Understanding the Attack Format

[TheQuietOne]

I am having trouble understanding the format for attacks in the monster manual, especially when I have to know how many attacks are in a full-attack action or in standard action.

It is fairly simple when there is only one number there, such as the Ghost with one corrupting touch +6 (I will ignore damage for know as I do understand that). However, what about the ghoul - bite +3 and 2 claws +3. Am I to understand that in a standard action a ghoul makes three attacks (bite/claw/claw at +3/+3/+3)? Or is that just a full-attack action. Or in a standard action it can make either one bite or two claw attacks or just one claw attack? And what about the Gibbering Mouther? On a full attack does it have 6 attacks at +7 each, with each success dealing 1d4 plus a chance to grab? Then if it manages to use its blood drain ability, is that 1d4+1 Con damage for each mouth?

It is also easy to understand when the manual has an or statement in it, such as the Giants where they have a weapon or a natural attack so you pick either one for your attack (or mix them if you can figure out the rules for that). And what about ones that have a comma between the attacks, such as a dragon.

I guess my confusion comes from the following types of listings:

(Number) Natural Attack - 2 claws

Natural Attack, Natural Attack - bite, claw

Natural Attack And Natural Attack - Bite and tail slap

[Scipion del Ferro]

Under almost all circumstances, during a standard action you can only make one attack. If there are multiple attacks listed you can choose which one the creature uses.

For your ghoul it would make all three attacks only during a full-attack action. During a standard action it could either bite or claw once. Commas, and "and" denote attacks that can all be made during a full-attack. Only attacks separated by "or" must be made differently.

[Mojorat]

When looking at Natural attacks you need to keep a few things in Mind.

one the monster Base Attack (fairly straight forward)

Two Of the Attacks Listend Are they Primary Attacks or Secondary Attacks

Three Claws are usualy listed in groups of Two.

For the Secondary Attacks they are at -5

So a creature with 18 str and Claw Claw (primary) and bite (secondary) and a base attack of +6 will be

+10 claw, +10 claw, +5 Bite

Lastly the Secondary attack will be at half sttrength. so our Mythical Monster will be something llike this for damage

1d8 +4 for the class and 1d6 +2 for the bite

i hope this helps.

[TheQuietOne]

Somewhat, although it doesn't really answer the question of whether the Gibbering Mouther (and similar creatures) that have a number then the type of natural attack means that they have that many attacks in a full-attack action.

So that would be 6 bites +7/+7/+7/+7/+7/+7 (1d4 plus grab).

I guess my complaint that there seems to be some inconsistencies with how the attacks are written down and could not find anywhere that states that a number in front of a natural attack means that the creature gets that many of those type of attacks. I see no reason why it can't look the same as a manufactured weapons attack pattern.

Also, sometimes when a creature is using two weapons, they don't include a stat for using just one, like in a single attack. An example is the Dark Stalker, which has two short swords so it is presented as +6/+6. If you only wanted to make one attack, you would have to know that it had Two Weapon Fighting and thus adjust his attack to +8 instead of +11.

Now you could argue that "obviously if a creature uses two weapons then it would naturally have Two Weapon Fighting", but when I am trying to run a game, especially if I have to refer to the book during the battle (maybe in a random encounter) I want to easily know what I numbers I need to use. I don't want to have to convert a lot of basic things on the fly.

Now I do understand that you can't put every thing in the stat blocks and that you do need to understand the creature to use its special abilities and exceptions.

What I would like to see is that natural weapons are presented in the same format as manufactured weapons and that if making one attack with a weapon is fundamentally different, (which means that you don't just have to take the first number in the set for a single attack versus a full attack) that it is presented as such in the monster's description.