Class Articles: Natural Weapons 101

So, I've been working on the Totemist writeup these past few weeks (work and studying have delayed a bit,  I apologize). While writing it, not only did I realize that Totemists rely a lot on Natural Weapons, but I also remembered that Natural Weapon rules can get a little wonky. So for those of you unfamiliar with Natural Weapon rules, here's a refresher course.

If a creature has Natural Weapons, it can use them in melee. Natural Weapons don't provoke Attack of Opportunities since using one is considered being armed, they threaten whatever squares they can reach, and you can use them in a Grapple. They also have a strange way of interacting with iterative attacks, and here's what I mean.

With a normal melee attack (let's say a Fighter using a Greatsword), as a standard action you can make a single melee attack. IF you meet the following criteria...

You have +6 or more BAB

You have a full-round action available (i.e. have a standard and a move action available)

...you can make several melee attacks. Each attack after the first takes a cumulative -5 penalty (so the 2^nd attack in a full attack is at a -5 penalty, the 3^rd is at a -10 penalty, etc.). If you have +11 BAB or more, you can make up to 3 attacks, and if you have +16 BAB or more you can make 4 attacks.

Now, compare this to a Natural Weapon:

If you have a Natural Weapon, then as a standard action you can make a melee attack with it at your full attack bonus (so you add BAB, Strength bonus, etc. just like a melee attack with a Greatsword on a Fighter). HOWEVER, even if you have +6 or more BAB and a full-round action available, you cannot make multiple attacks with the same Natural Weapon. So if all you have is a Bite, and have +6 BAB, you can't use your Bite you make 2 attacks in a round; you can only make one. If you have a Greatsword instead, you could make 2 attacks in a round.

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If you have multiple Natural Weapons (ex: a Bite and 2 Claws), then this is how you use them:

One of the Natural Weapons (or appropriate pair of Natural Weapons) is designated the Primary Natural Weapon. This is usually dictated for you; a bear, for example, is stuck having its Claws being its Primary Natural Weapon. ALL other Natural Weapons are designated Secondary Natural Weapons. So, if you have a creature with a Bite, 2 Claws, 2 Wing attacks, and a Tail (read: Dragons), and the Bite is designated the Primary Natural Weapon, then the Claws, Wings, and Tail are all Secondary Natural Weapons.

The Primary Natural Weapon is the Natural Weapon you can use for a standard action melee attack. In the above dragon example, a dragon could use its Bite attack as a standard action melee attack.

The Secondary Natural Weapons are always made at a penalty, no matter what. As far as I know, you can't use Secondary Natural Weapons for your standard action melee attack. If the dragon uses a full-round action to make a full attack, it can use its Bite, Claws, Wings, and Tail attacks for a total of 6 attacks.

Primary Natural Attacks use the creature's full attack bonus, and adds the creature's full Strength bonus to damage. Secondary Natural Attacks all take a -5 NON-CUMULATIVE penalty, and use ½ of the creature's Strength bonus. The non-cumulative part is important; it doesn't matter if you have 1 secondary attack or a million, they each only take a -5 penalty.

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To tie this all together, let's compare a Fighter wielding a Longsword and a Fighter that somehow has a Bite, 2 Claws, and a Tail attack. To make things simple, let's pretend they are all Level 6 (so +6 BAB), have no feats, and a Strength score of 18 (so +4 as a Strength bonus).

The longsword does base 1d8 damage.

The Bite attack does base 1d6 damage.

The Claw attacks each do base 1d4 damage.

The Tail attack does base 1d6 damage.

Fighter A's full attack would look like this:

Attack #1 is made at a +10 (+6 from BAB, +4 from Strength) bonus, and deals 1d8 + 4 damage (1d8 base, +4 from full Strength bonus).

Attack #2 is made at a +5 (+1 from BAB, +4 from Strength) bonus, and deals 1d8 + 4 damage (1d8 base, +4 from full Strengh bonus).

Fighter B's full attack would look like this:

Attack #1 is the Bite. It is made at a +10 (+6 from BAB, +4 from Strength) bonus, and deals 1d6 + 4 damage (1d6 base, +4 from full Strength bonus).

