Natural attacks and strength


Rules Questions


Just wondering how someone can tell if an animal with natural attacks gets normal strength, or 1 and 1/2 strength.

In particular a friend has a Roc as an animal companion and the Roc has power attack, so should it be a -2, +4 for its power attack or would it get +6 for str and a half?


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It depends on the creature, the attack, and if the attack is considered Primary or Secondary. See Bestiary pages 301-302.

The Roc for example has claw and bite attacks, both are considered Primary, and since it has more than one natural attack, they both get full attack bonuses and normal 1x Strength bonus to damage.

So for PA it would get +4 not +6

Liberty's Edge

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Yeah, basically what Manwolf said.

The thing is with Natural attack that you have three different possibilities.

1) If the creature is using a secondary natural attack, the attack is always made at -5 (in regard to full BAB) on the attack roll and it gets .5x strength mod (this is also true if you combine ANY natural attack with a full-attack with manufactured weapons). Power attack in this case would be -1 to hit for +1 damage.

2) The creature has more than 1 attack and they are primary (if secondary then see point 1). In this case all of the primary attacks would be made at full BAB with 1x Strength Mod. Power attack in this case would be at normal values (-1 to hit for +2 damage)

3) The creature has only one natural attack. The attack is made at full BAB using 1.5x Strength Mod (and would get -1 to hit for +3 damage on Power Attack).


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DinosaursOnIce wrote:

Yeah, basically what Manwolf said.

The thing is with Natural attack that you have three different possibilities.

1) If the creature is using a secondary natural attack, the attack is always made at -5 (in regard to full BAB) on the attack roll and it gets .5x strength mod (this is also true if you combine ANY natural attack with a full-attack with manufactured weapons). Power attack in this case would be -1 to hit for +1 damage.

2) The creature has more than 1 attack and they are primary (if secondary then see point 1). In this case all of the primary attacks would be made at full BAB with 1x Strength Mod. Power attack in this case would be at normal values (-1 to hit for +2 damage)

3) The creature has only one natural attack. The attack is made at full BAB using 1.5x Strength Mod (and would get -1 to hit for +3 damage on Power Attack).

And don't forget dragons are special and get 1.5x Strength for their bite even though they have all those other attacks. The Bestiary page references explain this, and show you the damage progressions for increases/decreases in size.

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