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In an upcoming Pathfinder campaign, one of my friends that loves to attempt to break games is about to take the Summoner class. Out of caution and curiosity, I looked through the advanced evolutions that his character could purchase and got stuck on Limbs as shown around the middle of this page. The major problem with the rules written as they are is that they give a static BAB for the creature without additional attacks (aside form natural attacks), set a rule where each pair of arms needs an evolution for either a natural attack or an overall weapon profeciency in order to use them in battle, but completely neglect to mention how extra arms wielding weapons work.

In the end, I would like to know this:

Does having extra limbs give the Eidolon additional weapon attacks, or does it just give it weapon options in a battle without the risk of invoking attacks of opprotunity?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ What's the relationship between weapon options and attacks of opportunity that you're including AoO in your question? \$\endgroup\$ Dec 3, 2015 at 5:33
  • \$\begingroup\$ @AgentAquarius sheathing a weapon and retrieving a stored item (but not drawing a weapon) both provoke AoO. I suspect that the OP is referring to being able to change weapon without using those actions. \$\endgroup\$
    – Toby Y.
    Dec 3, 2015 at 9:28
  • \$\begingroup\$ I think "Limbs" is the least of your concerns if your game-breaker friend is thinking about taking a Summoner... \$\endgroup\$
    – MrLemon
    Dec 3, 2015 at 10:21
  • \$\begingroup\$ @MrLemon well you'd have to work at it and be limited to light weapons am considering a Skiterling Based one for my next character \$\endgroup\$ Aug 28, 2018 at 20:51

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The Multi-Weapon Fighting Feat, has the answers you need.

Prerequisites: Dex 13, three or more hands.

Benefit: Penalties for fighting with multiple weapons are reduced by –2 with the primary hand and by –6 with off hands.

Normal: A creature without this feat takes a –6 penalty on attacks made with its primary hand and a –10 penalty on attacks made with all of its off hands. (It has one primary hand, and all the others are off hands.) See Two-Weapon Fighting.

Special: This feat replaces the Two-Weapon Fighting feat for creatures with more than two arms.

The 'normal' entry is the only place in the SRD that I can find where fighting with more than two hands and more than two weapons is covered. The Two-Weapon Fighting entry in the Combat section is short and refers only to wielding two weapons at once.

Extra attacks from BAB are not the same as extra attacks that you get from wielding a second (or third) weapon. Those apply even if you are multi-wielding (ergo, a 7th level fighter with 4 arms wielding four shortswords with the Multi-Weapon Fighting feat would have 5 attacks - 4 from multi-wielding, calculated using a base attack bonus of 7, and then another from high-BAB, on his primary hand, calculated using a base attack bonus of 2 (7 - 5)).

Notably, the eidolon's limitation on natural attacks by RAW does not apply to manufactured weapons, and natural weapons can be used as 'secondary natural attacks' (-5 to hit, 1/2 str bonus to damage) even if your main attack routine is with a manufactured weapon.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Thanks for the tip. Now I must prepare for the possibility of a creature that shoots 11 arrows a round on top of the base abilities an Eidolon. \$\endgroup\$
    – Areadbhair
    Dec 3, 2015 at 19:09

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