3.5e novice help gaining claws

[TheAberrantUnde]

So do to the amount of material and options I'm getting overwelmed just trying to find a way for a human to gain claw attacks.
I've already found a way for a tail and a bite attack due to feats just lacking a claw attack

[Troacctid]

Some feats that give you claw attacks include but are not limited to: Deformity (Clawed Hands), Draconic Claw, Eldritch Claws, Minor Shapeshift, and Shape Soulmeld (Claws of the Wyrm).

Many classes give you claw attacks. A popular one is totemist, from Magic of Incarnum.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

I'll throw in the Feral Creature template (Savage Species). +1 LA, but it gives enough goodies (that keep unlocking as you gain levels) for a melee build that I think it's well worth it.

Hmm, what other options haven't been covered yet? If you can qualify, Warshaper lets you grow your own claws at level 1. Lots of less fantastic templates, including Lycanthropy or Entomanothropy and Half Dragon.

[Albions_Angel]

Um, guys? You saw s/he said "novice" and "overwhelmed" by the "amount of material" right? Maybe some book and page numbers with those suggestions?

Eldritch Claws is a feat from one of the Dragon Magazines. I am afraid I cant remember which one. You have to be a warlock to use them, but they are insanely good. That said, Dragon Magazine exists in this weird world where it is essentially first party published stuff, but not considered official. A lot of it isnt play tested. A lot of it is broken. Most DMs dont allow it. Eldritch Claws isnt bad at all though, and you might be able to swing it :)

Soulmelds and Totemists have been mentioned. Both from Magic of Incarnum. MoI is... a little dense? Its a new magic system, and fairly unique. Rather than casting spells with spell slots, or powers with psi points, you instead wake up each morning with a pool of essentia points, and a bunch of empty item slots. You can shape "soulmelds" (ghostly magical items of long dead heroes) to bits of your body, and they sit there, looking all ghostly, over the top of your armour and weapons. You can then fill them with essentia points to make them better. You can also BIND them to your body for 24 hours. This brings them into the real world, so they become physical items, taking up the item slot. They are better when bound (in principle) than they are when they are just shaped.

The Totemist is one of the classes that is designed to be used with incarnum stuff. Somewhere between a druid and a barbarian in feel, the totemist binds things to themselves that generally improve their natural attacks. They are pretty much exactly what you are looking for, as they allow you to be a human with bite, claw, I think tail, and even flight. And they have this great shaman fluff to them. I would check it out if you have access to the books. The benefit of Totemist, is that it frees up all those feats you WERE going to spend on bite, tail and claw.

[ShurikVch]

The Warp Touch disease from the Book of Vile Darkness causing some changes, and one of them - on 73-74 roll - is "Grow claws that deal 1d6 points of damage". Try to claim it as a part of your backstory

The Curse of Demon Claw (Champions of Ruin) - stone with imprint od demonic hand; if creature place a hand on it, hand will be replaced with demonic claw (1d8 damage, +2 on attack roll, +2 Str, count as Evil-aligned for overcoming); because it's a Curse, it have some consequences (roll d6):


1
The claw must be bathed in living blood 1/day, or become inert and useless


2
The claw must be bathed in living blood 1/day, or it will draw the blood from the cursed character


3
If in battle for more than 3 rounds, cursed character fly into Barbarian's Rage, and attacks foes and friends alike until there are no more targets in sight; not fatigued afterwards; any number of times per day


4
In combat, cursed character always drops a weapon and eschews spellcasting in favor of the Claw attacks


5
Claw attacks the cursed character when at 10 hp (or less)


6
Once per 24 hours, Claw detaches from the character, turns into Crawling Claw, and attacking anybody near; if "killed", it reappears on the character (which will lose 16 hp)

[DEMON]

With the Totemist's focus on natural attacks, it might indeed be your best option.

But depending on your class preference, there are some other options that were not mentioned, yet.

The Favored Soul (CD - Complete Divine) has 2 alternate class features (ACFs) of note, both of which trade away the Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialization feats - Favored of Bahamut/Tiamat (DrM - Dragon Magic) gets 2 claw attacks and some other features unrelated to natural attacks, while Favored of the Fiends (EoE - Exemplars of Evil) also gets 2 claw attacks and a bite attack as well. Both ACFs are available at level 3.

The feat Grizzly's Claws (CD) allows you to spend a use of Wild Shape to gain two primary claw attacks for 1 hour. A source of wild shape is required to use this feat, of course (e.g. Druid, Wildshape Ranger (ACF from UA - Unearthed Arcana)).