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Secondary Arms.

You have two slightly smaller secondary arms below your primary pair of arms. The secondary arms can manipulate an object, open or close a door or container, pick up or set down a Tiny object, or wield a weapon that has the light property.

So in this example, let's say a Thri-Kreen has a Longbow in one hand, and a shield in the other. Using its secondary arms, could it still operate the Longbow? I assume it can under the "manipulate an object" feature, but how does it consider the "wield a weapon that has the light property" since you don't need to hold a longbow in two hands, you just need two hands to operate it. But a Longbow def ain't a light weapon, but you're also not using the smaller arms to wield a longbow either, the bigger arm is wielding it.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ As I understood, the second pair of arms (now called "smaller") were significantly nerfed from previous editions. They are more cosmetic and only help save a few actions (bonus, reaction, or otherwise) as you don't need to drop or stow held items to make interactions the smaller arms can. You still need actions and attacks to use weapons. - - - - I guess edition evolution wasn't kind to the Kreen \$\endgroup\$
    – Mindwin Remember Monica
    Commented May 13 at 13:27
  • \$\begingroup\$ @MindwinRememberMonica: That said, being able to do two-weapon fighting with a pair of light weapons and still wield a shield is a pretty significant advantage; light weapons generally cost you only 1 damage. You get the extra damage from an extra attack (that's pretty similar to a two-handed weapon's damage even before fighting styles improve it). Normally you have to choose between +2 AC for sword and board, or increased damage from two-handed weapons/two-weapon fighting, thri-kreen can do sword and sword (and maybe sword) and board. \$\endgroup\$
    – ShadowRanger
    Commented May 15 at 13:48
  • \$\begingroup\$ @ShadowRanger contrast that with the melee DPS and # of attacks of a trueblood Kreen Fighter from Athas in the 2nd edition. One may consider what happened back then as ludicrous but the fact remains that the species was nerfed to fit the 5e species template framework. \$\endgroup\$
    – Mindwin Remember Monica
    Commented May 16 at 14:31

2 Answers 2

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You can't use the smaller arms for this purpose

Longbows have the two-handed property, which "requires two hands when you attack with it." Attacking with a weapon involves "wielding it", you need two hands to wield it, and since it's not light, you can't wield it using your secondary arms.

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You cannot shoot the bow with the extra arms

To wield is defined in the dictionary (Oxford Languages) as:

hold and use (a weapon or tool)

As you can only wield (i.e. hold and use) a light weapon with the extra arms, and the longbow is not a light weapon, you cannot use it with the extra arms: you cannot shoot arrows with one normal and one extra arm.

However, you of course could carry the longbow (which does not involve using it) with the extra arms, for example so you don‘t have to drop it when changing weapons and drawing a melee weapon.

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