[3.5] Claws of Darkness

[Gen Melchett]

SC 47
When you cast this spell, your hands become shadowy claws. Starting on your next action, you can use the claws to make unarmed attacks as if they were natural weapons. (You attack with one claw and can use the other claw for an off-hand attack. If you have multiple attacks, you use them normally when attacking with the claws.) Attacks with the claws are melee touch attacks. Each claw deals 1d8 points of cold damage. If you grapple an opponent, you deal claw damage with each successful grapple check, and the grappled target is under the effect of a slow spell for as long as you maintain the grapple. An opponent that makes a successful Fortitude save is not slowed, and it cannot be slowed by this casting of claws of darkness. You can extend the claws up to 6 feet, which gives you a natural reach of 10 feet, or retract them as a free action. When the spell is in effect, you cannot cast spells with components other than verbal ones, nor can you carry items with your hands. Any magic items worn on your hands are temporarily absorbed and cease functioning while the spell is active.
Great spell, but the description is less than clear.

Firstly, the description states it’s a 2nd level sor/wiz spell while the table has it as a 3rd level spell. Obviously, text trumps table so by RAW it’s 2nd level, but what do people think the intent was? It seems quite powerful for a 2nd level spell, at least for gishes.

Secondly, how exactly does the spell function in terms of iterative attacks and TWF? Could a character with +6 BAB and the TWF feat make 3 attacks at +4/+4/-1? I don’t see why not since it says if you have multiple attacks you may use them normally.

[Darrin]

Firstly, the description states it’s a 2nd level sor/wiz spell while the table has it as a 3rd level spell. Obviously, text trumps table so by RAW it’s 2nd level, but what do people think the intent was? It seems quite powerful for a 2nd level spell, at least for gishes.


Hmm. There's a lot going on with this spell. The claws can:

Attack as natural weapons.
Can be used as iterative/TWF attacks.
Melee touch attacks.
1d8 [cold] damage.
10' reach.
Fort save vs. slow effect.


There are a few drawbacks. You can't wield weapons with your hands, can't use your hands for somatic/material components, and any magic items worn on your hands are absorbed and can't be used (no mention of rings).

Compared to ghoul touch (2nd) and vampiric touch (3rd) in the PHB... yes, there's an argument that this is probably too powerful for a 2nd level spell. Outside of Core, compared to belker claws or combust (which don't have durations)... well, there's also wraithstrike, which is already a 2nd level spell, but has a swift action casting time. A better comparison is probably handfang from Lords of Darkness/Serpent Kingdoms, which doesn't do nearly as much as claws of darkness, and that's indisputably a 3rd level spell.

Claws of darkness was originally printed in the FRCS as a 2nd level spell, and listed again in the PGtF spell tables as a 2nd level spell (but oddly with only 1d4 cold damage for some reason), so the Spell Compendium is just following what was printed in the FRCS/PGtF. Even if we don't consider "text trumps table", the textual evidence here would suggest that listing it as a 3rd level spell in the Spell Compendium was a typo/mistake rather than an editorial nerf... however, it does feel like this should be a 3rd level spell when compared to other melee touch spells.



Secondly, how exactly does the spell function in terms of iterative attacks and TWF? Could a character with +6 BAB and the TWF feat make 3 attacks at +4/+4/-1? I don’t see why not since it says if you have multiple attacks you may use them normally.

Whoever wrote the spell effect appears to be confused about how natural weapons and unarmed attacks work, as they have two different sets of rules for determining the number of attacks and the attack penalties for each. However, based on how the text is worded, it looks like you can treat the claws either as natural weapons (one or two primary claw attacks, or one primary claw and one secondary claw) or as iterative/TWF attacks. Normally an unarmed strike is only considered a single weapon for the purposes of TWF, so it's a little dicey to say you can TWF with a single unarmed strike. However, you explicitly have two claw attacks here, and while you can't normally treat a claw as an offhand weapon for the purposes of TWF (natural weapons are either primary or secondary attacks), the spell text explicitly says you can use a claw as an offhand attack. And while a primary claw would normally be limited to one attack per round, the spell text explicitly says that you can make multiple attacks if you normally get to do so. So yes, I believe a character with BAB +6 would get +4 primary/+4 offand/-1 primary attacks.

[Gen Melchett]

Thanks for such a thorough answer, I appreciate it!
Since touch spells like this are more useful for gishes than for pure casters and because of the downsides I'm fine with it being a level 2 spell. It's certainly a very powerful one though.