Full-attacking with multiple natural attacks from a single limb.

[Benn Roe]

Question: If a limb has multiple natural attacks associated with it, does it get to use each of those attacks during a full attack or does it have to choose between them?

Between templates, spells, traits, feats, etc., it's possible to get multiple natural attacks each associated with a single limb (for instance, two claws and two slams on a creature with two arms). There's some rules text in the Bestiary listing on natural weapons that says you can't use a claw attack if you're holding a weapon with that hand, which implies that you also wouldn't be able to double-dip claw and slam. What about gore and bite? Talon and hoof? Or is that rule unique to combining natural and manufactured weapons? After all, it's possible to attack more than once with a single manufactured weapon during a full-attack.

[wraithstrike]

Gore and Bite might be possible, but the others are not going to work.
Manufactured weapons do not work like natural attacks. One works off of your iterative attacks, and the other is based on how many natural attacks that you actually possess.

[Bob Bob Bob]

You need a limb and a natural attack on that limb (body part) to get extra natural attacks.

Natural Attacks wrote:

Instead, you receive additional attack rolls for multiple limb and body parts capable of making the attack (as noted by the race or ability that grants the attacks).

[Xah Doom]

"Gore and Bite might be possible, but the others are not going to work."

Gargoyles can Bite and Gore as part of a full attack.

[Avoron]

Slams are not necessarily tied to a certain limb.

[graystone]

Avoron wrote:

Slams are not necessarily tied to a certain limb.

True, a Gelatinous Cube manages a slam without any limbs.

[Avoron]

Precisely. See also: other oozes, plant creatures, animated objects, elementals, darkmantles, dolphins, elephants, and mimics.

It is interesting that the marilith has 6 slams, but that's almost certainly just for flavor. I certainly can't find any sort of general rule about it.

[wraithstrike]

Avoron wrote:

Precisely. See also: other oozes, plant creatures, animated objects, elementals, darkmantles, dolphins, elephants, and mimics.

It is interesting that the marilith has 6 slams, but that's almost certainly just for flavor. I certainly can't find any sort of general rule about it.

This game has many unwritten rules also, which I don't really care for, but I have figured a few of them out. If you check the monster manual the devs have not given a monster a slam and claw on the same limb as an example. There are others also.

[Avoron]

Yeah, upon closer examination, "you lose slams to make other arm attacks" is probably the case in general. Here's what I found:

"Creatures with natural attacks and attacks made with weapons can use both as part of a full attack action (although often a creature must forgo one natural attack for each weapon clutched in that limb, be it a claw, tentacle, or slam)."

Emphasis mine. How I would probably interpret that is this: creatures that are generally humanoid in shape cannot make a number of slam attacks in a round greater than the number of arms otherwise unused for attacks, barring unusual circumstances.

So the specific application of the idea would be this question:
Could an Ape Shaman druid that gets slam attacks from Totem Transformation declare those attacks to be made without the use of arms, like oozes, animated objects, or aquatic creatures make slam attacks?

What do you think?

[Benn Roe]

I think this could use a FAQ entry. It's pretty unclear. My basic assumptions are more or less the same as yours, but when things are more complicated than a single Bestiary entry there's no definitive answer I can find. Take, for instance, a high level treant oracle that casts divine vessel (fiendish aspect), gaining two claw attacks. Do those overlap with the 2 slams that almost certainly were intended to be made with its arms, or does it now have four attacks? I would assume they overlap, but I'd like to know for sure.