Fleshraker Question

[mootoall]

Just wondering, how the hell is the Fleshraker's Rake attack attack bonus and damage calculated? It seems almost completely arbitrary. Is there errata?

[dextercorvia]

For the attack, I'm nearly certain that it is a Dex based secondary attack -- that accounts for the extra + over the normal secondary attacks.

For the damage, my best guess is that it is also Dex based, but halved being secondary.

[Basket Burner]

If I had to guess...

Attack is at -4 because it is a natural weapon only usable in a grapple. Damage is odd because it's half Str damage twice, perhaps to reflect the fact it is two claws even though you only get one actual rake attack. The difference between this and full Str damage once can be seen with odd Str modifiers, which is why it is +2 and not +3.

[Snowbluff]

The BAB for the fleshraker is 3/4 it's HD, like most things.

[Urpriest]

If I had to guess...

Attack is at -4 because it is a natural weapon only usable in a grapple. Damage is odd because it's half Str damage twice, perhaps to reflect the fact it is two claws even though you only get one actual rake attack. The difference between this and full Str damage once can be seen with odd Str modifiers, which is why it is +2 and not +3.

Rakes don't take -4 for being in a grapple. Rake is usually listed on one line, but is always two attacks. So neither of those is the case.

It's got an extra +1 to attack and damage from no apparent source. I really think that's all that's going on.

[Basket Burner]

For the Fleshraker, it says one rake attack though.

[Urpriest]

For the Fleshraker, it says one rake attack though.

Hmm, in the Leaping Pounce section anyway. The rest of the description is consistent with other monsters that more clearly have two rake attacks. It's also got the rather odd trait of dealing both rake and claw damage on a successful grapple check, which seems to imply (but of course does not RAW establish) that it does not also get individual rake attacks during a grapple. Actually, one can make a further (again only pseudo-RAW) argument to this effect: a Fleshraker does not have Improved Grab. Rather, it has the Leaping Pounce ability, which includes Improved Grab's functionality. Since by default a creature with Improved Grab holds on to its target with the grabbing attacks, and since a Fleshraker can establish a grapple if any of its attacks hit, were Leaping Pounce to act like Improved Grab it would follow that the Rake attack would be used to hold the opponent along with the claws, and thus could not be used to make independent attacks. So it could be that the rake only comes into play as one attack when the thing charges, and cannot be used (or is not supposed to be used) otherwise. On the other hand, this interpretation seems to extend to the bite as well, which does not deal automatic damage on subsequent grapple checks. So...hmm...