Monsters and Feats

[Man-thing]

Hi everyone,

When do monsters gain feats?

I know they get 1 + HD/3 feats but "when" do they get them.

Let's say I make a 2 HD creature (1 +2/3 = 1 feat) do I check his prequisites against his 2 HD statistics? or what his 1 HD statistics would have been.

 

[demiurge1138]

What his 1 HD statistics would have been. Monsters get feats in 3.5 the same way that characters do.

Incidentally, this has caused quite a bit of eratta for the MM, since all of its low-HD animals have Weapon Finesse which many of them don't actually qualify for.

Demiurge out.

 

[Man-thing]

Thanks Demiurge.

This is what I thought. But I've been told repeatedly on the rules forum that I'm wrong so I wanted to come check out the more hard-core monster area for a second opinion. Incidentally, their is still much errata needed on this topic in the MM. (I was going through the animals as a self-training and this 2 HD monster with Weapon Finesse or Weapon Focus comes up quite a bit.)

At random:

Porpoise
Octopus
Wolf (just switching the bonus)

 

[BOZ]

a monster started with 1 feat at 1-HD, then gets a new one at 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27...

 

[Man-thing]

Thanks.

 

[Shade]

Also, a monster qualifies for epic feats at 21 HD.

Yeah, the Monster Manual errata addresses all the Weapon Finesse issues:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/er/20040125a

 

[Cheiromancer]

The animals in question (octopus, porpoise, wolf) are not mentioned in the errata. The animals listed under the weapon finesse bonus feat changes are all ones that have a +0 BAB; i.e. 1 HD animals.

The other animals appear to have been created at 2 HD, which is their base HD. They did not start at 1 HD, and get a feat, and then go to 2 HD. Their base HD is 2, they have +1 BAB, and they qualify for the weapon finesse feat.

 

[the Jester]

I believe there are several monsters that would have illegal feat progressions if they had to pick them at the 1, 3, 6... HD levels.

I might be wrong, though.

 

[Wolf72]

The animals in question (octopus, porpoise, wolf) are not mentioned in the errata. The animals listed under the weapon finesse bonus feat changes are all ones that have a +0 BAB; i.e. 1 HD animals.

The other animals appear to have been created at 2 HD, which is their base HD. They did not start at 1 HD, and get a feat, and then go to 2 HD. Their base HD is 2, they have +1 BAB, and they qualify for the weapon finesse feat.

that and you could reason that they took the feat but couldn't use it until their BAB was at least a +1.

 

[Man-thing]

that and you could reason that they took the feat but couldn't use it until their BAB was at least a +1.

An interesting idea but the PHB says:

Prerequisites: A minimum ability score, another feat or feats, a minimum base attack bonus, a minimum number of ranks in one of more skills, or a class level a character must have in order to acquire this feat.