Ruling on Prehensile Hair Hex

[Raef13]

Hey guys I'm playing a pathfinder witch and i chose the Prehensile Hair Hex as one of my hexes. I need a ruling on it because i want to use it to deliver touch attacks. This is the official description from the book.

Prehensile Hair (Su): The witch can instantly cause her hair (or even her eyebrows) to grow up to 10 feet long or to shrink to its normal length, and can manipulate her hair as if it were a limb with a Strength score equal to her Intelligence score. Her hair has reach 10 feet, and she can use it as a secondary natural attack that deals 1d3 points of damage (1d2 for a Small witch). Her hair can manipulate objects (but not weapons) as dexterously as a human hand. The hair cannot be sundered or attacked as a separate creature. Pieces cut from the witch’s elongated hair shrink away to nothing. Using her hair does not harm the witch’s head or neck, even if she lifts something heavy with it. The witch can manipulate her hair a number of minutes each day equal to her level; these minutes do not need to be consecutive, but must be spent in 1-minute increments. A typical male witch with this hex can also manipulate his beard, moustache, or eyebrows.

My issue is that it says the Hair is a secondary natural weapon. The ruling on secondary natural weapons is -Secondary attacks are made using the creature’s base attack bonus –5 and add only 1/2 the creature’s Strength bonus on damage rolls. But right after this it says-If a creature has only one natural attack, it is always made using the creature’s full base attack bonus and adds 1-1/2 times the creature’s Strength bonus on damage rolls. This increase does not apply if the creature has multiple attacks but only takes one. If a creature has only one type of attack, but has multiple attacks per round, that attack is treated as a primary attack, regardless of its type.

Does this mean if this is my only natural weapon that I instead use it like a primary (Primary attacks are made using the creature’s full base attack bonus and add the creature’s full Strength bonus on damage rolls.)

The way I am asking is if i am trying to do an attack is it BAB+INTmod (used in place of STRmod) or is it BAB+INTmod-5

For your answers to clarify my BAB is +2, my INT is +5 and it does 1d3 damage. Thank you for any help you can give me.

[Yora]

Thanks, now I'll have nightmares all night. :smallwink:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v358/lith-chan/AniManga%20Images/uzumaki_hair_01.gif

Primary and secondary attacks only apply when making a full attack. When you only make a single attack, you do so at the full BAB with no multi-weapon penalty.
I'm not exactly sure about Str-bonus to damage, though.

Hold that: 3.5e SRD says explicitly that secondary natural attacks always apply the penalties, even when you only make one attack with it. PF SRD does not say anything about it. :smallannoyed:

The quoted section says that if you have multiple natural attacks, but make only one, you don't get 1+1/2 your strength bonus, but the normal str-bonus to damage. Attack rolls are not adressed.
But since they made the effort to say you gain a secondary natural attack, even though you normally don't have any, I think they want the -5 penalty to attack and the 1/2 str to damage to apply. Otherwise they could just have written you gain a natural attack, and then you could use it in combination with armed attacks as usual.

[icefractal]

They might just be assuming that you're combining it with your normal iterative attacks though. Seems odd to say that it must be crappy even if used alone.

[Feralventas]

I'm fairly sure that if you're only using one Natural Attack that it would count as a primary attack, but the book you need to check isn't the SRD for 3.5, it's the Pathfinder rule book.

If you're playing PF in a 3.5 game, bring both sets of rules with you and let your DM decide which one should apply if they contradict each other.

[Akal Saris]

I ran into similar issues with a synthesist summoner/rogue. I believe that as long as your hair is your only "weapon" for the round then you use your full BAB (so you'd attack at +7 for 1d3+5). If you attacked with a crossbow and your hair, it would instead be at +2 for 1d3+2.

Aside from the hilarity of the ability, I think it would be quite fun as an option AOO's, using your hair to trip opponents who try to close to melee with you.

[Raef13]

All information I got is from the PFsrd (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/) I am assuming based on other posts that this is a qualified resource for information.

[Big Fau]

Thanks, now I'll have nightmares all night. :smallwink:

Trust me, it could be far worse.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sVjBMNf5n58/TCJOVThrRSI/AAAAAAAAATY/udA-XrhyS6s/s400/Bobobo-boBo-bobo3.jpg