Understanding natural attacks in 2e


Advice


I was just looking at the lizardfolk ancestry and saw that they have some nice natural weapon unarmed strikes available through ancestry feats. But I'm having trouble understanding why you would want them in 2e. In 1e, because natural weapons followed a different model than the iterative weapon model, you could build a character around the idea of having multiple natural attacks. But in 2e, what are the advantages of a) natural weapons over manufactured weapons and b) having more than one natural weapon?

The only advantages I can see are:

1) Natural attacks are always available - no need to spend actions to draw them and available even in undercover type scenarios where you might have had to stow your manufactured weapons.

2) Natural attacks offer different damage types, so that you can easily switch if you run into something with DR.

And the major disadvantage:

3) They don't actually count as "weapons" which presumably means all sorts of party buffs etc won't apply.

What am I missing? I like the look of the Lizardfolk feats and am contemplating a Fighter or a Monk, but mechanically I can't quite see why it would make sense to spend the feats on their various natural attacks rather than just wield a Fighter's greatsword or use the Monk's own innate unarmed strikes.


For monks you can get other damage types for DR (which you mentioned), feats like Envenom Fangs or Shed Tail later on, and most notably if you take Sharp Fangs you get a d8 unarmed attack without spending class feats leaving more room to pick up non-stance feats while still having a better damage die. It isn't good for fighters (who rely heavily on weapons for their class feats).

Also, it might not be that many party buffs that unarmed attacks miss out on. A lot of spells that care about you using weapons rather than unarmed attacks are relevant only to the caster (stuff like Weapon Surge or Righteous Might) and not buffs they can hand to allies. And a lot of the big buffs (like heroism or inspire courage or haste) don't care about manufactured weapons. There are a couple of buffs you might miss out on, but not too many.


More Advantages:
Free hands. Compared to gauntlets, most natural attacks do more damage if interested in this style. Having free hands lets you do all the combat maneuvers, pull & use items w/o shifting weapons, climb as needed, cast 3-action spells, et al. A lot of utility available, though one should likely have a high-damage weapon option too.

Monk's Flurry. While Stances are better (but cost a feat) and a Monk already gets a punch similar to claws, natural attacks can give more damage options. Not bad for those waiting for the 8th level Stances or who want to load up on other low-level feats first.

Weapon swapping. Much easier to swap to a natural attack, i.e. archers in the middle of enemies w/ AoOs. Drawing a weapon provokes (!), so natural attacks have a good advantage in this uncommon situation.

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Animal Barbarians (or straight Monks) have much stronger natural attacks. The Lizardfolk options are sub-par, though have some niche uses as mentioned above.

There typically won't be "all sorts of party buffs" that apply only to weapons. Most offensive buffs work on all attacks.
Where you will find issues is with Fighter, who has many feats that only work with weapons (as do some other classes).

If going for bread & butter attack & damage, I'd avoid building around a Lizardfolk's natural weapons. You can get several of the same "have a free hand" advantages by using a bastard sword. But if any of those other advantages above appeal to you, maybe the feat's worth it. Maybe.

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