Non-spellcasting Support & Natural Weapons

[faeryn]

I'm looking for some options to make a non-spellcasting support character with a strong focus on natural weapon attacks as well. I need this to be done without the aid of specific race/template combinations either.

I intend to use the following feats to enhance my natural attacks:
Weapon Finesse - Dex to attack due to low Str score
Multiattack, Improved Multiattack - Remove secondary attack penalties
Rapidstrike, & Improved Rapidstrike - Bonus claw attacks
Rend - A must have with claw attacks in my opinion

I have the following natural weapons:
1 Bite (enhanced w/Poison Fang graft)
2 Claws (enhanced w/Beast Claws & Fanged Ring)
1 Tail + Sting (Sleep Poison, enhanced w/Venomfire & Tailbands of Impact)

What I'd like to be able to do is find a balance between being a natural attacker/flanker and a healing/buffing support character. However, I don't want to do so through being a spellcaster... Otherwise I'd probably just grab Druid with a couple ACFs and be done with it...

Ability Scores: Str:18 Dex:27 Con:23 Int:29 Wis:18 Cha:16 (w/3 points to spend wherever at current level)

My ability scores cannot be changed and are currently enhanced with items and persisted/permanent spells.


Options I've looked at:

Fighter: Use of feats to improve Natural Weapons and gain some support style abilities
Dragonfire Adept: Using feats to build up Natural Attacks and taking more support/utility focused Invocations and Breath Effects
Spell-less Paladin: Lay on Hands & qualification for a couple party buff aura feats... Unfortunately locked into Neutral Good... Low Cha score hurts this option as well
Spell-less Druid: Shapeshifter ACF and a couple other ACFs would make this a good option for natural attacks, but limited on support options like the Fighter...

I'm somewhat considering Psychic Warrior as well... not really a prefered route though, since Psionics are still more-or-less spellcasting... but it'd be a much smaller more manageable pool of abilities and with a self-imposed focus on support powers it might be worth it.... but with a low Wisdom score it's questionable... If there is a way to make the Psychic Warrior use Int, Con, or Dex though then that might be the direction I need to go with this...

[linklord231]

Totemist. That's literally what that class is all about.

[faeryn]

Totemist. That's literally what that class is all about.

Looking over the Totemist, I'm failing to see how it fits what I'm looking for here... It appears to be a self-support class which is not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for a class that can help provide support abilities for the party without relying on spell-casting. Spell-like, Supernatural, Extraordinary, and Psi-like abilities are good. As well as classes like the Psychic Warrior that have severe limits to power selection (in both availability and number known).

This is for a cohort character and I'd prefer to not manage yet another list of spells which is why I'm looking for a non-spellcasting option.

[linklord231]

Define "support abilities."  No, a Totemist doesn't Inspire Courage like a bard or give allies bonuses like a Marshall, but he does have plenty of soulmelds that give other useful abilities.  For example, Kruthik Claws makes you a great scout and are also a good primary attack soulmeld.  Shadow Mantle gives a limited crowd control + blindsense, and a bonus to Listen.  Disenchanter Mask gives you at-will Detect Magic.  Kraken Mantle makes you a grapple machine. 

If you wanted, you could take the Shape Soulmeld feat for some of the more support-oriented soulmelds, like Mage's Spectacles or Lifebond Vestments or Lucky Dice.  Or, if you wanted to focus primarily on support instead of natural attacks, play an Incarnate. 

[faeryn]

Support abilities are any abilities that are designed to aid the party as a whole, or assist an ally. Stuff like healing, party-wide buffs, crowd control, non-combat utility (Such as identifying magic items)...

I don't deny that the Totemist has some support abilities, but as I said It appears to be geared towards Self-Support... As it stands our party has been taking a passive approach to support with houseruled permanencies removing most need for party buffs, and heal X per round and high Damage Resistance, Energy Resistance, Spell Resistance, Saves, and AC to minimize the need for healing.. but as we are entering Epic Levels, the majority of those passive measures won't do us much good.

Since our party's Cleric's all keep vanishing we've been in major need of a support character for a while... So since with my DMs permission I'm turning my familiar into a Familiar/Cohort I figured I'd try to work in some support abilities into her build so that we can always have a support character on-hand when our clerics are gone. And as I mentioned earlier I'd rather not manage yet another spell list, so I'm looking for some non-spellcasting alternatives.

Right now my best options from what I've looked at are Dragonfire Adept and Psychic Warrior... Dragonfire Adept being more on the Crowd Control and Non-combat Utility side, while Psychic Warrior offers more in the area of Healing, Buffs, and some Crowd Control of it's own. The main issue with Psychic Warrior though is that it's Wisdom based and my Familiar/Cohorts Wisdom score is one of it's lowest scores.