Author Topic: [3.5] psywar/druid pounce build  (Read 1217 times)

Offline Eisborn

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[3.5] psywar/druid pounce build
« on: October 26, 2013, 05:28:43 PM »
I'm new to DnD, but several of my friends invited me to play 3.5 with them, and I was wondering if it was possible to do a psywar/druib pounce build (since pounce builds are popular with both, i've read) since they both go really well with wis and con. the psywar levels could be really good early until druid gets strong, then with natural spellcasting you could get all your claws and pounce around slicing people because, as far as I understand, the claw attacks are just tacked onto your turn and aren't counted as actions. my questions are: would this be effective? where would you take what levels and how many in each? would it be necessary to go syna or something so I have psychich stuff by default because I wouldn't have as many from psywar levels? what feats would I take?
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-Eisborn

Offline Jackinthegreen

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Re: [3.5] psywar/druid pounce build
« Reply #1 on: October 26, 2013, 07:33:13 PM »
First of all, when playing with new people make absolutely sure you know which rules and books are and aren't allowed.  Psionics tend to be banned for various reasons, but the most popular ones are that it's too much work for the DM to understand and/or the DM thinks they're overpowered.

On to your actual questions though:  If I understand you right, it seems you're under the impression that the claw attacks are free actions or something.  They aren't.  The claw attacks psywar usually gets are from the power Claws of the Beast, which can scale up quite nicely actually.  The issue with that power is it explicitly says the claw attacks can't be used if you're also using manufactured weapon or other natural attacks in the round.  That's an exception to the usual rules that allow having multiple natural attacks on a full attack such as claws and a bite for example.

Besides the issue of not having those claw attacks work for a druid while Wildshaped, taking psywar levels will only slow down your druid progression.  Druid is a stronger class than psywar, so only specific gimmick builds might benefit from the combo.  Since you're a new player, I recommend you don't even bother multiclassing druid with psywar.

If you were thinking of using Psionic Lion's Charge while wild shaped then keep in mind you'd need to be at least a 4th level psywar to manifest that power, which would cut into your druid levels significantly.  There's no comparison between a psywar 4/druid 5 build and a druid 9: The druid 9 would win because it has spells much more powerful than the powers gained from psywar, plus he'd have access to stronger wild shape forms, and he'd have a stronger animal companion as well.

You are onto a nice idea for using the Synad race with either psywar or druid though.  The Rapidstrike and Improved Rapidstrike feats are great additions to either.