Feats of Claw and Constriction
A little while ago I explained that certain monster tactics can be a little underwhelming, and that monsters, who tend to have more Hit Dice than CR, can sometimes end up with more feats than they know what to do with. Together, these two facts brought me to create some feats to make swallow whole a more effective and desirable combat tactic, and now I’d like to turn my attention to two more monster abilities: constrict, and rake.
The following three feats all relate to the constrict universal monster ability.
Debilitating Constriction [Monster]
When you constrict your victims, their bodies are pinned in place, making it difficult for them to resist you.
Prerequisites: Constrict.
Benefit: Whenever you successfully damage a creature with your constrict ability, for every 5 points of damage you inflict, the target suffers a -1 penalty on all checks made to escape or gain control of the grapple until the beginning of your next turn.
Sizable Constriction [Monster]
You are able to use your bulk to crush smaller creatures more effectively.
Prerequisites: Constrict, size Large or larger.
Benefit: Whenever you use your constrict ability on a creature that is one or more size categories smaller than you are, you deal an additional amount of damage to that creature equal to 5 points per size category larger than it you are (for example, a Large creature constricting a Medium creature would deal 5 additional points of damage, while a Huge creature constricting a Small creature would deal 15 additional points of damage).
Suffocating Constriction [Monster]
When you put the squeeze on your victims, they are unable to breathe, and quickly suffocate in your grip.
Prerequisites: Constrict.
Benefit: When you successfully constrict a creature, that creature becomes unable to breathe for as long as you remain in control of the grapple. The creature must hold his breath or begin to suffocate. Additionally, as you constrict, you squeeze the air out of your target, hastening his eventual suffocation. Whenever you inflict damage with your constrict ability, for every 5 points of damage inflicted, the number of rounds that the target can continue to hold his breath before having to make Constitution checks is reduced by 1. Once the target is forced to make Constitution checks each round to continue holding his breath, each time you inflict damage with your constrict ability, the target must make a new Constitution check to continue holding his breath (the DC continues to increase with each check, as normal).
The following three feats all relate to the rake universal monster ability.
Distracting Rake [Monster]
You rain down blows upon creatures you grapple, making it difficult for them to focus on escaping.
Prerequisites: Rake.
Benefit: Whenever you successfully hit a creature you are grappling with two or more rake attacks in a single round, that creature suffers a -5 penalty on all checks made to escape or gain control of the grapple until the beginning of your next turn.
Opportunistic Rake [Monster]
You can twist your body in ways that allows you to make rake attacks against creatures other than the one you’re grappling.
Prerequisites: Rake.
Benefit: While grappling a creature, you can choose to make your rake attacks against creatures other than the one you are grappling. If you do, you suffer a -4 penalty on the attack roll. Additionally, while grappling, you can make attacks of opportunity with one of your rake attacks, even though a grappled creature normally cannot make attacks of opportunity (you still suffer a -4 penalty for making rake attacks against creatures other than the one you are grappling).
Quick Rake [Monster]
You waste no time in attacking your foe once you have him in your grip.
Prerequisites: Rake.
Benefit: You may begin making rake attacks against a grappled foe on the same round that you successfully initiate the grapple, rather than having to wait until the following turn.