Good Tauric Creature combo without template-stacking?

[PlzBreakMyCampaign]

The minimum of 4 ECL (2 HD, one from each component creature and LA+2) really hurts. I'm not seeing much worth eating 4+ levels by RAW...

Assuming that your DM is sane and does not allow template stacking or level-draining, does a playable Tauric Templated creature basically require the PBMC Balanced ECL Variant? With it you can Monstrous vermin for Mind-affect immunity or pegasus for massive fly speed just in core. Otherwise, the ECL penalties are huge.

Perhaps the lower half is the wrong way to look and I should be looking for huge physical penalties for LA+0 (monstrous) humanoids.

[zook1shoe]

Any magical beast that breaks the action economy, like the chronotyryn (yeah lots of HD) or even simple powerful abilities, such as blink dog or phase spider.

[Empirate]

AFB right now, but would tauric replace all the heads on a Hydra, or just one of them? Could you be multi-tauric? That would get us somewhere, I guess.

[zook1shoe]

replaces the entire upper body, so 0 hydra heads. but the severing a head thing would apply to its new head(s)

same as with a chimera losing only the middle head for a torso, and having a pair of heads at your waist. you just replace all three

[Ithamar]

Though doesn't Tauric only work on medium & large sized critters?  Hydras are huge and would not qualify I think.

A simple tauric-dire badger is decent, especially if you can advance it to large size.  But otherwise, like zook stated, a blink dog is a pretty good choice.  Especially if you can get into something offering Shadow Pounce.

[zook1shoe]

Dungeonbred Hydra?

[Ithamar]

Well he did indcate he wanted no templates.   

[zook1shoe]

yeah i guess thats true.... a baby hydra? :-p

[PlzBreakMyCampaign]

Any magical beast that breaks the action economy, like the chronotyryn (yeah lots of HD) or even simple powerful abilities, such as blink dog or phase spider.

ECL20, Blink dog isn't bad but requires shadowpouncing to work well. And then its not that much ahead of other shadowpouncers for 7 dead levels. Ethereal jaunt for same 7 dead levels.

[Ithamar]

A Blink Dog can also make use of the Sun School tactical feat from Complete Warrior.  Lets you make a single attack when you dimension door next to a foe.  Helps a little bit until you can actual get Shadow Pounce.

[PlzBreakMyCampaign]

Some good forms with PMBC Balanced ECL Variant

(click to show/hide)

The large ones are: a two-humped camel (Sa193) is nice and normal. Ankegs have +9nat, borrow and tremorsense if you don't mind being buggy. Blood apes could get you Huge sized 8 fights a day for over an hour total if you are male.

The best seems to be:
Tauric LA+2 [(monstrous) humanoid LA+0 race]-Bloodlance [DragMag357p46]
Large (quadraped) Monstrous Humanoid (Augmented Magical Beast)
5d8 HD which oddly grant 5BAB, 4Fort, 4Ref, 2Will, and the expected 2+int skill points (move silent, survival, jump, listen, spot)
60'ms, 2d4 hooves, 60'darkvision, scent (RAI should not be gained)
Immune to elec, posion, charm, compulsion. Res acid,cold,fire 10
+14Str, +6Dex, +14Con, +xInt, +xWis, +xCha, +6nat
Magic Circle Against Good (Su), inflict light wounds 3/day, Listen+6, Spot+6 (unlikely to be +16 since the example has an error)
Favored Class: Ranger

[zook1shoe]

its hard to have a list of 'good' options for this template. a lot of it depends on what you WANT from the base creature.

i'm not saying those are bad ideas (except the blood ape doesn't have 3+ legs, it has 2 arms, 2 legs)

[snakeman830]

Tauric unicorn isn't too bad, with the constant Magic Circle against Evil, immunity to poison, high movement speed, and strong stats.  The spell-likes are arguable if you get them or not, due to the text suggesting they are tied to the horn.

[Kasz]

Giant Strider? Monsters of Faerun, Has fire immunity, and fire healing... and fire subtype... and fireballs. 40ft movement speed doesn't hurt either.

Fireball (Su): Twice per hour, a giant strider can emit a small fireball from ducts near its eyes. Each fireball has a range of 60 feet and a burst radius of 10 feet. Creatures caught by the blast must make a Reflex save (DC 14) or take 1d6 points of damage. A successful save negates all damage.

It has a low DC and doesn't seem to scale but it's twice an hour and it's SU

Fire Subtype (Ex): Fire immunity, double damage from cold except on a successful save.

Get immunity to cold asap from a spell?

Healing from Fire (Ex): Not only do giant striders take no damage from fire, they are healed by it. Once during each 3 rounds that a strider is exposed to intense heat or flame, the creature gains the benefit of a cure light wounds spell (1d8+1 hp healed). A fireball spell or other intense, fiery attack fully heals the creature instantly.

Depending on your reading, this plus the fireball (su) could result in a full hp heal twice an hour. Even on a bad reading, make a campfire...stick your hand in it...free healing and use your fireballs as cure light wounds.

Resistant to Magic (Ex): Giant striders gain a +2 bonus on all saving throws against magical effects

Nice little bonus.
It has 6 natural armour and a 1d8 damage kick too.

Not bad for a 2HD creature.

[snakeman830]

Wouldn't get the Fireball ability due to that attack being tied to the eyes (which aren't inherited by Tauric), but otherwise, that looks like a great choice.

[Risada]

I always thought a Tauric Lammasu would be quite good... If you inherit its spellcasting.

[Ithamar]

I don't think Giant Striders qualify for Tauric, since they only have 2 legs.  Like Zook already mentioned, the base critter has to be a quadruped.

[zook1shoe]

needs 4+ legs

[Dawnmor]

I always played with a Halfling/blank dog tauric.  You get the dimension door of the dog and the save bonuses and stuff of the halfling .

Rogue anyone ?

[Kasz]

I don't think Giant Striders qualify for Tauric, since they only have 2 legs.  Like Zook already mentioned, the base critter has to be a quadruped.

Depends if you count those little wing/leg/arm things as legs or not I guess. They're not exactly arms/hands now are they... they're like ostriches mainly... they're worth asking your DM about...Since they're explicitly used as mounts they're not unlike horses...for your classic centaurs