[Basic] Advantage of the Week (#25): Claws; Spines; Strikers; Teeth

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Toptomcat

Limb tendons, maybe not. Hand and foot tendons are pretty close to the surface, though.

But what is the bite going to actually do to the tendon, if it's not sharp enough to cut it?

As a practical matter, extremity tendons seem unnecessary (at least at this size) since you could just as well target the extremity joints, which obviously are susceptible to crushing.

[roguebfl]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

But what is the bite going to actually do to the tendon, if it's not sharp enough to cut it?

What are those teeth evolved to bite? stringing plants and branches. Blunt Crushing not only do a LOT of damage to tendons crippling from blunt force crushing [ouch] or tear them the but shredding them.

[dripton]

These are a bit different than some of the other X of the week in that they're mostly racial rather than individual advantages. I can't recall a player in a game I played saying that he picked race X because he wanted the Striker or Claws or Teeth. (Though that could certainly happen, especially in a game focused on unarmed combat.)

I've seen claws and teeth used, mostly by lizardfolk, but not a whole lot.

I've also seen a minotaur with his horns removed because he didn't want to pay for Striker. (If I were the GM I'd count that against the character's disadvantage limit.)

[Refplace]

too have typically seen these mostly as racial advantages, though a few Supers took claws or strikers. They are pretty cheap and claws really leverage multi limb people.
Natural Weaons from Pyramid 3/65 is better for Strikers IMHO.

[Bruno]

I don't really know why, but I love characters with natural attacks. Probably why I'm still a fan of Wolverine, despite thinking the character stinks of Mary Sue and bad soap opera drama.

I am notorious for playing characters with claws, teeth, strikers, etc in general at any chance I can get, and in DF for minotaurs in particular (although my Infernal had his share of natural weaponry - pointy teeth and hooves ftw).

My second DF minotaur was built after DF11 came out, and thus got the Longhorn package, which is extra Long strikers, plus Striking ST limited to your horns only. Ystava had melee weapons to leverage swing damage and damage types other than Imp (which doesn't work so well on golems and such) but he spent quite a bit of his time goring people.

Even Mrugnak, who had the default horns and thus no "special" damage or reach advantage with them beyond being SM +1, got quite a bit of use out of them.[1] They were a hands-free weapon, which meant that when he got his leg broken and was knocked to the ground, he still "charged" the Bloody Baron [2] from behind with a one-foot Step on all fours, catching him (and the GM) quite by surprise. I hit too!

In supers games, and other games where I'm given more-or-less free license to buy whatever advantages I want, I gravitate towards extra limbs, hyperspectral vision, discriminatory smell, and then every sort of natural sharp or pointy bit I can justify. And regeneration because now the character is an obligate melee scrapper. Depending, it might be an Alternate Form, the claws and fangs and strikers might be Switchable, or the character might just look like that all the time and has to deal with the fallout.

[1] There was an incident where I wore a goblin on my horns like a jaunty hat. Mrugnak really wasn't nice to goblins.

[2] Sort of a wight mummy boss monster thing.