Wildshape and Natural Abilities

[Hiro Quester]

Does wildshape give you the "Natural Abilities" of the form you wildshape into? I think it should. Natural Abilities are explicitly not "Special Qualities" thought they are often listed with them.

My reasons:

Wildshape is based on Alternate form, which says:


The creature loses the natural weapons, natural armor, and movement modes of its original form, as well as any extraordinary special attacks of its original form not derived from class levels (such as the barbarian’s rage class feature).
The creature gains the natural weapons, natural armor, movement modes, and extraordinary special attacks of its new form.
The creature retains the special qualities of its original form. It does not gain any special qualities of its new form.



See the page on "Special Qualities (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm)", where Natural and Special abilities are defined.

On that page, "Special qualities" are explicitly defined this way:

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

And "natural abilities" are defined like this:

This category includes abilities a creature has because of its physical nature. Natural abilities are those not otherwise designated as extraordinary, supernatural, or spell-like.


So those not labelled as Su, Ex or Sp are "natural abilities" (there are also Psionic abilities, but I'm ignoring those for now), and are not "special qualities".

While they are often listed with "special qualities", it seems that this is for convenience' sake (saves another entry in the list).

The prohibition against losing your original "special abilities" and gaining the "special abilities" of the new form does not apply to Natural abilities, then.

They should be abilities you get by wildshaping into a form that "naturally" has those abilities "because of its physical nature". They should come with the other "natural" aspects of the creature (like natural weapons, natural armor, and natural movement modes).

For example, suppose you wildshape into a Tiger (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/tiger.htm). A tiger has Low-light vision and Scent listed with its special abilities. Neither is labelled as Ex, Sp or Su, in the Monster Manual entry.

However, "Scent" is described as an Extraordinary ability" when you look at its entry (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#scent).

In contrast, Low light vision (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#lowLightVision) is not described that way. It's described as being a result of the kind of eyes the creature has (which you now have). So you should get low-light vision as a "natural ability" when you wildshape into a form, like a tiger, that has it.

Furthermore, you should lose your original form's racial bonuses to skills that you get from the kind of physical nature you naturally have (e.g. a gnome's bonus to listen comes from his big sensitive gnome ears, which he doesn't have in wildshape forms). And you should gain the racial bonuses that your new form has by virtue of its physical nature.

Continuing the above example, a tiger has a racial bonus to balance and move silently because it walks on four soft padded paws, and also has claws when needed for extra stability. It also has a racial bonus to hide (and extra ability in long grass) because of its camouflaged fur.

A druid wildshaped into Tiger form should get these natural abilities, too, right?

[bekeleven]

Low-light vision is a special quality. Special Qualities and Special Attacks are special abilities.


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

Low-Light Vision is an extraordinary special quality. If you want it in wild shape, either use Enhance Wild Shape or become a Master of Many Forms.

You don't lose racial skill bonuses from your old form or gain skill bonuses from your new form. Wild Shape grants you only Extraordinary Special Attacks, such as improved grab. It causes you to lose only natural weapons, natural armor, movement modes, racial extraordinary special attacks, gaze attacks and (most) breath weapons. This is all in the text you quoted.

You could make the argument that racial skill bonuses are natural; the inconsistent templating of monster statistics could help you there. However, alternate form does not cause you to gain or lose natural abilities. The Alter Self line might be a more appropriate venue to look for racial skill bonuses.

[Hiro Quester]

You are right about low-light vision. Elsewhere it's described as an Ex ability.

My reason for thinking differently about the other natural abilities, though, is also the "Rules of the Game" articles explaining the new alternate form rules after the rules change.

In Part One (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20060502a) Skip Williams explains about natural abilities changing:


The creature loses natural weapons, natural armor, movement modes, and any extraordinary special attacks of its original form not derived from class levels from its natural form in favor of what the new form provides (but see Part Three). All the things listed here are derived wholly (or mostly) from the creature's outward physical form -- claws, teeth, limbs, skin, and the like. These things change when the creature's body changes.

The point about claws, skin and the like is relevant. A Leopard has racial bonus to balance because its a quadruped with claws. The bonus to climb is again due to its physical body (being light, strong and having claws). It has a bonus to hide because of its fur having natural camouflage.

Also the point about "but see Part Three" is important. "Polymorphing Revisited Part Three (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20060516a)" refers to gaining all the miscellaneous physical qualities of the new form. It then adds this:


Since alternate form doesn't change your type and subtype, it's simplest to rule that you retain any of your racial traits that aren't otherwise barred by the alternate form effect.

This point that its simplest to rule this way, seems to indicate that changing these ability bonuses is fiddly work that might cause too much delay at the the table.

I take this to mean that natural abilities of the new form can be gained, if you have an easy way to do the math. (Our game does; we use The Only Sheet, that makes automatic on-the-fly preprogrammed adjustment of stats for each wildshape form pretty easy.) This would be your DM's call.

Furthermore, in Part Four (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20060523a) an example is given to illustrate how things change. In that example, the druid does gain the wildshape forms' racial bonus to skills when in wildshape forms of leopard, small viper and eagle.

These changes are due to changes in physical stats and e.g. the leopard's racial bonuses (+8 to Jump, balance, and climb; +4 to hide and move silently). A leopard is better at balancing because it's a quadruped, and because it has claws. So the druid gains +12 to balance, in leopard form; +1 from an increase in dexterity, losing her -3 ACP, and from the leopard's racial +8 bonus to balance.

This, and the fact that some creatures' natural abilities are not specified at Ex, Su, or Sp abilities, so should be "natural abilities" that follow from the creature's skin, claws, and other physical characteristics of the wildshaper's new body.

[bekeleven]

You went wrong by assuming Skip Williams was accurate. By coincidence, I made a post about RotG articles yesterday (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=19170290&postcount=142).

You can rule that you get all of those things, and the sky won't fall (or, if it does, you can rule that away too). But if you're asking what wild shape grants by RAW, it's right there under "Alternate Form," no more, no less.