My post title pretty much says it all? If a druid turns into a crocodile can she or he ever get the death roll attack or powerful charge of other animals?
The rules says special attacks are determined by spell based off of the various Beast Shape spells. However death roll and powerful charge are not listed?
Is that an oversight or are they left out on purpose? It seems random that on BS2 you get pounce and rake and BS3 gives you trample and web, but powerful charge and death roll are NEVER an option.
I don't get it...
Raw no. I don't think it was left out by intent, i think its just that they didn't re write the spell for every single cool ability they wanted to tack onto a critter.
Ask your DM though. Its no worse than pounce.
Creative Director
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My post title pretty much says it all? If a druid turns into a crocodile can she or he ever get the death roll attack or powerful charge of other animals?
The rules says special attacks are determined by spell based off of the various Beast Shape spells. However death roll and powerful charge are not listed?
Is that an oversight or are they left out on purpose? It seems random that on BS2 you get pounce and rake and BS3 gives you trample and web, but powerful charge and death roll are NEVER an option.
I don't get it...
We added the death roll to the crocodile during the final round of development on the Bestiary, and at that point, we were already done with the Core Rulebook, so adding death roll to the "legal" abilities for beast shape spells wasn't an option. And since any new animal abilities we add in Bestairy 2, or Bestiary 3, or Pathfinder Adventure Paths, or whatever else we decide to stat up a new animal in is equally not possible to add to the Core Rulebook... I'm okay with that.
The Beast Shape spells already give a LOT of options—continuing to add options as we invent new animal attacks bloats the spell and causes option paralysis when you cast it. What abilities are and aren't available in the rules as written isn't random as much as it is simply the options we had on the table when the spell was finalized in print.
THAT SAID.
If your GM is cool with you being able to utilize something like death roll with a crocodile you change into via beast shape... that's perfectly fine.
That makes sense. Thank you very much for your quick response!
Wildshape is already huge. Our Druid and his animal companion both have Pounce and hand out damage like parade candy; there is a teamwork feat in Ultimate Combat that I know I'm going to have to rule on that allows them to charge as an immediate action when another character charges. Let's just say I'm hesitant to allow two of our primary damage-dealers effectively two Full Attack actions.
My point is, the ability is already incredible. Pathfinder has made a good choice by limiting Wildshape; 3.5 made a huge mistake allowing it to be open-ended, because it meant that every monstrous feature published in a Monster Manual could end up in the hands of a player, and there are some powers that are appropriate for antagonizing PCs but should never end up in their hands. The 3.5 Chronotrym, for example, which actually did allow a Druid two full turns.