Skeleton -3 claw attack bonus

[Oliaran]

Hello, I'm new to the forums and basically a noob to Pathfinders with only 4 sessions of GMing and playing a character under my belt. I've been gathering a list a creatures to fight for my upcoming encounters. I like to understand all the stats, so when it comes time to create my own I'm knowledgeable enough to do it without issues.

I've come across one problem that I can't figure out. The basic Human Skeleton has a -3 attack bonus for claw and +2 attack bonus for 2 claws.(see link)

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/monsters/skeleton.html#_skeleton

My question is why one(1)claw has a -3 attack bonus and what stats add up or subtract to -3 attack bonus for one(1)claw.

Thanks Oliaran

[ericthecleric]

Because it attacks with a broken scimitar and a claw, OR it can attack with two claws.
When a creature uses a manufactured weapon, its natural attacks become secondary natural attacks, and apply a -5 attack penalty (although if the creature qualifies for and has the feat Multiattack, the -5 reduces to -2).
Does that help?

Edit: Hawktitan, you're right. Had a brain fart.

[Hawktitan]

+2 Str
-5 for using a natural weapon alongside a manufactured weapon
Total -3

And yes, using two claws is generally a 'better' option than using a scimitar with a claw in this case.

ericthecleric wrote:

Because it attacks with a broken scimitar and a claw, OR it can attack with two claws.

When a creature uses a manufactured weapon, its natural attacks become secondary natural attacks, and apply a -5 attack penalty (although if the creature qualifies for and has the feat Multiweapon Attack, the -5 reduces to -2).
Does that help?

You mean multiattack.

Multiattack and multiweapon fighting are not the same.

[Oliaran]

WOW!! Thanks for the help and quick response. I wasn't absolutely sure the broken scimitar had an effect on the claw or not. Reading it over again it does say

Melee broken scimitar +0 (1d6), claw –3 (1d4+1) or 2 claws +2 (1d4+2)

key word being OR. I'll make sure to keep an eye out for that in the future when creating or adding creatures to my list of encounters.

Thanks again!!!