Do I Get Two Claw Attacks or Just One After a Move in D&D 3.5

The stat block for some monsters can leave us guessing the intent.  I sometimes find stat blocks that are not clear about what the monster will do with a single attack.  Specifically, if the monster's primary attack is its claws, and the creature has two claws, does the creature get two claw attacks when it makes a move action?  The short answer is no, and my explanation follows.

 

Look at the Tiger in the Monster Manual (Page 281) as an example.  The Monster Manual states that 'the Attack' is a Claw.  The Tiger's 'Full Attack' is 2 Claws and 1 Bite.

One source of ambiguity is the reference to the monster's primary attack.  A tiger is not penalized on its primary attack and its primary attack is 2 claws.  'Primary Attack' does not mean the attack a monster uses when they are not using the Full Attack action.  'Primary Attack' means those attacks which do not incur a -5 penalty because they are secondary attacks.

So when a tiger takes a move action as part of its turn, and then it attacks "once", it only gets a single claw attack.  It only rolls the d20 once to attack.

When a tiger is already next to its opponent and the tiger does a 'Full Attack' action the tiger can roll the d20 three times, once for each claw and once for the bite attack.  Since the claws are both part of the Primary Attack, the tigers attack roll is +9 for each claw (this is calculated from by adding the Base Attack of +4, adding the tiger's strength bonus of +6, and then subtracting 1 because the tiger is a large creature).  The tiger's bite attack is only at +4 because it is a secondary attack (this is calculated the same with the -5 penalty included for being a secondary attack).

Final note:  A creature with the MultiAttack Feat reduces the penalty on secondary attacks from -5 to -2.