The Hidden Beast's Natural Attacks [RotR spoilers]

[Nearyn]

Spoiler:

In book 6 of Rise of the Runelords, the players may encounter the so-called Hidden Beast, a Vampiric Decapus sorcerer.

Its statblock states it may attack you with a bite attack, a tentacle attack, and a slam attack. Of these, only the slam applies the energy draining vampiric ability.

vampire wrote:

Energy Drain (Su): A creature hit by a vampire's slam (or other natural weapon) gains two negative levels. This ability only triggers once per round, regardless of the number of attacks a vampire makes.

Is the Hidden Beast supposed to drain energy with all its attacks, or only the slam attack?

-Nearyn

[Rikkan]

Well your quote says only a slam and only once per round.

But, if I look at the stats for the hidden beast, it has its own energy drain description that is different from your quote. (tentacle only in fact, but still only once per round)

[Trekkie90909]

This would be a case of specific text trumping a general monster ability feature. You're of course free to run things however you want.

[Tvarog]

According to the quoted ability text, it could apply to any of the creature's attacks. However, the effect only happens once per round (most likely on the first attack that lands).

So, yes, it can [use the effect with all its attacks], but it doesn't matter [because the effect only happsn once per round].