Attack #2 is one of the Claws. It is made at a +5 (+6 from BAB, +4 from Strength, -5 from the penalty) bonus, and deals 1d4 + 2 damage (1d4 base, +2 from ½ Strength bonus).

Attack #3 is the other Claw. It is made at a +5 (+6 from BAB, +4 from Strength, -5 from the penalty) bonus, and deals 1d4 + 2 damage (1d4 base, +2 from ½ Strength bonus).

Attack #4 is the Tail attack. It is made at a +5 (+6 from BAB, +4 from Strength, -5 from the penalty) bonus, and deals 1d6 + 2 damage (1d6 base, +2 from ½ Strength bonus).

Again, it doesn't matter how many natural weapons Fighter B has; if he has literally a million claws, then as a full-round action he could make an attack with each one. You can use all the Natural Weapons you're equipped with in a full attack.

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As mentioned above, you can also use Natural Weapons in a grapple. While you're grappled, you can attack with a Natural Weapon at a -4 penalty. Strangely, according to the rules you can kinda-sorta break the "You can't make iterative attacks with a Natural Weapon" rule, thanks to this line on the rules on grappling:

"If your base attack bonus allows you multiple attacks, you can attempt one of these actions in place of each of your attacks, but at successively lower base attack bonuses."

And attacking someone with a Natural Weapon while in a grapple counts as "one of these actions".

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One last thing about Natural Weapons; you can mix them up with normal weapon melee attacks. As long as the melee weapon and the natural weapons don't get in each other's way, you can use all of them in a full attack. If you do mix normal weapon attacks and natural attacks like this, however, ALL Natural Weapons automatically become Secondary Natural weapons and therefore take the usual penalties (-5 to attack, ½ Strength bonus to damage, etc.)

For example, if you have a longsword and a Bite attack, then as a full attack you could make as many longsword attacks as you normally could, then follow that up with a Bite (with the Bite being a Secondary Natural Weapon).

If, however, you have a longsword and a Claw attack, but that Claw is holding the longsword, then you can't use that Claw to attack at all until that Claw becomes unoccupied.

(A side effect of this is that Monks go very well with Natural Attacks, because it specifies that Monk Unarmed Attacks can use knees, elbows, etc. instead of just hands...so if you're a Monk with Claws, then you could, say, knee everyone in the face as your Unarmed Attacks and then follow that up with Claws in a full attack.)

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That's all for now. Sorry if this is all a bit convoluted--again, Natural Weapon rules work differently in odd ways compared to normal weapon attack rules. Tune in next time for the Totemist writeup!

Class Articles: Incarnum 101

 Alright everyone, before we start exploring the Totemist class I think I should explain what the heck Incarnum is about. The Dragonfire Adept mostly used mechanics that more or less were already existing in the other books, but Incarnum mechanics are pretty unique and will need a little explanation before we can fully discuss the Totemist.

What is Incarnum?

Magic of Incarnum is a D&D 3.5 book published somewhat later in 3.5's life cycle. Long story short, the system is largely based on giving yourself various 24-hour buffs and abilities that take up item slots. It also introduces 3 new classes: the Incarnate, the Totemist, and the Soulborn. These three classes are referred to as the meldshaper classes.

There are 3 major elements to Incarnum mechanics: Soulmelds, Essentia, and Chakra.

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Soulmelds

Soulmelds are supposed to be physical objects created out of soul energy, aka Incarnum. The operative verb for Soulmelds is shape. You cast spells, you initiate maneuvers, and you manifest psionic powers; likewise, you shape Soulmelds. You gain the effect of the Soulmeld when you shape it to your body, and you have to shape a Soulmeld to an item slot in your body to gain the effect (so you can shape a certain Soulmeld to, say, your hands and gain its effect). Soulmelds typically give you piddly bonuses to things; the Worg Pelt Soulmeld, for example, grants you a +2 Competence bonus to Hide and Move Silently.

The maximum number of Soulmelds you can have shaped on your body is either your Constitution score minus 10, or a specific number set by your class, whichever is lower. A level 5 Totemist, for example, can't shape more than 4 Soulmelds at a time. If his Constitution score is also 13, that max number of Soulmelds decreases to 3 (13-10 = 3).

