Good Class for natural attacks - I already have the attacks!


Advice


As the subject line says:

What's a good class for boosting the power of natural attacks?

NB! I'm not asking for to get those natural attacks - it's for a monster that needs that certain extra 'punch'.
I just want some nice synergy with existing natural attacks.


Any martial will do this fairly well. In particular I imagine Barbarian would be one of the more powerful choices, as rage is going to add hit and damage to all natural attacks. Fighters and Rangers would get feats that can enhance attacks.

If the creature is sneaky and/or works in teams Rogue could actually add quite a bit from sneak attack if you have a large number of attacks.

Grand Lodge

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Barbarian/bloodrager - Rage, Furious Amulet

Druid - Greater Magic Fang, Frostbite, Vine strike

Skald Totem warrior - Rage, Furious, Heroism.

Investigator - Study 1/2 level to attack and damage, mutagen, heroism

Oracle/Cleric - All cleric buffs

Raverer Hunter/Sanctified Slayer Inquisitor - Study Target, Bane(one weapon), inquisitor spells.

Battle Shaman Speaker For The Past- Greater Magic Fang, Divine Power, Bane (single weapon), Heroism, Spirit of the Warrior

Warpriest is amazing for this swift action cleric buffs.


Grandlounge wrote:

Barbarian/bloodrager - Rage, Furious Amulet

Druid - Greater Magic Fang, Frostbite, Vine strike

Skald Totem warrior - Rage, Furious, Heroism.

Investigator - Study 1/2 level to attack and damage, mutagen, heroism

Oracle/Cleric - All cleric buffs

Raverer Hunter/Sanctified Slayer Inquisitor - Study Target, Bane(one weapon), inquisitor spells.

Battle Shaman Speaker For The Past- Greater Magic Fang, Divine Power, Bane (single weapon), Heroism, Spirit of the Warrior

Warpriest is amazing for this swift action cleric buffs.

I would say Vivisectionist Alchemist For some of the same reasons as the Investigator but add in all the other discoveries out there. Like Tumor Familiar being extremely good. Combine Extract makes Buffing easy. Eternal Potion is an amazing thing to have. Greater Mutagen, preserve Organs, Wings, tentacle. Lots and lots of Options.


Depending on the campaign, the mummification discovery is either pretty good or amazing, such is in the RoW AP for "amazing".


Grandlounge wrote:

Barbarian/bloodrager - Rage, Furious Amulet

Druid - Greater Magic Fang, Frostbite, Vine strike

Skald Totem warrior - Rage, Furious, Heroism.

Investigator - Study 1/2 level to attack and damage, mutagen, heroism

Oracle/Cleric - All cleric buffs

Raverer Hunter/Sanctified Slayer Inquisitor - Study Target, Bane(one weapon), inquisitor spells.

Battle Shaman Speaker For The Past- Greater Magic Fang, Divine Power, Bane (single weapon), Heroism, Spirit of the Warrior

Warpriest is amazing for this swift action cleric buffs.

Fighter 5+ can do moderately well with weapon specialization (and a bunch of bonus feats to select them) and weapon training (natural).


Louise Bishop wrote:
Grandlounge wrote:

Barbarian/bloodrager - Rage, Furious Amulet

Druid - Greater Magic Fang, Frostbite, Vine strike

Skald Totem warrior - Rage, Furious, Heroism.

Investigator - Study 1/2 level to attack and damage, mutagen, heroism

Oracle/Cleric - All cleric buffs

Raverer Hunter/Sanctified Slayer Inquisitor - Study Target, Bane(one weapon), inquisitor spells.

Battle Shaman Speaker For The Past- Greater Magic Fang, Divine Power, Bane (single weapon), Heroism, Spirit of the Warrior

Warpriest is amazing for this swift action cleric buffs.

I would say Vivisectionist Alchemist For some of the same reasons as the Investigator but add in all the other discoveries out there. Like Tumor Familiar being extremely good. Combine Extract makes Buffing easy. Eternal Potion is an amazing thing to have. Greater Mutagen, preserve Organs, Wings, tentacle. Lots and lots of Options.

