Daniel Heistand's page

How would the resistance 5 to negative energy damage from the Aasimar alternate racial trait "Deathless Spirit" interact with the Str damage from a shadow's touch attack?

The 1d6 Str damage that the shadow's touch does is a negative energy effect, and it is called damage. I couldn't find anywhere in the Energy Resistance rules where it specifies hit point damage. It just says damage.

Am I reading it correctly that even with levels of Monk, a Druid in Wild Shape would not benefit from the Horn of the Criosphinx feat? How about if the Druid took Feral Combat Training for the natural attacks used in that Wild Shape?

I've been considering rolling a Feral Gnasher, and I've been researching the grapple rules. There's a previous thread from last year talking about this, but I have a possible quibble.

The previous thread talked about combining part of the Animal Fury rage power to get additional damage when grappling. The consensus at the time was (at higher level, combining Animal Fury, Improved & Greater Grapple, and Rapid Grappling:

Attack -> if hits, free grapple check
Grapple successful -> use Greater Grapple to maintain as a move action
Attempting to maintain -> use Animal Fury to get free bite attack
Successful maintain -> choose to do damage instead of move or pin
Rapid Grappling -> Swift action to maintain grapple
Attempting to maintain -> use Animal Fury to get free bite attack
Successful maintain -> choose to do damage instead of move or pin

This would get a combined 5 damage rolls. The following round would get another since the grapple is already started.

I think this is all wrong.

With Feral Gnasher, at level 3 you get Lockjaw.
From the PRD:
Lockjaw (Ex): At 3rd level, a feral gnasher gains the grab ability with her bite attack. A feral gnasher can use this ability on a creature up to one size category larger than she is. This replaces trap sense +1.

At level 6 you get:
Improved Lockjaw (Ex): At 6th level, as long as a feral gnasher is controlling the grapple with her lockjaw attack, she does not gain the grappled condition, but is unable to move or use her mouth for anything other than grappling. This ability replaces trap sense +2.

And the relevant part from Animal Fury:
Animal Fury: A barbarian can make a bite attack as part of the action to maintain or break free from a grapple. This attack is resolved before the grapple check is made. If the bite attack hits, any grapple checks made by the barbarian against the target this round are at a +2 bonus.

This is why I think it's wrong.

From Improved Lockjaw you get this text: unable to use her mouth for anything other than grappling. Wouldn't the free attack from Animal Fury be negated by this wording?

Now, I think you can get exactly the same thing, but using the Grab ability that the level 3 Lockjaw gives your bite attack:

From Grab in the PRD, the relevant part:
Grab (Ex) If the creature does not constrict, each successful grapple check it makes during successive rounds automatically deals the damage indicated for the attack that established the hold.

Attack -> if hits, free grapple check
Grapple successful -> use Greater Grapple to maintain as a move action
Attempting to maintain -> Grab ability automatically gives free damage
Successful maintain -> choose to do damage instead of move or pin
Rapid Grappling -> Swift action to maintain grapple
Attempting to maintain -> Grab ability automatically gives free damage
Successful maintain -> choose to do damage instead of move or pin

Comments?