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Author Topic: Animals as Player Characters  (Read 8579 times)

Offline Argent Fatalis

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Re: Animals as Player Characters
« Reply #20 on: July 17, 2013, 08:25:00 PM »
Unfortunately homebrew won't be valid (none of the DMs I have currently allow homebrew) albeit I don't see anything particularly strong/wrong with that suggestion - I'll bookmark it for future reference though, thank you bhu.

So far these are some good, valid answers and I'm working with the DM to make some viable builds using some of these for a future game.

If you have any further ideas or suggestions, that would be great!
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Offline brujon

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Re: Animals as Player Characters
« Reply #21 on: July 17, 2013, 10:13:15 PM »
Most of my ideas won't fly on any sane DM's table anyway, as they all involve template stacking while abusing that ravenloft feat. You can do all sorts of crazyness with animal type on top of any inherited template. And i mean crazy. Like stacking the Wendigo template on top of Tauric and Symbiotic. Wendigo is all sorts of crazy. Regeneration 5, 120ft perfect fly speed, a bite that threatens 18-20, + bonuses to 5 out of 6 attributes and no negatives, wind walk at will as a move action. LA+4, but may well be worth the 4 lost levels. One of the better templates from 3.0... Theoretically, it can also make it possible for multiple applications of the Tauric - merging one tauric creature without the feat with one that has the feat, and so on. Disgusting.
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Offline Argent Fatalis

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Re: Animals as Player Characters
« Reply #22 on: July 17, 2013, 10:40:16 PM »
Quote from: brujon on July 17, 2013, 10:13:15 PM
Most of my ideas won't fly on any sane DM's table anyway, as they all involve template stacking while abusing that ravenloft feat. You can do all sorts of crazyness with animal type on top of any inherited template. And i mean crazy. Like stacking the Wendigo template on top of Tauric and Symbiotic. Wendigo is all sorts of crazy. Regeneration 5, 120ft perfect fly speed, a bite that threatens 18-20, + bonuses to 5 out of 6 attributes and no negatives, wind walk at will as a move action. LA+4, but may well be worth the 4 lost levels. One of the better templates from 3.0... Theoretically, it can also make it possible for multiple applications of the Tauric - merging one tauric creature without the feat with one that has the feat, and so on. Disgusting.

There's nothing wrong with cheesing the hell out of an idea and having the support present to do it.

However, its not entirely valid for what I'm trying to do with this character, but that's a great thought experiment just to see what happens.

This topic is more about dedicated, "supported" (aka, official printed work, even if broken or incomplete, provided it came in a D&D 3.0/3.5 copy somewhere) mechanics making a playable animal - your suggestion with Feral Rearing plus a Shapeshift Druid (ACF) makes it truly possible to have such a thing (minus the extraordinary qualities).
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Offline brujon

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Re: Animals as Player Characters
« Reply #23 on: July 17, 2013, 10:47:59 PM »
The way that feat is worded is begging for abuse. I mean, it simply overrides your type, whatever it is, it changes to animal. Hell, even nonsensical stuff like, you were undead, but you are still Animal type, because of the feat. Wha..? I do.. Eve... Wow. Yeah, seriously, you can be undead, but - hey! No Turn Undead, no Disrupt Undead, no nothing that works on undead will work on you, because you're no longer of Undead type, but still maintain the qualities, debatably - one could argue you lose them when you lose the undead type, meaning your - con kills you. Apply all the juicy animal-only templates that only cost gold...
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Offline nijineko

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Re: Animals as Player Characters
« Reply #24 on: July 17, 2013, 11:09:09 PM »
@brujon: that's one of the official licensed ravenloft products, iirc?
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Offline brujon

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Re: Animals as Player Characters
« Reply #25 on: July 17, 2013, 11:15:35 PM »
Quote from: nijineko on July 17, 2013, 11:09:09 PM
@brujon: that's one of the official licensed ravenloft products, iirc?

Yes. It's fair game under most DM's. If it allows, say, Eberron or FR feats, then this feat should be available too.

Ravenloft actually has quite the selection of good stuff. Feats and classes and whatnot. Knight of the Raven everyone knows from the adventure Return to Castle Ravenloft, but there are actually some other very good feats. I'll try to dig up some and post here.
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Offline kitep

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Re: Animals as Player Characters
« Reply #26 on: July 18, 2013, 11:03:19 AM »
I can't believe we missed it - Baleful Polymorph.  Changes the type to animal, so you could use a template or Awaken to gain intelligence, then Baleful Polymorph to change your type back to animal.

One catch - duration is permanent, not instantaneous, so I think that means it's subject to Dispel Magic.  But you can always get it recast.

Another catch - it has to be a 1 HD animal, so may not work for the animal you have in mind.
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Offline zook1shoe

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Re: Animals as Player Characters
« Reply #27 on: July 18, 2013, 03:23:49 PM »
I believe that the lynx in Races of FR has 1HD
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Offline Argent Fatalis

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Re: Animals as Player Characters
« Reply #28 on: July 18, 2013, 09:05:10 PM »
Quote from: zook1shoe on July 18, 2013, 03:23:49 PM
I believe that the lynx in Races of FR has 1HD

Lynx is a possibility, but sadly it has some pretty poor offense, but nothing impossible to use and or refit.
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