I agree with Louiss. Alchemist is a great choice. Almost all Alchemal Extracts are buffing, especially self buffing. In Addition, I'd like to mention the Alchemal Mutagen. Your Strength Mutagen will give all your Natural Attacks an effective +2 Attack and Damage. The +4 Strength Bonus is actually an Alchemal Bonus, which means it would stack with the +4 Enhancement Bonus granted by Bull Strength, another Alchemal Esctract.

Also, consider the Tentacle Discovery. It doesn't give you an extra attack per se: you use the weapon attack slot. But if you were to use your weapon attack slot for anything else, all your other Natural Attacks would be demoted from Primary to Secondary: -5 to attack, 1/2 ST Mod to damage. Since a Tentacle Attack is a Natural Attack, you can use it in addition to your other Natural Attacks without imposing any penalties on them.


Alchemist is potentially interesting but might not work well with the monster in question. I'll have to remember it for later though. Or perhaps a mutation warrior?

I think I'll have to stick with a martial this time though. No hands.


Consider Psychic Warrior (Feral Warrior Path, Brawling Path, or Gladiator Path). They get some pretty cool psionic powers as well, like Psionic Lion's Charge (full Attack after a Charge action). Expansion increases your size by +2. So you can be a Huge character with lots of natural attack options and combat maneuver bonuses ;) Natural Attack PsyWars are beastly :)

If you're also considering Natural Attack PrC, check out Shark Incarnate.

Dip U-Monk1 for flurry for some extra umph too ;)

Manifest the Powers "Bite of the Wolf" for an additional bite attack per round, "Claws of the Beast" to gain/augment your two natural attacks, "Metaphysical Claw" +X/pp enhancement bonus to natural weapon attacks, "Prevenom" to poison when you strike with nat weapons. Also, manifest "Vigor", "Share Pain" and "Inertial Armor" and "Force Screen" and share them all with your Psicrystal for a massive survivability boost, and if you really want to get creative with the Psicrystal, check out Psionics Augmented: Psicrystals and take a look at the Crystal Creature Superior Psicrystal Feat, and then also consider manifesting "Hammer" on you and your Psicrystal (in a crystalized Animal Form) and allow your Psicrystal to deliver touch attacks (Hammer).


How many class levels are you thinking of? If a few, probably want to go Barbarian.

If you have some breathing room - depending on the critter's backstory - in terms of class levels I'd suggest qualifying it for Horizon Walker 3rd level+, maybe sprinkling in 4 unchained rogue levels before then to ramp that favored terrain bonus up for the benefit of its terrain dominance.

A +8 favored class bonus becomes a +8 attack and damage bonus against 'creatures native to the terrain type'. Depending on the characters most should be sufficiently gankable by way of almost any terrain type. Tack on another bit of fun bonuses by way of sneak attack and a much larger pile of skill ranks... :)


Medium.

They get enough bonuses to attack and damage that they are basically hitting like a full BAB.

And they have two very attractive abilities when using the champion spirit: The first is an extra attack (hey, more damage!) and they have a different ability that basically gives them pounce (full round+swift action to move and attack).

Overall, it is a great combo of abilities to put on top of an already powerful creature. Maybe get a hurtful/cornugon smash combo so you can get an extra attack during normal full attacks.

And they are fairly easy to flavor if they only use the champion spirit- your creature is channeling the spirit of a great hero or mighty beast. As long as you just avoid the rest of the versatility stuff, you can make it fairly easy to tack this onto many melee focused characters.

Scarab Sages

If possible pick a class able to cast Strongjaw or be in a group where someone can cast it on you.

= Druid, Ranger, Hunter or possibly an archtype or domain of another class.


The Mad Comrade wrote:

How many class levels are you thinking of? If a few, probably want to go Barbarian.

Probably 2-3. Unless the party manages to dodge that encounter again. :-/


Something a bit off track but fun to play -

Transmutation Wizard (or any other arcane equivalent)

While not the best use for min/max, all powerful wizards. They do have a fun, playable place.

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