Human Natural Attacks

[rferries]

A bit of a facetious feat, but we've all brawled with a sibling and used more than one unarmed strike in a round. Plus, why should lizardfolk get two claw attacks and we can't throw two punches? :P Finally, humans really are quite dangerous with our fists and teeth in real life!

Anatomy Lesson
You have counted how many limbs you have and put them to good use, though monks and the non-human races are too genteel to resort to such tactics.

Prerequisites
Human, Combat Reflexes, Improved Unarmed Strike, Lightning Reflexes, Dex 14.

Benefits
You gain two primary slam attacks (with your fists), each dealing 1d3 damage plus your Strength modifier.

You gain two secondary slam attacks (with your legs), each dealing 1d4 damage plus one-half your Strength modifier.

Once per round you may also make either an additional slam attack (by headbutting), or a bite attack. The slam attack deals 1d3 damage plus one-half your Strength modifier. The bite deals 1d4 damage plus one-half your Strength modifier and your target must succeed on a Fortitude save (DC 10 + one-half your character level + your Constitution modifier) or contract filth fever. In either case, both the slam and the bite are made as secondary attacks.

Special
Whenever you would make one or more unarmed attacks, you must forfeit one of your primary slam attacks for that round (it is assumed you are making all your unarmed attacks with that one fist).

Spiked gauntlets, spiked boots, and spiked helms each increase the damage of the appropriate slam attacks by one step.

Your fists must be free (i.e. not bound or carrying a weapon, shield, or other item) to make slam attacks.

If you have the Run feat, the slam attacks with your legs instead deal 1d4 damage plus 1.5 times your Strength modifier.

If you have the Stunning Fist feat, you may make stunning attacks by headbutting. If you do so, the Fortitude save DC increases by +2.

A fighter may select Anatomy Lesson as one of his fighter bonus feats.

Monks cannot select this feat. Characters with this feat cannot take levels of monk.

[Debihuman]

Just ugh. Human fists should never do secondary damage. If you want to add a secondary attack it must be with a different body part, like a kick.

[Westhart]

cried a little when you kicked out monk XD

[rferries]

Just ugh. Human fists should never do secondary damage. If you want to add a secondary attack it must be with a different body part, like a kick.

Sorry, I don't quite follow - the fist slams are meant to be primary attacks. Unless you mean using one of them as a secondary attack while you use a weapon with the other as your main attack? In which case, if a half-dragon or vampire (for example) can use a weapon and make a claw/slam attack with its free hand, humans should be able to as well! :)

cried a little when you kicked out monk XD

Monks already train in proper flurry of blows/martial arts, none of this undignified kicking/biting/brawling :D Plus I didn't want to deal with their "extra damage for unarmed strikes" ability and how it would interact with all these attacks.

[nonsi]

Sorry, I don't quite follow - the fist slams are meant to be primary attacks. Unless you mean using one of them as a secondary attack while you use a weapon with the other as your main attack? In which case, if a half-dragon or vampire (for example) can use a weapon and make a claw/slam attack with its free hand, humans should be able to as well! :)



Monks already train in proper flurry of blows/martial arts, none of this undignified kicking/biting/brawling :D Plus I didn't want to deal with their "extra damage for unarmed strikes" ability and how it would interact with all these attacks.

I think that Superior Unarmed Strike (ToB, p.33) renders this feat moot.

[rferries]

I think that Superior Unarmed Strike (ToB, p.33) renders this feat moot.

Depends! Anatomy Lesson grants you several additional natural attacks (4 plus one hand free to make unarmed strikes), which may benefit more from an amulet of mighty fists than standard iterative unarmed strikes would from Superior Unarmed Strike. Multiattack is Anatomy Lesson's best friend, though.

[Debihuman]

Sorry, I don't quite follow - the fist slams are meant to be primary attacks. Unless you mean using one of them as a secondary attack while you use a weapon with the other as your main attack? In which case, if a half-dragon or vampire (for example) can use a weapon and make a claw/slam attack with its free hand, humans should be able to as well! :)

An unarmed strike is considered a light weapon rather than a natural attack. This is to avoid the silliness from having a character stand on one foot while throwing two punches, kicking with a free leg and headbutting an opponent at the same time. Trust me, PCs will do this if allowed. Of course if they roll badly they should not only miss but fall down. Then the question is they would all do the same damage or not? Can you knock yourself out with a critical failure on a headbutt? It's gonna be very messy. How about adding haste, and then figuring out combat. This just slows the game down too much. Plus unarmed attacks cause attacks of opportunity for your opponent. Once you make a change in one place, it means that you usually have to make changes in other place. I, for one, don't recommend this.

If you really want to give characters a natural attack, then you have to remove the rules for unarmed strikes because they won't be compatible.

Monks already train in proper flurry of blows/martial arts, none of this undignified kicking/biting/brawling :D Plus I didn't want to deal with their "extra damage for unarmed strikes" ability and how it would interact with all these attacks.

Exactly.

Debby

[Debihuman]

Sorry, I don't quite follow - the fist slams are meant to be primary attacks. Unless you mean using one of them as a secondary attack while you use a weapon with the other as your main attack? In which case, if a half-dragon or vampire (for example) can use a weapon and make a claw/slam attack with its free hand, humans should be able to as well! :)

You can. You make an unarmed attack with a fist for 1d3. You only get one attack because you are not using a weapon How is this difficult?

Monks already train in proper flurry of blows/martial arts, none of this undignified kicking/biting/brawling :D Plus I didn't want to deal with their "extra damage for unarmed strikes" ability and how it would interact with all these attacks.

Flurry of blows is kicking and punching a la martial arts style. You don't have to be dignified to do this if you don't want to be. A street fighter could potentially have flurry of blows as a special ability. All it does is allow you to make an additional attack at your highest BAB.

Debby

[rferries]

Ha yeah, all good points. It was a semi-humourous feat; I suppose a "balanced" version would just let you make a slam attack with one free hand and a bite attack (a la half-dragons, albeit at greatly reduced damage), with no kicks allowed. I just liked the idea of humans being deadly monsters after all :D