A question about Stone Form

[VeGaS1986]

The Feat Stone Form from Races of Stone lets you become rocky for a +4 to poison saves, +4 natural armor and a slam attack...what im wondering is how exactly this form is to be interpreted...The wording seems alot like other feats that are powered by Wild Shape, where you dont actually turn into anything. The problem is it fails to mention any kind of duration.

So is it an all day buff costing 1 use of Wild Shape or is it an actual "Wild Shape" meaning it lasts for one hour pr level and qualifies you for things like the Warshapers bonuses?

Also can the slam be used as a secondary attack after a full attack like a claw or bite usually can?

I R CONFUZZLED

[VeGaS1986]

Bump for great justice

[Darrin]

So is it an all day buff costing 1 use of Wild Shape or is it an actual "Wild Shape" meaning it lasts for one hour pr level and qualifies you for things like the Warshapers bonuses?


Hmm... the wording is not so clear. I can't tell... there seem to be two interpretations:

A) Spend a wild shape use to add some defensive buffs to your current form, whatever form that may be. Duration would probably be either until you shift forms (unlikely) or just the standard wild shape duration (more likely).

B) Activate like your standard wild shape, pick an animal form (or one of your usual forms), and get a "stony form" version that has some extra defensive buffs. Duration is whenever your existing wild shape expires.

I can see an argument for A, for B, and for A + B.

The only real sticking point with A is establishing the duration, and hours/level is probably the best, since the alternative would be walking around in "stone shape" indefinitely if you never change into another form.

The problem with B is, unlike most other Wildshape feats, there's no extra cost to use it. All your wild shape forms get a free defensive buff without costing any additional uses of your wild shape. That may have been what was intended... but I can't tell.

A + B would allow both versions, although why you'd shift into a non-stony form and then add "stony form" later wouldn't make much sense.

I think the crux of the problem is does this feat allow you to change your current non-wildshaped PC form into a "stony form"? That is, can a human become a "stony human"? From the description, it sounds like "Yes", but I can't tell if the designers intended it that way. If we say "No", then that eliminates option A, and option B should work just fine. While this makes wildshape more powerful without any significant increase in cost (other than taking the feat), it creates less rules headaches.



Also can the slam be used as a secondary attack after a full attack like a claw or bite usually can?


Yes, the Rules Compendium makes this explicit. Any primary natural weapon can be used as a secondary attack.

There's one caveat that isn't mentioned by the rules, and that would be if you're in a somewhat-humanoid-shaped form, a "slam" attack is generally assumed to involve your arms, and if your arm(s) is/are occupied with something else, such as a manufactured weapon, then you "shouldn't" be able to slam... but there are no explicit rules on this, just what we can infer from stat blocks of humanoidish-types with slam attacks. If your form isn't humanoidish, then your slam may be some type of "body slam", and... well, just check with the DM and use common sense.