Racial spellcasting on awakened skeletons?

[Venger]

Okay, so, one of the players in my game asked me a hypothetical question (which I love) about spellweavers, those things with the barn owl faces and 6 arms and the spelldisks from MM2 (I believe) and asked that since they have racial spellcasting, would they get it back if slain and awakened?

I wasn't sure since it doesnt say if spellcasting is su (which they don't get) or ex (which they do get) but since it's "as sorcerer" then I figure it's off cha which for skeles is 1, so you can't cast magic spells off it.

also, he asked if it would get 6 claws since it's got 6 arms and it only has 2 slams in its statblock. skeles usually get 1 attack for every natural weapon so I wasn't really sure how to answer this either.

if it doesn't cast, he's not interested in it as a skele (1d4 claws x6 blah)

so what's the deal? does it keep spellcasting? does it get more claws?

[Thurbane]

I think in the past there have been huge debates about whether spellcasting counts as a natural ability or an (Ex) ability...

Here we go:

The usual debate here centers around a couple of clauses:

1. In the Rules Compendium it states that any ability that is not specifically called out as Ex., Su. or Sp. is a natural ability.

This implies that Spellcasting, not being called out as any of the three categories, is a natural ability.

and...

2. In the Monster Manual, Spellcasting is listed as a Special Ability. From SRD:

Special Abilities

"A special ability is either extraordinary, spell-like, or supernatural in nature."

Accordingly, since spellcasting is neither supernatural nor spell-like, it must be extraordinary.

The debate that follows tends to circle around primary sources, namely, whether or not the primary source for rules is the Rules Compendium, in which case it overrules the Monster Manual, or whether or not the Monster Manual is the primary source for this rule set.

I leave the interpretation to you, but from a balance perspective, a Druid who uses Shapechange to turn into a Dragon inherits all its Ex. and Su. abilities. If Spellcasting is Ex. then Druids gain up to around 20th level Sorcerer casting in addition to their Druid casting while Shapechanged...do you really need to supercharge arguably the most powerful class in the game? Rule as you will. In terms of Awaken Undead...do you really think that your Cleric or Wizard should have a second primary spellcaster under its influence?

The official rules conflict, so I tend toward ruling in favor of sanity, and accordingly consider Spellcasting to be a natural ability. I take the Rules Compendium as the primary source in this instance.