Natural Attacks Can Turn Your Pathfinder Character Into a Monster

The party has battled its way through the blighted forest, scaled the cliffs of the blackened reach, and now finds themselves in the den of Flame Breaker, the ancient red wyrm. The adventurers manage to survive the great beast's breath, but those who rush in foolishly find that the dragon has other, more personal weapons at its disposal. After two claws, two wings, a bite, and a tail slap, those members of the party who aren't dead are going to spend the rest of the round ducking for cover and trying to heal.

Should have brought your A-game, my tiny morsels.

While the sheer array of natural attacks a dragon can rain down on a party is impressive, it's far from the only monster in the manual that gets so many powerful strikes. What a lot of players either don't know, or totally forget about, though, is that natural attacks aren't a toy reserved for the DM. You can add them to your character, as well, and often to truly devastating effect.

What Are Natural Attacks (And How Do They Work)?

Since we're crossing into territory a lot of players never enter, let's begin at the beginning. A natural attack is when a creature has some variety of natural weapon they can attack with. This might be a bite attack for a wolf, or a slam attack for a golem, a gore for a minotaur, you get the idea. All the different types of natural attacks, and their damage by size, are listed in the Universal Monster Rules.

With me so far? Good.

There are also two types of natural attack; a primary, and a secondary. A primary natural attack is made with the creature's full base attack bonus, ability modifiers, feats, bonuses, etc. just like a regular attack would be, and it adds the creature's full strength modifier to damage. If a creature only has one natural attack, it is considered a primary attack, and it adds 1 1/2 times its strength modifier to damage. A secondary attack is made with the creature's base attack bonus -5, and only adds 1/2 the creature's strength modifier to damage.

So bite is good?

Some of you are probably nodding along, but you're not sure where this is going. Sure, getting to add 1 1/2 your strength on a bite attack is great, but your bite only does 1d4 points of damage, and you could swing a greatsword to much bigger effect.

Remember the dragon example above? All creatures with multiple natural attacks get to take all of them as part of a full-attack action. No matter what level you are.

Time For Some Examples

All righty, let's reach for some low-hanging fruit. Let's say you're playing a 2nd level alchemist, and you take the feral mutagen discovery. This grants you a bite attack that deals 1d8 damage, and 2 claw attacks that deal 1d6 damage when you imbibe your mutagen. All of these attacks are listed as primary attacks. So, even though you're only level 2, you can claw, claw, bite as a full-attack action, with each attack getting your full bonuses, tearing someone to shreds like Lon Chaney on crystal meth. Not only that, but natural attacks can be modified by feats like Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, Power Attack, etc.

But wait, there's more!

You're probably thinking sure, natural attacks sound pretty cool for lower-level stuff, but once I get a magic weapon they just aren't going to keep up. Hold onto your hats, folks, because you don't have to choose between your iterative attacks (the ones with weapons we're all so familiar with) and your natural attacks.

You see, you can choose to make a full-attack action using both your iterative attacks, and your natural weapons. The only catch is that, when you do this, all your natural attacks are considered secondary attacks.

How does that work? Well, let's say you're playing a level 2 barbarian with the Lesser Fiend Totem Rage Power. This means that, when you Rage, you grow a pair of horns, and gain a gore attack with them. But, because you raided a sweet dungeon, you also have a flaming greatax. No problem! First, you take your regular attack with the greatax, adding your full BAB, bonuses, etc. Then you take your attack with your horns. They're now a secondary attack, instead of a primary, so you subtract 5 from your total.

There is a caveat here, though. You cannot make natural attacks with a limb that is holding a weapon. So, the alchemist we mentioned earlier could swing a mace, then take a bite, and a claw attack, both as secondary attacks, if he wanted to, but he can't make two claw attacks because one of his hands is holding his bludgeoner. Make sense?

Of course, this can get really crazy when you start playing a brawler or a monk, and your character has several natural attacks as well. A brawler with a bite attack and two claws, for example, could declare his iterative attacks are kicking his enemies, and then he could take his three natural attacks, albeit as secondary attacks, to become a whirlwind of death. Or when you have a tiefling who's a two-weapon fighter, who also gets a gore attack, and two hoofs because of his goatish inheritance.

The Limitations of Natural Attacks

Before you get too excited, putting together a half-human, half-beast death machine, it's important to remember that natural attacks have limits in what they can do. For example, lots of spells that grant weapon bonuses do not grant those bonuses to natural attacks. When you buy magical enhancements, you'll need to get an amulet of mighty fists in order to add magic to your strikes. Additionally, you may need to eat up several feat slots taking things like eldritch claws or improved natural attack and multiattack (the latter two are found in the Bestiary under "Monster Feats") in order to make sure your attacks keep pace with the monsters you're fighting.