The way you shape Soulmelds is very similar to the way Wizards prepare spells every day. To shape Soulmelds, you need 8 hours of rest followed by 1 hour of meditation, during which you shape all of your Soulmelds at once. You can unshape Soulmelds any time, but to shape a Soulmeld again you need to rest again for 8 hours.

The nice thing about Soulmelds is that, if you take even a single level in a meldshaping class, you automatically know every single Soulmeld that's on that class's list. So if you take 1 level of Totemist, you know all the Totemist Soulmelds, and can start shaping them right away.

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Essentia

Essentia is supposed to be a creature's personal store of Incarnum that in can use to boost the effects of Soulmelds. The operative verb for Essentia is invest, and your Essentia resource as a whole is referred to as your Essentia Pool. Certain races start off with one or more points of Essentia in their Essentia Pool. Investing Essentia into a Soulmeld buffs the effects of the Soulmeld in some way; for example, each point of Essentia that you invest into the Worg Pelt Soulmeld increases the Hide/Move Silently bonuses by 2. So, a character with Worg Pelt shaped on him and has 1 point of Essentia invested into it has a total of +4 competence bonus to his Hide and Move Silently checks.

As a caveat, the amount of Essentia you can invest into given thing (usually Soulmelds, but there are certain feats and spells you can invest Essentia into) is limited by your class levels. From levels 1 to 5, the maximum amount of Essentia you can put into a Soulmeld or whatever is 1; from 6 to 11 the max is 2, from 12 to 17 the max is 3, and from 18 to 20 the max is 4.

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Chakra

Chakra are specific locations on the body that happen to correspond to a character's item slots. Here is a list of the item slots in the game, and the chakra that corresponds to it:

Head slot; Crown chakra (helms, hats, phylacteries, headbands, etc.)

Feet slot; Feet chakra (boots)

Hands slot; Hand chakra (gloves, gauntlets, but NOT rings)

Arms slot; Arm chakra (bracers, bracelets)

Eyes slot; Brow chakra (goggles, glasses)

Shoulders slot; Shoulders chakra (cloaks, mantles)

Neck slot; Throat chakra (necklaces, amulets, periapts)

Wait slot; Waist chakra (belts)

Torso slot 1; Heart chakra (vests, shirts)

Torso slot 2; Soul chakra (robes, armor)

Whenever you shape a Soulmeld, you MUST shape it to a chakra. You can't have more than one Soulmeld shaped on a given chakra.

The operative verb for chakra is bind. When you shape a Soulmeld to a chakra, you can also bind it to that Chakra if you're at high enough of a level. Once you bind a Soulmeld to a chakra, you can't wear magic items on that chakra/body slot unless you take a certain feat. As an example, if you shape Worg Pelt to your feet, and also bind it to your feet chakra, you can't wear magic boots until you unbind the Soulmeld.

Binding Soulmelds to chakras typically gives you some kind of ability comparable to one a magic item might give you. Binding Worg Pelt to your feet, for example, increases your base land speed by 5 feet. When you invest Essentia into a Soulmeld that's bound to a chakra, you boost both the basic effects of the Soulmeld and the extra effect you get from binding the Soulmeld to the chakra. Using the Worg Pelt example again, if you invest one point of Essentia into a Worg Pelt bound to your feet chakra, you get...

+4 Competence bonus to your Hide and Move Silently checks (+2 from the Soulmeld, +2 from the Essentia)

+10 feet to your base land speed (+5 from binding it to your feet, +5 from the Essentia)

For a taste of what is to come, here are some of the cooler abilities that binding Soulmelds to chakras will give you as a Totemist:

Free, unlimited Dimension Door-style teleports

Lots and lots of claws and bites

Breath weapons

Flight

Shoot manticore spikes at enemies

Become Ethereal

Telepathy

Putting it all together

So, to reiterate...

You shape Soulmelds to an item slot to gain an effect

You bind Soulmelds to a chakra to gain additional effects

You invest Essentia into a Soulmeld to boost all of the above effects

There is a maximum number of Soulmelds you can shape, which is dictated by how many levels you have in a particular meldshaper class.

There is a maximum amount of Essentia you can invest into a single Soulmeld or Feat, which is dictated by your character level.

More chakras become available for binding as you go higher up in levels in a meldshaper class.

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Now we're ready to start looking at the Totemist!