Darfellan barbarian. Om nom nom!

[Mclane]

I'm making a darfellan barbarian, and I was thinking of making him use his bite attack as his main attack, and not using a weapon. Would this be a good idea? My friend was making a character recently that used only natural attacks, so I know it's possible, but would it actually be a so-so to okay idea?

[Keld Denar]

Um, can you make him a martial adept? You could do single action strikes with your bite, which would be fine since strikes can make up the difference in a lack of iteratives.

The problem with natural weapons is that they each only get to make one attack. At level 1 or so, this isn't an issue since most other character also only get 1 attack. At higher levels when iteratives start coming into play, you'll still only be making one attack per round.

The advantage of natural attacks is that you can add them on to most attack routines for almost no cost. They also benefit fully 1:1 on PA, despite only getting half +Str bonus.

So yea, you're best option might be to wield a 2handed weapon, and make your attack routine be Sword/Bite, rather than just bite.

Altenatively, play a martial adept like a Warblade. Things like Death from Above and Dazing Strike don't care if you make them with a longsword, a greatsword, a shield bash, or a bite. In fact, Death from Above with a bite sounds hillarious!

[NeoSeraphi]

Ask your DM if you can treat your Bite attack as a 2-handed weapon for the purposes of Power Attack and your Str damage. This should not be too difficult to do, as generally a creature with only a bite attack in the MM adds 1 1/2 times its Str anyway. (Dire Wolf, Phase Spider, Wolf, Werewolf Wolf Form, etc)

Then you can easily wield your Bite attack by itself. The martial adept thing is a good idea, but if you're set on barbarian, you'd still be fine. (If you can, get the Shape Soulmeld and Open Chakra feats from Magic of Incarnum. The Winter Wolf chakra bind lets you add the wolf Auto Trip to your bite attack, which is nice)

[Mclane]

The first idea I had was to play him as a warblade, and now that I think about it, that probably would be a good idea. As a backup idea, I was going to use a guisarme, but that was just in case.

[Keld Denar]

The advantage of having a bite is that you can attack adjacent foes with it. that means that you can use your Guisarme against foes at range for all of the delicious delicious AoOyness, while still having an attack to use against adjacent foes that you don't need to invest resources into to use (no spiked armor or spending feats).

Most "natural attack" builds focus on getting as many natural attacks as they can fit on a body. Since all secondary natural attacks are made at the same bonus (rather than successively lower bonuses like iteratives), its beneficial for builds that have a source of bonus damage. Its really hard to build around a single natural weapon and still be effective.

[Mclane]

Oh yeah, good point.

[Flickerdart]

Having a bite on a Barbarian confers a number of advantages:
-Charging. You can optimize your one attack, and don't need pounce in order to make it happen.
-Grappling. Since you don't need Spirit Lion, take Spirit Bear for Improved Grab, then chew your enemies to pieces!
-Tripping. You can go Wolf Totem for Improved Trip, and then use a reach weapon. Your bite will fill the holes in your threatened squares, so you save a feat on Spiked Chain proficiency.
-Totem Rager. Dread Carapace is awesome for a bite user.
-Mouthpick weapons. If you do want to go the pounce route, grab this +1 weapon enchantment from Lords of Madness to wield a second two-handed weapon in your mouth, for twice the pain.

[Fouredged Sword]

Consider going into totem rager. There are a few good soulmelds for bite attacks.

You can meld a meld to add acid damage, electric damage, increase the size of the bite or just add extra damage.

[Mclane]

So, if I I'm gonna make him a warblade, I can look into maneuvers easily, and later on I can take enlarged natural weapon to make my bite attack 1d8. But would there actually be any feats that would help the build at level 1? Or should I just take power attack?

[Amphetryon]

Wasn't there a build back on the old Gleemax forums centered around a character obtaining the Swallow Whole ability, and literally eating his opponents? Seems like that sort of idea would work well here.

[NeoSeraphi]

That depends on how lenient your DM is. Ask him if you can take Longtooth Shifter feats, as they influence characters with natural bite attacks. Technically only Shifters can take them, I don't know why, but they're pretty good.

If you can, here are some good bite feats: Longtooth Elite (gives your bite the wounding property), Shifter Savagery (requires +6 BAB, but increases your natural weapon's size by 2 and doubles its threat range while you're raging), and there's a third one from Races of Eberron that increases your bite's multiplier to x3.

[Mclane]

The name seems pretty self explanatory, but how do you get this swallow whole ability?

[Mclane]

My DM says no longtooth feats, so I guess I'll just have to use my bite attack as primary weapon, and just use barbarian stuff to make it better.

[Darrin]

-Tripping. You can go Wolf Totem for Improved Trip, and then use a reach weapon. Your bite will fill the holes in your threatened squares, so you save a feat on Spiked Chain proficiency.


Bind the Worg Pelt soulmeld to your hand chakra, and you get a free trip attempt whenever you hit with your bite attack. Combine that with Improved Trip for bite + trip + free attack.

[Flickerdart]

The Lists of Stuff have no instances of Swallow Whole. You will have to resort to either spells with a similar effect (Bite of the King does it, IIRC) or Polymorphing into something that can do it.

[Coidzor]

Wasn't there a build back on the old Gleemax forums centered around a character obtaining the Swallow Whole ability, and literally eating his opponents? Seems like that sort of idea would work well here.

well, the idea is so awesome that it's been expressed in several other media. (http://mspaintadventures.wikia.com/wiki/Belly_of_the_Whale)