[3.5] Bloodclaw Master, Razorclaw Shifter & Claw Attacks in General. Worth it?

[A.A.King]

Short Story
Pretty much exactly as it says on the tin.

Long Story
I was looking at the Bloodclaw Master PrC from Tome of Battle and saw the clause it had on usage when being a Shifter and I thought to myself: yeah, that might be something nice to build around. Looking at the Tiger Claw Weapons I saw Unarmed Strike, which in my head goes nice with claw attacks. Sometimes you punch and when you really need it, you grow claws. Makes much more sense to me then to go "My big fancy sword aint working, time for my tiny claws". Anyway, Bloodclaw Master doesn't really feel like a Monk PrC so that led me to City Brawler Barbarian + Superior Unarmed Strike. But now my problem:

At level 1 & 2 the Razorclaw Shifter Trait is a nice deal. One encounter per day your damage dice increase from 1d3 to 1d4 and you get extra guaranteed damage from increased strength and the fact that you no longer have an offhand. At level 3 you are however already tied in damage dice and once you get your iterative attacks around level 6 there seems to be no competition.

Compare this to just going Bloodclaw Master. The earliest claw attacks you get from that is at level 7. Not only are the claw attacks you get from them immediately weaker then Unarmed Strikes, you also get the nifty ability of being able to add your full strength bonus to your off-hand weapon, losing another of the bonuses that the early Claw Attack had over normal two-weapon fighting.

And this is just comparing Claw Attacks you don't always have so can't focus on entirely to Unarmed Attacks. Comparing it to a regular weapon which you can enhance easier is just no contest.


Question:
So..... what exactly is the point of having natural Claw Attacks from something like Bloodclaw Master or Razorclaw Shifter Trait when they seem to have nothing over normal attacks beyond the earliest levels?

[Pluto!]

Natural attacks are valuable because they allow extra attacks each round at either no penalty (in the case of multiple primary attacks) or at a flat -5 from your maximum base attack, and they aren't capped by a character's base attack bonus.

This can turn claws into a pretty huge advantage for certain builds - especially those with a lot of claws (Totemists, various shapeshifters), high claw damage (Warlocks, Psychic Warriors) or extra rider effects on claws (Psychic Warriors, Soul Eaters, Thayan Gladiators).

On Bloodclaw Masters, you aren't wrong - their claw attacks have pretty low damage and interfere with weapon attack routines. The only places I could imagine the claw attacks paying off would be situations where an offhand weapon isn't available for whatever reason for a Warblade who's readied the mongoose and girallon maneuvers.

[A.A.King]

I was afraid of that, and I'm guessing that you definitely can't combine Fists and Claws the same way you can combine Fists/Sword and Bite/Tail?

[Coidzor]

I was afraid of that, and I'm guessing that you definitely can't combine Fists and Claws the same way you can combine Fists/Sword and Bite/Tail?

You can't combine Fists and Claws, but unarmed strike isn't limited to fists alone unless the DM is houseruling that it is.

[Legendxp]

If you get the Beast Strike feat you can add your claw or slam damage to your unarmed attacks. Its in the Dragon Magazine #355 pg76

[A.A.King]

Beast Strike is EXACTLY what I needed, thanks.

[Urpriest]

Beast Strike is EXACTLY what I needed, thanks.

Note that regardless, you can just make unarmed strikes alongside your natural attacks anyway. Just make them kicks or headbutts or the like, like most unarmed characters do.