[RPG] How does Beast Strike interact with a monk with natural attacks

combatdnd-3.5efeats

Let's suppose we have a monk with two claw attacks.
This character can make a full attack with iterative unarmed strikes using his head, knees, elbows and feet and ears and as long as he does not use his hands he can still make two secondary claw attacks.

Now, this monk takes Beast Strike, the feat from Dragon Magazine.

RAW, nothing says he can't add his claw damage to unarmed strikes made with elbows, buttocks or bellybutton (yeah, the monk class might be weak but it's also cinematically awesome).
So one could add the claw damage to every attack and then still make the two claw attacks?
Or is it like attacking with a weapon, when since you're using your claws to deal damage you can't use them as a natural weapon?

Best Answer

No one knows

The Beast Strike feat is poorly written. A good idea, but poorly written. Nothing says he actually uses his claws, and as you say, a Monk can make Unarmed Strike attacks without using his hands, which usually leaves hands free for Claw attacks. My guess would be that whoever wrote the feat, however, was completely unaware of this fact.

RAW, you can use the Claw attack(s) as secondary weapons in a full-attack after all normal attacks (provided you haven’t used your hands, which a Monk need not do), and a Flurry of Blows is explicitly a form of full-attack. This seems pretty likely unintended, but nothing can really be said with absolute certainty.

I probably wouldn’t allow it. I’d sooner fix or replace the Monk class than try to “throw him a bone” by allowing weird results from a poorly-written feat.