Hey all, haven't used this in a while and I need to ask another question:
So in a game I'm playing in, one of the players is doing a high damage Rogue Catfolk build.
My friends plan is to get the feat called Catfolk Exemplar(Which makes you qualify for the aspect of the beast trait. He planned to take the increased damage die claws((D6)))
But here's the weird part... He says when he'll take aspect of the beast he'll get another pair of claws. And he said he can do this is as having claws on his feet. And GM allowed him to take improved natural weapon.
So eventually he'll just be doing 4 sneak attacks a round and can have DEX into damage. I'm personally skeptical of the whole build but I wanna know what you guys think.
It is time for our Handy...Dandy.....NOPE:
Official Rules Response on the matter
Basically, for bipeds, talons go on their feet. And almost nothing grants talons (except animal shape, of course). They are not interchangable with claw attacks. The only way to get claw attacks on your feet is with rake (and hey- that is also hard to get as well).
Things work differently for quadrupeds and the like, but that doesn't affect you.
So, in the end, he gets as many claw attacks as he has fully functional arms.
Now, lets talk about your friend's actual options according to the rules. Claw blades were designed to overcome the obvious limitation of claws. They basically give a masterwork like bonus to a claw (at a masterwork cost), and they can be enhanced. They also turn the claw into a light slashing weapon...which means it gets iteratives and can be used for TWF.
Claw blades go very much out of their way to alter your claws, yet still have teh name 'claw' attacked to the attack (rather than simply making the claw blades themselves into weapons). Why? Because claw pounce allows you to attack with your 'claws'. It does not require that the claws have to be natural attacks.
Your friend could also use feral combat training in order to get their claws used in flurry of blows and allow a similar effect...but the claw blades are much, much simpler.
SIDENOTE- for my bile curiosity and my spite filled urge to douse certain threads in acidic bile, I must ask- was this catfolk also raised by half orcs and taught the fine art of growing dagger sized tusks out of her face? 9/10 of the time, it is half orc raised catfolk.
Tell him to play a synthesist summoner and start growing extra limbs. Then it would work. Except for the sneak attack. Maybe after getting enough evolution points to pull off the claws he could multi-class into ninja?
Tell him to play a primal companion hunter. Your animal companion gets eidolon evos...unless it 'conveniently' dies, in which case you can use the evos on yourself for minutes/level.
It is a synthesist that has been watered down and balanced. None of that silly nonsense about double sets of hp, replacement of abilities scores, etc. And it doesn't even get enough uses out of the ability to break dungeons outside of battle (at least, not until higher levels where there are minutes to spare...and even then, there are spells that the part could use by then for similar effects)
Hell, if he was using eidolon rules, he actually could put claws on his feet. The eidolon rules are a mess since they had to be written to account for both quadruped and biped base forms...and even for bipeds that became quadrupeds with extra leg evos. Balancing that with actually trying to make it half way readable means that they had to gloss over explaining the details, and as such the eidolon rules just said 'sure, put claws on your feet, but only 1 pair'. Balance versus making basis monster designs (like a simple tiger).
Best option would be to use aspect of the beast for something else that is cool and use one claw blade and one normal claw.
He gets his full attacks from BAB with the claw blade and an additional secondary claw attack in addition to that.