Quote Originally Posted by Gruftzwerg View Post
I don't think that they default to natural abilities because:


While the second sentence defaults everything unlabeled to NA, the first ability excludes mental abilities. And HBF is a mental "fast learning" ability.
IMHO the sole category that makes sense (for HBF) would be EX. It ain't a spell/like ability nor a magical supernatural ability, which leaves EX as sole option.

And my last argument would be "text trumps table". As long as the there is text that supports that HBF has to be a extraordinary special quality the table is irrelevant. We have seen enough dysfunctional tables in 3.5 so far. Just because the tables don't reflect the extraordinary special quality source anymore doesn't change the source of that ability.


edit: I don't think the 1st lvl restriction for HBF is a problem here. We can assume that Wild Shape transforms you into a 1st lvl equivalent of the target creature type by default if it doesn't have a fix HD. In chase of humans that would be a "commoner 1". You have to keep in mind that wild shape forms represent just matured fresh out of the box versions (referring to stats! not visually!) of the desired form.
you need to show us the rule that says feats or racial feats are a extraordinary special quality.