[3.5]Natural Weapon Damage Increase?

[aphoticConniver]

Say I multiclass Druid/Meldshaping class. If a soulmeld would give me a natural weapon, and I wildshape into, say, a bear, what happens?

[Keld Denar]

Some of the later sourcebooks include text that I think was implied in earlier ones, but never explicitly stated. That is: if you have a type of natural weapon, and you would gain a type of natural weapon in the same location, use the highest damage.

Complete Champion and Dragon Magic both have examples of this, and are two of the latest published sourcebooks.

Otherwise, the natural rules of natural weapons work too. If you are wielding a sword in your claw, you can't claw with that hand. Likewise, if you are wielding a claw in a clawed hand, you can't claw with your normal claw.

If you were a lizard man with 1d3 claws, binding Sphinx Claws gives you 1d8 claws instead. If you already had 2d6 claws from something else, though, you would use them instead.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Multiple effects which alter your form don't stack, the most recent effect supersedes any previous ones. You would turn your hand into a bear claw, and then your soulmeld would turn your bear claw into a different claw; or you would soulmeld your hand into a claw, and then turn that into a bear claw. They would not stack.

[aphoticConniver]

Ok, second question: If I wanted to splash a few levels of a Meldshaping class due to a lack of magic items in the campaign, which would be more suited, Incarnate or Totemist?

[Keld Denar]

I'd still do Totemist. You can get some really nice abilities like Pounce on forms that don't already have it, or Rend on any form with claws, or other noteworthy goodies. Also, since you don't have to bind your Totem to a form that grants weapons, you can bind it for something really neat, like Blink Shirt or Phase Cloak.

[aphoticConniver]

Any particular soulmelds I should shape regularly, due to not getting totem bind for another level?

[rot42]

Ankheg Breastplate, Wormtail Belt, and Totem Avatar all give you AC, which is always nice; it sticks around when you wildshape. If you are all dragony, Dragon Mantle (Dragon Magic) gives you energy resistance to everything that stacks with everything. Other dragon melds can give you natural weapons, but they do not play nice with others. You can skill monkey it up a bit depending on your party role; Kruthik Claws give a bonus to Hide and Move Silently to help you be a stealthy beast. Great Raptor Mask, Manticore Belt, and Shadow Mantle help you detect things while out scouting. Then there are the special ability melds - Threefold Mask of the Chimera gets rid of being flanked, Basilisk Mask gives you darkvision, or Disenchanter Mask gives you Detect Magic at will. Blink Shirt gives you a short range teleport, but it works as Dimension Door and requires a standard action.