Is this custom feat balanced?

[TremorFang]

Hello,

I've been really wanting to play a character that specializes in natural attacks. My current DM is cool with custom things as long as they are balanced and of course presented to him.

So, I wanted to check with experienced players and DMs to see if it is balanced enough and if not, what I would need to do to balance it.

FEAT

Tooth & Nail

Whether through a curse, experimentation or lineage, you've grown strong, sharp claws and teeth.

Prerequisites: Must be taken at first level, STR 15

Benefit: You gain 2 claw attacks as well as 1 bite attack. These attacks are considered primary attacks. You are considered proficient with natural attacks. These natural attacks deal 1d4 (for medium creatures).


Well, there it is. I apologize if my wording is incorrect and yes I realize that you can get natural attacks through being a druid or barbarian, however I would much prefer them as something that can more easily be added to a fighter or even a rogue. If this looks balanced, great; if not, perhaps I rip apart tooth and nail respectively into 2 separate natural attack giving feats. One for biting and one for clawing.

Anyways, please tell me what you think and if it can be approved, thanks.

 

[milo]

Check out the feat Razortusk in the APG and Aspect of the Beast. Just going by that it is hard to say that this is balanced. Razortusk gives you one natural attack(bite) for a specific race(half-orc) at D4. Aspect of the Beast lets you gain claw attacks with if you have Wild Shape. So a half-orc Druid could gain this same thing with two feats at 4th level.

If you rip it apart into two feats I would leave tooth and nail as is, except drop the damage down to D3(normal unarmed damage), and maybe the bite to a secondary attack.

Improved Tooth and Nail
Over time through use and practice you have improved your ability to use your natural attacks.
Pre:Tooth and Nail

Benefit: Improve the damage on your claw and bite attacks to D4. Your bite attack becomes a primary natural attack.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Well, for reference, there's the Feral Mutagen discovery, which also gives claws and a bite attack, all primary, for the Alchemist. They do more damage (slightly) than this feat, but can't be gained till level 2 or higher and only works while the mutagen is in effect, which isn't much at low levels.

Despite the very favorable comparison...Eidolons (and Synthesist Summoners) can have 3 natural attacks and pounce right at level 1, so your feat can't be considered overpowered without first declaring Summoner to be utterly broken.

 

[TremorFang]

Well, seeing that these synthesist summoners have Eidolons that can do such things, I guess I will take the feat as is to my DM and see what he thinks. If he turns it down, then I'll ask him about splitting it into 2 different feats.

If the latter is the case, I will most likely use your Improved Tooth & Nail milo, again if he allows that. Thanks for all of the info everyone.

 

[Castarr4]

Getting a full attack of 3 attacks at full BAB at level 1 is kinda OP for a rogue. I'd say two is definitely worth a feat, since simply having two claws at full BAB is better than dual-wielding. It would balance out later when you aren't able to make iterative attacks with your natural attacks. At that point I'd say you should be able to get more feats (at about the same time you'd normally be picking up Improved TWF and Greater TWF) to get additional natural attacks (bite, gore, maybe 2 rakes)... about one feat every 5 levels.

Pointing to the summoner's eidolon isn't quite fair, since the eidolon loses out on things such as sneak attack and rogue talents or fighter bonus feats and specializations. In general, they keep the eidolon's max natural attacks fairly in line with how many attacks per round a monk could pull off with flurry.

 

[milo]

Despite the very favorable comparison...Eidolons (and Synthesist Summoners) can have 3 natural attacks and pounce right at level 1, so your feat can't be considered overpowered without first declaring Summoner to be utterly broken.

I was trying to balance the OP feat to other feats. Class abilities or racial abilities are completely different. Would a feat that gives someone the ability to channel energy as a 1st level cleric that was available at lvl 1 be too powerful? Probably, but that doesn't mean that Cleric as a class is broken.

 

[TremorFang]

[MENTION=72380]Castarr4[/MENTION] You make some good points. This may be a touch off of topic, but I was thinking about making an entire custom class out of a pure natural attacker. That way I could balance the natural attacks a bit better and probably separate the claws and the bite at different levels. Probably 1st and the other at 3rd or 4th.

Problem is, I have so many ideas for custom classes (since my DM will allow them if they are balanced), not to mention that I am often unsure if what I create is balanced enough or not.

Anyways, thanks for your input.