Whatever they happen to be.

It is important to remember, though, your natural attacks aren't something that can be disarmed, and you always have them with you. Also, they benefit from class features like favored enemy, smite, and sneak attack the same way any other weapon would. So if using a lot of natural attacks is something you want to do (especially in conjunction with two-weapon fighting to get all the attacks in), you might want to see how you can turn your body into a weapon.

Some Ways You Can Get Natural Attacks

For those of you who've read this far who are wondering how to make natural attacks a part of your character, there are a lot of ways you can acquire them. Here are just a few of the more common ones you won't have to beg your DM for too hard.

- Rage Powers: Powers like the lesser fiend totem, beast totem, and animal fury grant you natural attacks while raging (gore, claws, and bite respectively). It's also worth noting that the greater beast totem grants you pounce, which could be a nightmare for anyone caught at the end of your charge attack.

- Mutagen: The feral mutagen mentioned in the example above is another great way to get a full bevy of natural attacks. If you're planning on taking levels of Master Chymist, it also allows you to hit harder, and hurt more, with those natural attacks.

- Class Features: Several sorcerer bloodlines grant natural attacks for a certain period of time at lower levels. Draconic sorcerers, or those who take levels in Dragon Disciple, will gain claws and a bite for a certain amount of time during the day. Druids who use their wild shape will gain the natural attacks of the creatures they become. Rangers can choose to take the natural weapon fighting style, which doesn't grant natural attacks itself, but it does give you access to feats which do, like Aspect of The Beast.

- Racial Features: This is where most natural attacks come from, because to have them all the time you've got to be born with them. Races that gain natural attacks, or have the option to gain natural attacks include orcs and half-orcs (bite), catfolk (claws), tieflings (variety of natural attacks, with racial feats), skinwalkers (bite, claws, or gore, typically), Tengu (bite, and sometimes others), and goblins (bite). There are other available races that get, or can get, natural attacks, but these are some of the more common ones.

- Magic Items: Though not common, there are some magic items that grant natural attacks. The Demon Hand, in particular, grants you a natural claw attack that's one size category bigger than you. The only requirement is that you have to replace your hand with a demon hand. This was one of my favorites mentioned in Replacing Lost Limbs With Magical Prosthetics in Pathfinder.

- Feats: There are a lot of feats that grant natural attacks to certain races or classes. Aspect of the Beast lets druids gain natural attacks, while Razortusk gives orcs and half-orcs a bite attack if they swapped out the racial feature.

For those who've been missing my long-winded crunch lists, hopefully this week gave you plenty to chew over. If you'd like to help support Improved Initiative, then why not drop by The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a patron today? For as little as $1 a month, I  can keep the faucet open, and the flow coming straight to you. Also, if you haven't started stalking my updates yet, why not follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter?

The Best Two Weapon Fighter Build in Pathfinder

We all know fighters. Love them or hate them, every party needs to have at least one. They're the muscle and the grit, the steel and the protection that the rest of the party depends on to stand between them and the horrors lurking in forgotten forests and ancient ruins. While they come in a lot of different varieties, one of the most popular is the two weapon fighter. This week on Improved Initiative we present you with the "best" build for one of these whirlwinds of doom in Pathfinder.

'Nuff Said

What We Mean by Best

It needs to be understood right off the bat on this blog "best" does not mean "right". There is no one right way to build a character; there are simply more optimized ways to achieve a certain goal. In this case the goal is to build a fighter that gets the largest numbers of attacks possible, while maintaining an extremely high defense. That's the goal; defend yourself optimally while at the same time smashing down anything in your path. The reason I feel confident in calling this build the best is because it is the only way to be a two weapon fighter and to take no negatives for at least some of the attacks you make when fighting with two weapons.

Sword and Board: Why You Can't Beat the Classic

The classic fighter archetype is a warrior with a sword, a shield, and the best armor he or she is capable of wearing. That's where we're going to start out for our two weapon fighter. We're assuming for this build that you're a human, that you have strength as your primary attribute, and that it's at least 17 or higher. Dexterity is secondary, and will need to be at least a 17 by mid-levels. It will need to be a 19 if you intend on taking Greater Two Weapon Fighting (Core Rulebook 126).

