1) If I am a Druid with 13 Dex and I have the Greater Grapple feat, what happens if I wild shape into a large animal and get a -2 penalty to Dex? Does that mean I can no longer benefit from the Greater Grapple feat until I change back to a regular Druid, since I no longer satisfy the prerequisites?
2) If I wild shape into a Behemoth Hippo and I have Improved Natural Attack (bite) and Vital Strike as feats, plus I have cast Animal Growth and Strong Jaw on myself, exactly how many dice would I roll? Normally the hippo's bite attack is 4d8, so using the progression from the Improved Natural Attack page, that would be boosted to 6d8 thanks to that feat. Then Animal Growth would turn this Hippo from Huge into Gargantuan, thus turning each 1d8 into 2d6 according to this table. So now we're up to 12d6. Strong Jaw then says to count yourself two additional sizes larger for the purposes of computing the damage dealt, but since we're already Gargantuan, the total damage is doubled instead. Before that though, Vital Strike doubles the number of dice we roll.
So to summarize, the way I see it is as follows: I would roll 24d6, then add my Strength modifier, and finally I would double the total damage dealt thanks to Strong Jaw. Is that correct?
[b]3) Do I have to make a full-round attack to get 150% STR bonus instead of the usual 100% when attacking as an animal with just 1 natural weapon? (Such as the Behemoth Hippo from question 2.) Or would I also get that increased bonus on a standard attack?
Thanks so much for answering these. I may think of more questions later but I'll just add them then :)
I don't have time to answer to all questions, but...
1) Yes, anytime you don't satisfy the prerequisites for something, you can't use it until you meet them again (unless it's specified that you don't need to satisfy the prerequisites for it, such as Monks' bonus feats and others).
For number 2, I'd suggest looking at the sidebar on this page.
And for number 3 I think you get it on a Standard Action.
EDIT: Or better yet, have the actual FAQ it references
1) If I am a Druid with 13 Dex and I have the Greater Grapple feat, what happens if I wild shape into a large animal and get a -2 penalty to Dex? Does that mean I can no longer benefit from the Greater Grapple feat until I change back to a regular Druid, since I no longer satisfy the prerequisites?
Correct.
2) If I wild shape into a Behemoth Hippo and I have Improved Natural Attack (bite) and Vital Strike as feats, plus I have cast Animal Growth and Strong Jaw on myself, exactly how many dice would I roll?
I'm a lil buzzed to figure out the exact dice, but you can have 1 actual size increase, and one virtual size increase.
Your type is not animal. So you cannot animal growth yourself.
You are polymorphed, you cannot gain any other size increases while polymorphed (see polymorph in the magic chapter)
If you have a way around that (goliath druid?) Your actual "make yourself bigger" ability would stack with the strongjaw (virual +2 size bonus) which would not stack with improved natural attack (a virtual size increase) with strongjaw off improved natural attack would stack with your actual make yourself bigger ability.
Vital strike is irrelevant, it doubles the dice not the size. But yes, hungy hungry hippo druid is one of the few places where vital strike helps a lot.
[b]3) Do I have to make a full-round attack to get 150% STR bonus instead of the usual 100% when attacking as an animal with just 1 natural weapon? (Such as the Behemoth Hippo from question 2.) Or would I also get that increased bonus on a standard attack?
Nope. And you've hit on why two handed weapons are better than two weapon fighting.
we have no life.
I thought penalties didn't actually reduce the ability score. Or am I misremembering that rule/FAQ?
I thought penalties didn't actually reduce the ability score. Or am I misremembering that rule/FAQ?
Spells that apply penalties to ability scores don't actually reduce them. Things that damage/drain or modify them do, however.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I thought penalties didn't actually reduce the ability score. Or am I misremembering that rule/FAQ?Spells that apply penalties to ability scores don't actually reduce them. Things that damage/drain or modify them do, however.
Not quite true. Only ability drain actually reduces your ability score. An ability penalty or ability damage doesn't reduce your score at all, it just gives penalties.
Diseases, poisons, spells, and other abilities can all deal damage directly to your ability scores. This damage does not actually reduce an ability, but it does apply a penalty to the skills and statistics that are based on that ability.
Some spells and abilities cause you to take an ability penalty for a limited amount of time. While in effect, these penalties function just like ability damage, but they cannot cause you to fall unconscious or die. In essence, penalties cannot decrease your ability score to less than 1.
Ability Drain: Ability drain actually reduces the relevant ability score. Modify all skills and statistics related to that ability. This might cause you to lose skill points, hit points, and other bonuses. Ability drain can be healed through the use of spells such as restoration.
So the -2 Dexterity penalty won't reduce your score, and won't cause you to lose access to the Greater Grapple feat.
Yeah, I asked this about TWF and enlarged and was told that I had TWF since my dex was high enough and just that I had a dex penalty.
Incidentally, the Blight Caller (the boss of Nature's Scourge) from Villain Codex is using several of the options from question 2 (the ones BNW identified as being legal), so it could be a good place to look to double check the math.
Thanks Jeraa. That was what I read, too. But I couldn't remember if a FAQ had come out tweaking things (like the temporary bonus one).