ToME WikiBear form combat is a skill only used by the Beorning Race. A player must switch to bear form combat by selecting magic skills ('m' in the non-roguelike keyset) and then 'switch attack mode' and select 'bear form'.
There are 8 different attacks in bear form possible:
- Claw for 3d4 damage, chance to stun (level 1)
- Swat for 4d4 damage, chance for wound (level 4)
- Bite for 4d4 damage, chance for wound (level 9)
- Hug for 5d6 damamge, chance for slow (level 15)
- Swat and rake for 6d5 damage, chance for either a stun or wound (level 25)
- Hug and claw for 6d6 damamge, chance for either slow or wound (level 30)
- Double swat for 9d7 damage, chance for stun or wound (level 35)
- Double Swat and rake for 10d10 damage, chance for stun or wound (level 40)
The number of attacks in bear form: 2+(SKILL/5) + NUM_MAX_BLOWS, where the max blows are how many of the innate skills were purchased. Base min is 2 attacks, max is 12, without the MAX_BLOWS skill purchase.
Simulations on the base damage of bear form compared with a monk (Assuming all hits, equivalent speed, and no other modifiers from to_dam) show that bear form combat is far superior to bear hand combat until the mid 30's, where it equals out. At the max level, bear form is only about 70% as effective as barehanded combat.
It should be noted there are many more status effects associated with bear form attacks than bare hand attacks, which can be a bonus not seen in the simulation. However, bear-form causes a *deduction* in to-hit as it gets higher, and the base speed of the bear is (-5), while a monk's speed increases with level, as does the to_hit, all major factors beyond the scope of the simple simulation.
Bear form could be a choice for weaker caster characters looking for some melee damage, but it's not recommended to mix bear form combat and any other melee combat, due to lack of synergy bonuses with other combat skills, and low damage potential. Barehand combat (after level 30 or so) is superior in almost every way, and weapons even more so.