Wild Shape Question

[TorThorfindorfson]

On DDO Wiki it says bear form gets Strike through as long as you are not defensive fighting. It also says Dire bear gets strikethrough and at +20%. There is no mention of being in or out of defensive fighting for it to work. So can i be in defensive fighting with dire bear and still get all the natural fighting/base strikethrough bonuses? How does this all work if take Exotic WP for Bastard Sword or Dwarven War Axe, so i can keep the shield and get the shield bonuses. Am i reading too much into this?

Thanks,

A Future Bear Druid.

[unbongwah]

Are you talking Defensive Fighting or Epic Defensive Fighting? Because there's no good reason to use the former. If you're playing a DPS bear, you're running Power Attack + Rage of the Beast, both of which are incompatible with Defensive Fighting. Oh yeah, and casting a spell disables Defensive Fighting too, so...kind of a no-go for any caster.

S&B bears keep the static bonuses from their shields, but you can't shield-bash in animal form so bonuses like Improved Shield Bashing have no effect. Also the Shield Mastery feats have no effect. Not sure about Shield Deflection.

[TorThorfindorfson]

Are you talking Defensive Fighting or Epic Defensive Fighting? Because there's no good reason to use the former. If you're playing a DPS bear, you're running Power Attack + Rage of the Beast, both of which are incompatible with Defensive Fighting. Oh yeah, and casting a spell disables Defensive Fighting too, so...kind of a no-go for any caster.

S&B bears keep the static bonuses from their shields, but you can't shield-bash in animal form so bonuses like Improved Shield Bashing have no effect. Also the Shield Mastery feats have no effect. Not sure about Shield Deflection.

Dire bear form has no disclaimer about defensive fighting, i wanted to know if that was in fact the case or if it was like bear form. Also how does dire bear interact with Epic defensive fighting, I assume it all works together as you dont get the extra hp without all the natural fighting feats, which give you the strikethrough. I am really not interested with shield feats but rather the 25% extra hp and +6 con from Ursa's protector enhancements.

[elvesunited]

Are you talking Defensive Fighting or Epic Defensive Fighting? Because there's no good reason to use the former. If you're playing a DPS bear, you're running Power Attack + Rage of the Beast, both of which are incompatible with Defensive Fighting. Oh yeah, and casting a spell disables Defensive Fighting too, so...kind of a no-go for any caster.

The quest "Let Sleeping Dust Lie" being the biggest exception I can think of as it's the biggest example of a quest where you want to hit the target and only the target. And what a royal pain that quest is for a bear to solo. Shrieking mines and that drow mummy one count too as quests where you need to kill an enemy but not kill the lesser hp target right next to him. Fortunately these are rare exceptions and in most quests the survival of innocent but temporarily hostile NPCs is optional. ( sorry slaves in "Lost Thread". Sucks to be you )