Your first three feats (1st level, Human bonus, 1st Fighter feat) are:
- Improved Shield Bash (Core Rulebook 128)
- Two Weapon Fighting (Core Rulebook 136)
- Double Slice (Core Rulebook 122)

At this point your level one fighter is off and running. You can take a full attack with both weapons (I recommend a light shield, and if you're all right with doing piercing damage upgrade it to a light, spiked shield), and still keep the defensive bonus from your shield. You can do your full strength damage on both attacks.

For levels 2-5 you should have:

- Shield Focus (Core Rulebook 133)
- Missile Shield (Advanced Player's Guide)
- Weapon Focus Sword (Core Rulebook 136)
- Weapon Specialization Sword (Core Rulebook 137)

We're still building on the basics here, and these feats should be combined with Weapon Training in the Close group of weapons. This will ensure that even though you've taken feats to make your main weapon (sword is the place holder) more effective, you're still getting a bonus to hit and damage with your shield too. In addition to becoming deadlier you've increased your armor class, and you can negate one ranged weapon hit per round. As per the rules in Ultimate Combat, this applies to bullets as well as to arrows, crossbow bolts, sling stones, etc.

For levels 6-10 take:

- Shield Slam (Core Rulebook 133)
- Disruptive (Core Rulebook 122)
- Improved Two Weapon Fighting (Core Rulebook 128)
- Weapon Focus Shield (Core Rulebook 136)
- Spellbreaker (Core Rulebook 134)

Level 10 is where the big parts of the build start coming together. At this point you have two attacks with your secondary weapon, you're posing a bigger threat to spellcasters, you get a free bull rush attack when you hit with your shield, and you're hitting a lot better with your shield (hint, take the Focus for heavy steel shield. Trust me). You should also have gotten to the point where you can take full movement in any armor, and where you've taken a second weapon training group for your main weapon. You're a pretty deadly combatant at this point. The next few levels is the icing on the cake, though.

Level 11- 13:

- Shield Master (Core Rulebook 133)
- Ray Shield (Advanced Player's Guide)
- Two Weapon Rend (Core Rulebook 136)

These three feats are the end game. Shield Master allows you to use any magical enhancement on your shield for attack and damage as well as defense, and you take no negative on any attacks with that shield (for those who want to be Captain America). You have the ability to deflect a magical ray attack with your shield as if it were an arrow, and if you hit with both weapons then you get to do additional damage as you rend your enemies asunder. Who needs whirlwind attack with that?

Notes and Recommendations

This build is meant to balance offense and defense in such a way that the two weapon fighter is protected from physical attacks, and gets as many attacks of his or her own as possible. That said if your goals vary then tweaking the feat list presented here isn't just a good idea, but a necessity.

Also important to note; not all of these feats need to be taken in this order. Many of the higher-level feats have prerequisites, but for many of the feats on this list all you need is a certain level of fighter. So if you'd rather take one feat before another, or swap out a feat that isn't an important part of the chain for something different (Power Attack comes to mind. Or perhaps Improved Bull Rush if you want to make Shield Slam as effective as possible) then that's also perfectly acceptable. The list is here to help you build a better tank; if something here doesn't do what you want, then feel free to change it up.

On the subject of weapons; high crit weapons are your friend. Bastard swords, scimitars, anything that can have keen put on it and give you a better chance of hitting vitals. You aren't likely to do a stunning amount of damage on any single hit; if you hit often and hit hard though, it won't matter unless you fail to overcome the enemy's damage reduction.

Lastly, remember there's a counter to everything. The two weapon fighter is deadly in a brawl or one-on-one with another big brute. This build even has a few tricks for protection against arrows and ray spells. If you simply cannot reach the enemy though, or if that enemy is a great deal more mobile than you are, then you might find yourself getting frustrated. Tanglefoot bags are a great alchemical weapon for holding enemies in place, or at least dropping their move speeds. What I'm saying is always keep an ace up your sleeve; just because you're the best there is at what you do, that doesn't mean the DM will let you steamroll every fight be serving it up on a silver platter.

Closing

I hope you enjoyed this little piece of Improved Initiative. Tell your family, tell your friends, and make your DM (or your players, I don't care if you put this on a villain) cry. If you're interested in following my updates then check out my author page on Facebook or follow me on Tumblr. If you'd prefer to check out the darker side of the literary world, hop over to my other blog The Literary Mercenary. In closing thanks for stopping by, thanks for reading, and if you want to see more like this then remember that we sort of run on advertising and high traffic around here. Check out the rest of the Crunch page for more articles like this one.