I come to you broken hearted. I was going through the rules, preparing my character plans for tomorrow night, and I am now very sad.
All discussions I have found seem to suggest that I can't do a weapons damage with a combat maneuver, yet I do not find this in the rules. What I do find is them asking me to do a melee attack at +8.
I have to say, if I make a melee attack with a weapon at +8, by the gods, I expect to do damage. I see no place in the rules where it states that weapon attacks deal no damage.
If I have, for arguments sake, a Large 13th level Dragonkin (StarShaman3/Solarian10), with a tail mounted Xenolash Whip (5d4) , a dimensional gland to grow to Huge, and have casted Carnivorous for a Gargantuan Bite Attack for 2d8, am I to believe that I cannot Whip Trip them, doing damage and making them entangled and prone?
Nor can I grapple them with my 2d8 bite attack, essentially CHEWING THEM FOR 2D8 WITH EVERY SUCCESSFULL GRAPPLE?
From the way it reads grapple can't be done with anything but a spare hand? Can I not grapple with a rope attack, whip attack, chain attack, even a net attack? If these all count as entangle attacks, then do I entangle with my bite? Do I still get no damage?
Please help me. Clearly, what I want to do is grotesquely awesome. My GM for some reason has unleashed me on the FORGOTTEN CITY OF ISTAMAK, and all I want to do is give them a warrior's honorable death by eating them alive in a way that would make Psycho Goreman proud.
If you could, please, just this once, agree that I should be able to do damage with weaponized combat maneuvers, since there is no other way of realizing the fantastic feats I wish to accomplish.
I wait patiently for your blessing so that I can show it to my GM as validation of my interpretations. Thank you for your time.