DM Jeff in Virginia's page

It says it hardens their nails and teeth too. Maybe harder teeth deliver more bite force?

Thanks, ToastedAmphibian. If the logic of what it says in all relevant parts of the Ultimate Combat book as to the feat matches up with the Benefits language, that would have to be the theory. But it's very strange. Bites do piercing damage and sharpening your teeth would make them do more bite/piercing damage but would tend to make them weaker at delivering bludgeoning damage because the teeth (or nails) would have less surface area to hit with if they're not breaking the opponent's skin.

Obviously, in the Kung Fu movies, there are fighters who harden their fists to deliver more bludgeoning damage but this feat's surrounding text doesn't read like that.

Re DR and the extra 2d6, I think it's clear that since that is "extra damage" it adds on to the second strike. To split the extra damage between strikes, it would need to say so explicitly. And it wouldn't make sense to add it to the first successful strike because to get the extra damage the monk has to hit twice. And it can't be stand-alone damage that a DR applies to separately because then it wouldn't say it's "extra damage."

Here's what this feat says. But the description seems to be contrary to the Benefit description. How does bludgeoning "rip your foes open"?

"Your sharp teeth and nails rip your foes open.

Prerequisites: Improved Unarmed Strike, Intimidate 3 ranks.

Benefit: You can deal bludgeoning damage or slashing damage with your unarmed strikes—changing damage type is a free action. While using this style, once per round when you hit a single foe with two or more unarmed strikes, you can tear flesh. When you do, you deal 2d6 extra points of damage with the attack."

Additionally, the lead in to this feat tree says the following:

"Boar Style: A tribe of orcs who disdained the use of weapons originally developed this savage unarmed fighting style. They preferred to slaughter their enemies with their bare hands and teeth. Over the centuries, a variety of races have adopted the Boar Style, most notably goblinoids, ogres, and trolls. The objective of the Boar Style is to attack with as much viciousness and cruelty as possible in order to break enemy morale. Fanatical followers of the style use herbal and alchemical reagents to harden their nails and teeth, sometimes performing self-mutilating procedures that result in clawlike nails and sharpened teeth. Feat Path: Boar Style, Boar Ferocity, Boar Shred."

"Clawlike nails and sharpened teeth" don't sound like they would cause additional bludgeoning damage.

So the question is, can a monk with this feat, switch as a free action between a bludgeoning attack that if the monk hits twice does an extra 2d6 damage and a slashing attack that if the monk hits twice also does an extra 2d6 damage. OR, can the monk only switch between a bludgeoning attack the feat does not apply to and a slashing attack that if it hits twice does the extra 2d6 damage.

We are trying to figure out if the Benefit language in the feat was poorly written and it meant to say something like this: "You can deal bludgeoning damage or slashing damage with your unarmed strikes—changing damage type is a free action. While using this style, once per round when you hit a single foe with two or more SLASHING unarmed strikes, you can tear flesh. When you do, you deal 2d6 extra points of damage with the attack."

OR did the rule authors really intend to allow up to an extra 2d6 bludgeoning damage with "Boar Style." It seems odd. The feat seems as if it's a kind of non-animal/monster equivalent of rending. Rending in a bludgeoning mode seems very odd.

Thanks for any help! Official Paizo help would be best.

I'm a long-time gamer going back to the early days of D&D and have spent virtually all of my time as a DM/GM. My career as a lawyer makes it difficult to plan ahead for events like GenCon. I have an opening on my summer schedule that lets me attend GenCon. But the problem is that badges are now sold out (except for Friday -- flying in and out for just one day seems excessive but if I could get a badge(s) for 2 or more days I would definitely jump at the chance).

So I'm wondering if Paizo can give or sell me 1 or 2 badges (would like to bring my 20 year-old son who's home from college if possible) in exchange for working as a GM on such events as the badge assigners may need. My son can do any odds jobs or table staffing needed as well.

Please let me know. jeff_dm_lorton@yahoo.com. Can send a phone number at Paizo's request.

I'm also familiar with AD&D (1E), 2E, 3.5E, and even 4E in a pinch if Paizo knows of any companies or event organizers with a need for GMs in those areas.

Thanks!

Respectfully, this sentence on page 553 of the Core book makes no sense:

"The cost to add additional abilities to an item is the same as if the item was not magical, less the value of the original item."

First of all, it's in the subjunctive so it should be "if the item were not magical." But that'a a quibble.

Second, and more importantly, if you follow that sentence literally, it would produce zero or another nonsense number. So let's say I want to upgrade a MW greatsword to be a +1 greatsword, I'm supposed to start with the cost of the item if it were not magical -- OK, that's 400 (350 MW + 50 for sword). Then I'm supposed to subtract from that the value of the original item. The value of the original item is also 400, so you get zero.

On the other hand -- the example of "Thus, a +1 longsword can be made into a +2 vorpal longsword, with the cost to create it being equal to that of a +2 vorpal sword minus the cost of a +1 longsword." -- makes perfect sense. But that's not what the text is instructing. Instead it should say something like this:

"The cost to add additional abilities to an item is found by taking the value of the item with the added ability(ies) and subtracting the value of the original item."

That would be a good fix for the next errata and printing of the book.

I'm Jeff, a longrunning DM running a game in Northern Virginia. We've lost some players to moves out of the DMV area. We range in age from late 20s to early 40s. Campaign will be plot-focused. We recently did a run in 4E D&D up to about 10th level. We're leaving 4E behind (didn't feel like D&D) and giving Pathfinder a try as we're all veterans of 3.5 (and before).

Shoot me a message if you'd be interested in joining. We get together weekends, usually Sunday nights.

I'm looking to either join an established group or to start a new one on Thursday evenings.

Since I work in Springfield and live in Baltimore, just about anywhere between DC and Baltimore is fine.

Ira, I'm Jeff. I run a longtime D&D game in Northern Virginia, very close to Springfield, VA. We are beginning a new Pathfinder campaign, set in Greyhawk very soon. Send me a response if you're interested.