|
A PC of mine is using an air elemental.
It has Melee: 2 Slams +14 (1d8+4)
It is Large.
20 feet away is an enemy.
Using Flyby, the player is arguing he can move, attack with 2 slams, and fly away.
He also says if he was next to him, he could attack, move away, move back and attack again.
I perused this forum and saw unanimous decisions that flyby acts like ride by attack.
Also, we need to check the monster listing, the melee section.
It says Melee 2 Slams +14 (1d8+4)
I am saying and have been that this means the air has 2 attacks which are slams which each do 1d8+4. He says the slams are one attack in and of themselves which do 1d8+4.
Clarification please?
It has two attacks, both of which are slams that have a +14 bonus to hit and deal 1d8+4 damage on a hit. To use both slam attacks, the air elemental needs to use a full-round attack.
Fly-by Attack grants a single standard action. Due to this, it may make a single attack with a bonus of +14 and on a hit, it deals 1d8+4 damage.
It cannot make a full-attack during fly-by attack.
The player is correct in saying that it can move in, attack, and fly away, as long as that doesn't surpass the limit of a single movement (100 feet).
Attacking, then flying away to fly back and attack again is not right, but Cheapy is correct in saying that it can simply full attack in order to slam twice.
To be fair though, Flyby attack does have some odd wording.
When a creature has a number like 2 Slams, 2 Claws and so on, then the # denotes the number of individual attacks it can perform. Each attack would require its own attack roll, and would grants the listed damage. You can typically attack once as a Standard action, though you could use both attacks during a Full Attack.
If there is not a number, then it's generally one attack. For example, the Deinonychus has "2 talons, bite, foreclaws". There is no '2 foreclaws', so both foreclaws make up one attack. No, your Druid cannot gain five attacks by turning into this particular creature.
[Okay, now that I'm looking at things a little bit I'm not finding that many situations where this happens. I thought there were more situations where a creature had a wing buffet attack, but all I'm finding are actually 2 Wing attacks. So maybe the Deinonychus is unique with this phrasing.]