attack when you’re already fighting with two
weapons. If you have a weapon in both hands and armor spikes,
you can attack with the weapons in your hands (and not with
the armor spikes) or with one of the weapons in your hands and
the armor spikes (see the description of spiked armor in
Chapter 7 of the Player’s Handbook)."

This ruling seems inconsistent with (for example) throwing your
dagger, Quick-Drawing another one, and continuing to threaten, but
my opinions aren't "canonical", and The Sage's are.

Donald

Since the 3.0 FAQ says that monks can't make off-hand attacks and the 3.5 FAQ says they can, the 3.5 FAQ has more weight.

To my mind, since armor spikes can be used at no penalty even with a weapon in both hands, a character should be able to make unarmed strikes the same way. And if a character can make unarmed strikes, with a weapon in both hands, why not an unarmed melee attack to trip?
.

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