Inherent Bonuses and Polymorph/Wild Shape; Or, Druid Wildshape Smackdown!

[youspoonybard]

!!!!!

Giant Constrictor Snakes are SNA V.

Just summon up a few of those, Animal Growth, game over.

They don't have the +5 inherent or the +6 enhancement, but using Augment Summoning, you can give them a +4 enhancement to strength.

As an 7th level spell, you could get up to 5 of them roaming around. Animal Growthed. Gargantuan.
-----------------------------------------------
Actually, reviewing this, the summoned ones aren't AS good. They only have BAB +8, so only 2 attacks a round, and it's possible for fighter types to get out. But still.

 

[Spatula]

Forgot about the wilding clasps.

I have to agree with Hypersmurf, the intention of the Improved Grab passage doesn't seem (to me) to allow you to cause damage every time you participate in and win an opposed grapple check, just those checks that you yourself start. There's nothing in the grapple rules, either, that indicates you can damage your opponent with opposed grapple checks, outside of certain specific grapple actions initiated by yourself.

On the damage front, the snake gets bite & constrict damage (more than normal thanks to the size increase of course), but no unarmed damage on top of that:

Improved Grab ... A successful hold does not deal any extra damage unless the creature also has the constrict special attack. If the creature does not constrict, each successful grapple check it makes during successive rounds automatically deals the damage indicated for the attack that established the hold. Otherwise, it deals constriction damage as well (the amount is given in the creature? descriptive text).

The attack that established the hold was the bite.

 

[DM_Matt]

Why not something even stronger/more powerfu, like a dinosaur? That 40k item that lets you wildshape as if you were 4 levels higher might be needed there, but you can be stronger and have more abilities that way.

 

[youspoonybard]

Snakes have both Improved Grab and constrict.

 

[Iku Rex]

Wildling Clasps...

You can't put a wildling clasp on just any item. IIRC it only works on the "vest, vestment, or shirt" category. (Strictly by the rules, that is.)

 

[youspoonybard]

1) You can always make a custom shirt/vest/amulet of Str +6.

2) The scary thing is, those items aren't essential. The main point of the belt is to add Wis to AC, as well as increasing the damage a little. Most of the +6 str can be covered by a simple casting of Bull's Strength (+4).

 

[Dwarmaj]

I asked the question about Inherent bonuses and wild shaping almost a year ago. Everyone I talked to said that the Inherent bonuses are an instantaneous enhancement to your ability score. As such, they don't carry over when wildshaped or polymorphed.

For the shifter I play, I've had my character read 3 books so far. One to increase his Con in his base form, one to increase his Dex and Str in Planetar form. It gets expensive, but if you only use a few forms for combat, it's worth it.

 

[avatarolt]

Or you could just sit around the grove for a little and add the [Wild] enchantment to all that garbage.

 

[Iku Rex]

Everyone I talked to said that the Inherent bonuses are an instantaneous enhancement to your ability score.

Like who? I have a feeling that you didn't talk to too many people...

(Because I've participated in several such threads and I've never seen any sort of consensus beyond, possibly, that the letter of the rules allow you to keep inherent bonuses in a new form.)

 

[Hypersmurf]

I asked the question about Inherent bonuses and wild shaping almost a year ago. Everyone I talked to said that the Inherent bonuses are an instantaneous enhancement to your ability score. As such, they don't carry over when wildshaped or polymorphed.

Then why don't they stack? Why can't you use a Wish to increase your Str by +1, and then a year later, use another Wish to increase it by +1 again?

What happens if you polymorph and then Wish for an inherent bonus, before polymorphing back to your natural form?

Inherent bonuses are a named bonus, just like an enhancement bonus. If you cast Bull's Strength and polymorph into an ogre, you're an ogre with a +4 enhancement bonus to Str. If you wish for an inherent bonus to Dexterity and wildshape into a duck, you're a duck with an inherent bonus to Dexterity.

-Hyp.