Natural weapons Base attack bonus and Armour check penalty.

[LucasB]

Hey folks trying to figure something out here and I'm sorry if it's right in front of me.

I'm wondering if I have a beast that has 2 natural claw attacks with a -1 armour check penalty because he does not know how to use it. Do you still apply it too natural claw attacks?

Thanks guys.

[WagnerSika]

Yes, armor check penalty for being nonproficient is applied to all your attack rolls.

[Khudzlin]

Creatures with natural attacks are usually proficient with them, though. Does anyone have a counterexample?

[Jader7777]

Basically, when you take a penalty it applies to all attacks which includes all forms of attack rolls such as natural attacks, weapon attacks, ranged attacks, spell touch attacks etc

For example, if you fall prone you take a -4 to your attacks. This term 'attack' gets thrown around a lot and it includes pretty much every single d20 roll you make against an enemy when you try to hit their Armour Class (AC), their Touch AC or their Combat Maneuver Defence (CMD)

Reading the Armour Check Penalty rules

Quote:

Nonproficient with Armor Worn: A character who wears armor and/or uses a shield with which he is not proficient takes the armor's (and/or shield's) armor check penalty on attack rolls as well as on all Dex- and Str-based ability and skill checks. The penalty for non-proficiency with armor stacks with the penalty for shields.

So if you wear a chain shirt you'd be getting a -2 penalty. If you pick up the feat Light Armour Proficiency then you avoid this penalty.

Alternatively, the highest armour you can wear without suffering a penalty is Leather. Check out the table to see what armour you might be able to benefit from.

Press Ctrl+F and search for "Table: Armor and Shields"

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/coreRulebook/equipment.html

[Khudzlin]

Ah, I see what I got wrong. It's armor proficiency that counts, not weapon proficiency.