Animal Companions, Standard Action: Attack, and Grapple

[Adam Ormond]

I have a few questions related to the Druid and its Animal Companion.

1) Do the rules state how many tricks the AC should start with? I know it has a limit of INT*3 + Bonus Tricks, and it has to start with at least the Bonus Trick, but I can't find any indication that it should start with any others.

2) A Tiger is listed as having bite (d6), 2 claws (1d4) for attacks. What can a Tiger use for a standard action? Is this explained anywhere explicitly? The GM is treating each claw as a separate attack, which makes the bite the only logical choice when choosing between bite, claw, or claw. I would think the 2 claws are a single attack, but I'd need documentation to support that.

3) When grappling, a character has the option to Damage, which allows you to inflict damage from a natural attack. I imagine this is related to the answer for question 2.

4) How does rake work? It states the creature gains 2 claw attacks. Are these rolled like normal attacks against the grappled opponent when you choose to Damage? Or is this intended to be automatic damage? Can these additional attacks be used if you choose to do something other than Damage (e.g. Pin)?

[AvalonXQ]

2) As a standard action, you can make any one natural attack. The two claws are two natural attacks; you can attack with all three natural attacks as a full action only.
3) If you use the damage option when maintaining a grapple, you can deal the damage from ONE natural attack as normal.
4) The rake attacks are free; you get them in addition to any other action you take in the grapple. Note that the attacks are at -2 but your grappled opponent has a -4 to Dex, so that ends up cancelling out.

[Adam Ormond]

AvalonXQ wrote:

2) As a standard action, you can make any one natural attack. The two claws are two natural attacks; you can attack with all three natural attacks as a full action only.

3) If you use the damage option when maintaining a grapple, you can deal the damage from ONE natural attack as normal.
4) The rake attacks are free; you get them in addition to any other action you take in the grapple. Note that the attacks are at -2 but your grappled opponent has a -4 to Dex, so that ends up cancelling out.

Ah, thanks. So we are currently doing 2 and 3 correctly. I didn't realize the rake attacks were at -2. Is that because they're "secondary" attacks? So when the AC gets multiattack, that penalty disappears? Or is something else causing the -2?

[AvalonXQ]

The -2 is because the tiger has the "grappled" condition. Bite and claw attacks are both primary attacks.

[AvalonXQ]

To demonstrate how this all goes down, let's have a tiger eat an orc warrior (both from the Bestiary). We'll give the orc 200 HP so it doesn't die until we're done. I'll do average damage, and everyone's going to roll 10 on every die roll.
The tiger starts 20 feet away from the orc and wins intiative.
The tiger charges (+2 attack, -2 AC), moving to a square adjacent the orc. Because the tiger has the "pounce" ability, he now gets five attacks: 2 claws at +12 doing 1d8+6 plus grab, 1 bite at +11 doing 2d6+6 plus grab, and 2 rake attacks at +12 with the claws doing 1d8+6. All against the orc's flat-footed AC of 13.
The tiger hits AC 22 with the first claw, doing 10 damage and initiating a grapple as a free action (thanks to grab). It gets a grapple check of 27 against a CMD of 14, so the grapple is established. Since both the tiger and the orc are now grappled, the tiger's additional attacks take -2, but the orc's dex also drops by 4 points so its AC is now 11.
So the grappled tiger hits with the rest of his attacks, doing another 43 damage, and the orc is grappled.
On the orc's turn, he attempts to reverse the grapple. His check of 14 (no attack penalty on grapple checks, just everything else) fails against the tiger's CMD of 19 (remember the tiger has the -2 to AC from charging and the -4 to Dex as well, which reduces CMD by 4 total). Having failed to reverse the grapple, the orc doesn't have anything productive to do with his move action and ends his turn.
On the tiger's turn, he uses the standard action to maintain the grapple (check of 30 vs. CMD of 12) and pin the orc. Having succeeded, he can now make his two rake attacks at +8 against the pinned orc, whose AC is now 9. The attacks hit for another 20 damage.
The orc is now pinned, which makes him vulnerable to sneak attack and very easy to hit at AC 9. His only option is to beat the tiger's CMD of 19 (note that since the tiger effectively has an 11 Dex, the fact that it's lost its Dex bonus to AC doesn't change its CMD, but the tiger is now also vulnerable to sneak attack) to break free.
I hope my math was right and the example was useful.