Unarmed Strikes and Iterative Slams Oh My!

[Iaimeki]

In a discussion about the Dungeonomicon, Frank talked about how there's an implicit rule that monsters with a slam attack can use it to make iterative BAB-based attacks. However, try as I might, I haven't been able to find support for this in the MM. I'll list some examples.

Angels: +12, +14, and +22 BAB, iterative attacks with weapons, but only one slam each.

Animated Objects, Huge and Colossal: +12 and +24 BAB, but only one slam each.

Bralani: +6 BAB, one slam.

Marilith: 6 slams at the same bonus, presumably one for each of its arms, so not expected to have BAB-based slams.

Giants: All have 2 slams at the same bonus, despite most having BABs +11 or greater.

And so on. I wasn't able to find an example of a monster using a slam to make iterative attacks except for one pseudo-example: the vampire monk, which adds its energy drain ability to its unarmed strike. (Presumably because an unarmed strike can be "enhanced" by effects that work on natural weapons like the vampire's energy drain.)

Can someone point me to where I should be looking for my examples?

[Username17]

Corpse Gatherer:

Slam +23/+18/+13

It's not common, but there are several creatures in the D&D universe that do that.

-Username17

[User3]

1157645989[/unixtime]]Corpse Gatherer:

Slam +23/+18/+13

It's not common, but there are several creatures in the D&D universe that do that.

-Username17

I hate WotC so much. Why can some creatures do that and others can't? What logic tells you who can? gah.

[RandomCasualty]

If I had to venture a guess, I'd probably say that the guys who came up with some of the MM2 creatures weren't 100% sure on the rules for slams, and thus started getting cute and handing out iterative attacks. I can't find anything in the actual description of a slam attack that makes it any different from any other natural weapon.

[Username17]

It's not the only weapon type to work like that. For example:

Full Attack: Fiery windspike +18/+13/+8 melee

But really, how often do you design a character class that hands out a "Fiery Windspike" attack?

I should do it just for the hilarity.

-Username17