Claws of the Beast + Natural Claws

[Rowan Arquest]

What would happen if you manifested Claws of the Beast while already naturally having claws as a racial feature? Would the new claw stats from the power overwrite your natural claws, or would you just gain an increase to the damage dice? Also, how would Improved Natural Attack fit into everything?

[Keld Denar]

The only rules are can find are printed in some of the later suppliments like Dragon Magic and Complete Champion. The Dragon Claws soulmeld states that if you already have claws, you use the base claw damage or the meld claw damage, whichever is higher. Complete Champion's Fist of the Forest gives you a bite attack, but states that if you already have a bite attack, you use that damage or its damage, whichever is greater.

Those suppliments came late in the developement of 3.5. Its probably because they realized there was a rules gulf there that wasn't covered. Whether or not its RAW, its probably not, given that the earlier examples don't explicitly state it as such, but its a good precident to show intent, or at least evolution of intent.

[Bloodgruve]

Imp Natural Attack should apply to Claws of the Beast.

GL
Blood~

[Tokuhara]

My DM throws that out the window and says that if you have two sources, you combine them (literally). Hence why my Gnoll Totemist was almost unbeatable

[Urpriest]

There's no rules motivation to add the damage together, since nothing else works like that. So you're left with either gaining two new attacks or having the new claws replace your old ones if they deal more damage. It doesn't matter which happens because you can't use Claws of the Beast while using any other weapons, natural or manmade. So you're only getting the attacks from your Claws of the Beast anyway.

[Tokuhara]

There's no rules motivation to add the damage together, since nothing else works like that. So you're left with either gaining two new attacks or having the new claws replace your old ones if they deal more damage. It doesn't matter which happens because you can't use Claws of the Beast while using any other weapons, natural or manmade. So you're only getting the attacks from your Claws of the Beast anyway.

M DM says to hell with rules motivation and goes with whatever is thematically cool, such as Natural Claws, Claws of the Beast, and Dragon's Claws all stack , meaning your natural claw attacks becoem a more viable weapon