Attacks in Stat Blocks

[pawsplay]

Something I've noticed: Pathfinder stat blocks seem to frequently lack separate lines for full attacks and standard attacks. Example: The pregen fighter is statted only using either his longbow or both his longsword and shortsword. What if he only attacks with his shortsword?

I noticed this when writing up the Manscorpion. It's full attack is considerably different than a standard action. Is there a standard format for this? I can't find an example in the preview material, either.

 

[James Jacobs]

This is mostly due to an attempt to streamline stat blocks and excise unnecessary, or redundant, information. When a creature in Pathfinder RPG makes a standard attack, he just makes one attack with the weapon of his choice, be that a sword or a claw or a bite or whatever.

For manufactured weapons, you just use the first attack value listed if there's multiple attacks available due to a high Base Attack Bonus.

For natural weapons, you just roll the listed value for whatever attack you want. Since in the Pathfinder RPG the difference between a primary and a secondary attack has more to do with the type of natural weapon and nothing to do with where and when that attack happens during a full attack action, these attack values don't change if they're used as a standard attack or as part of a full attack.

The only case really where this gets a little complicated is in the case of creatures that use two manufactured weapons at once, since if they attack with just one of those weapons, they lose the standard –2 penalty for dual-wielding. In that case, it's more or less up to the GM to remember to account for that. Not a perfect solution, but dual-wielding is rare enough in stat blocks compared to all other attack types that we felt it was worth losing the usually repetitive space-hog of listing a separate standard attack line for every monster.

 

[pawsplay]

The only case really where this gets a little complicated is in the case of creatures that use two manufactured weapons at once, since if they attack with just one of those weapons, they lose the standard –2 penalty for dual-wielding. In that case, it's more or less up to the GM to remember to account for that. Not a perfect solution, but dual-wielding is rare enough in stat blocks compared to all other attack types that we felt it was worth losing the usually repetitive space-hog of listing a separate standard attack line for every monster.

Right. I just noticed it because I was working on a creature that used a manufactured weapon with a secondary sting... the sting is unaffected, but the weapon attack is not. To look up how to do it, I examined the pregen characters, and discovered your fighter didn't have a listing. So let me make the suggestion that in the case of dual-wielders only, a separate melee line be added for a one weapon attack (heck, you could list all the iteratives and you would gain the same benefits, plus it would be handy for situations where the penalty to hit was undesirable).

On a similar note... where does Rapid Shot or Power Attack go? Calculate on the fly?

 

[James Jacobs]

On a similar note... where does Rapid Shot or Power Attack go? Calculate on the fly?

For new monster stat blocks, I usually don't bother listing the Rapid Shot or Power Attack variations, since those are tactics that are best used depending on a lot of different assumptions about the battlefield that a new monster entry cannot predict, and for our one-page formats, listing those extra lines of text is a waste. For adventures, though, where tactics are more important (and where one or two extra lines in a stat block aren't going to disrupt an entire layout), I think I'll be settling on something like this:

Ranged longbow +4 (1d8/x3) or
Rapid Shot longbow +2/+2 (1d8/x3)

OR

Melee greatsword +4 (2d6+4/19–20) or
Power Attack greatsword +3 (2d6+7/19–20)

But indenting the second line, of course—my messageboard-fu fails at indents.