Nothing in the description says that your physical hands have to be empty. You can still wield and attack with weapons with your physical hands. The arms only allow you to make unarmed strikes with them and gives them a reach of plus 5 feet when making unarmed strikes. But as far as I know the description doesn’t allow you to wield weapons or hold items in the astral arms themselves. If for some reason your character is missing a limb, the arms can attack in place of the limb but only for unarmed strikes.
Hope that makes sense
Edit: I forgot to mention they are not linked to your arms they can be separate hovering near your shoulders or surrounding your physical arms. And if you are missing an arm I would think that if you wanted the astral arms to surround your physical one it can and the other astral arm would be in place of your missing physical arm. It still would not be available to wield a weapon, like using the versatile properties of a quaterstaff or spear unless your DM allows it.
Thank you, that was my understanding. Wasn't sure if I could punch with my astral arms while my real arms held a shield or torch.
You could hold a torch but holding a shield negates your martial arts. See bolded
Martial Arts
At 1st level, your practice of martial arts gives you mastery of combat styles that use unarmed strikes and monk weapons, which are shortswords and any simple melee weapons that don’t have the two-handed or heavy property.
You gain the following benefits while you are unarmed or wielding only monk weapons and you aren’t wearing armor or wielding a shield:
You can use Dexterity instead of Strength for the attack and damage rolls of your unarmed strikes and monk weapons.
You can roll a d4 in place of the normal damage of your unarmed strike or monk weapon. This die changes as you gain monk levels, as shown in the Martial Arts column of the Monk table.
When you use the Attack action with an unarmed strike or a monk weapon on your turn, you can make one unarmed strike as a bonus action. For example, if you take the Attack action and attack with a quarterstaff, you can also make an unarmed strike as a bonus action, assuming you haven’t already taken a bonus action this turn.
Are Astral Self Arms a separate entity or are they linked to your arms. When I make an unarmed attack with them, do I need to be using my arms?
I'm wondering if I can have an item in my physical hands (or even have a missing arm) and use astral arms to attack while my hands are occupied.
Nothing in the description says that your physical hands have to be empty. You can still wield and attack with weapons with your physical hands. The arms only allow you to make unarmed strikes with them and gives them a reach of plus 5 feet when making unarmed strikes. But as far as I know the description doesn’t allow you to wield weapons or hold items in the astral arms themselves. If for some reason your character is missing a limb, the arms can attack in place of the limb but only for unarmed strikes.
Hope that makes sense
Edit: I forgot to mention they are not linked to your arms they can be separate hovering near your shoulders or surrounding your physical arms. And if you are missing an arm I would think that if you wanted the astral arms to surround your physical one it can and the other astral arm would be in place of your missing physical arm. It still would not be available to wield a weapon, like using the versatile properties of a quaterstaff or spear unless your DM allows it.
Thank you, that was my understanding. Wasn't sure if I could punch with my astral arms while my real arms held a shield or torch.
You could hold a torch but holding a shield negates your martial arts. See bolded
Ah thank you, I saw that after I posted, as well. Thank you for your time.