Claw and fist feat [Archive] - Giant in the Playground Forums

ScarletThief

2016-06-23, 11:59 AM

Doc_Maynot

2016-06-23, 12:13 PM

Well, there is Beast Strike (Dragon #335), that lets you add your claw damage to your unarmed strikes and deals your claw damage when you successfully grapple.

Necroticplague

2016-06-23, 12:30 PM

Hey guys new here and was wondering if any of you experienced players of the forums could help me out I recalled finding a feat a while back that allowed a character to strike with a claw attack then follow it up with an unarmed strike from the same limb and can't for the life of me find it if any of you know what I'm talking about I'd love to hear unless I'm just imagining it

Er, not sure what you even mean by that. Unarmed Strikes aren't made with any specific part of your body. It's no mechanically different to punch someone that it is to kick them or strike with an elbow. So why would a feat exist that would mechanically do nothing?

Closest I can think of is Beast Strike (in that it involves combining your natural weapons and unarmed strikes), but it's mechanically almost the opposite of what you want (instead of letting you make multiple attacks, it combines damage for one attack).

Telonius

2016-06-23, 12:50 PM

There is some precedent for it, in a Rules of the Game article (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20070403a):

A creature can choose to treat its unarmed attacks as its primary attacks and its natural weapons as secondary attacks. (This method is normally used to add weapon attacks to a natural attack routine.) The creature must make all unarmed attacks with its primary limb, which prevents that hand from being used for a natural attack such as a claw or slam. It uses its full base attack bonus for the natural attack, gaining additional attacks as normal for a high base attack bonus, and adds its full Strength bonus on damage rolls.

I think the claw vs. fist thing is really only applicable to a non-Monk character. If we're talking about a Monk, then as you've mentioned, you can kick, elbow, headbutt, or whatever.

Troacctid

2016-06-23, 01:22 PM

I think the claw vs. fist thing is really only applicable to a non-Monk character. If we're talking about a Monk, then as you've mentioned, you can kick, elbow, headbutt, or whatever.

Non-monks can do that too.

Telonius

2016-06-23, 02:08 PM

They can, but not if they want the full attack bonus. For example, a Lizardfolk without Monk levels. From that article, the unarmed attack must be done with a primary limb (one of its claws). Then the natural attack routine can't use the same claw; the natural attack routine would be claw/bite. If it were a Monk, it could lead off with a kick (or whatever), then go claw/claw/bite.

You could also lead off with something other than the main limb, but treat it as an off-hand attack; in which case there's a penalty; so the attack is at -4 unless they have TWF.

Troacctid

2016-06-23, 02:26 PM

What? No, there are no penalties for attacking with your off hand unless you use two-weapon fighting. Otherwise, you can attack interchangeably with your main hand and offhand weapons at your full attack bonus. I mean, there used to be a -4 penalty for attacking with a weapon that wasn't held in your primary hand, and you could negate the penalty by taking Ambidexterity as a feat. But that rule died in the 3.5 update. Now a non-monk can punch, kick, or headbutt as they so choose, without any penalty. The only place in the rules that cares whether your unarmed strike is a punch or a kick, AFAIK, is the Kensai prestige class's special rules for enchanting unarmed strikes.

Telonius

2016-06-23, 02:49 PM

The article's dated 2007, so that's after the update. I don't know where it falls on the "rules hierarchy" - maybe on the same level as the FAQ? - but it is there.

Troacctid

2016-06-23, 03:32 PM

There's no -4 penalty for offhand attacks and there hasn't been since 3.0, so the article is just plain old mistaken.