Beastmorph Vivisectionist Tengu?


Advice


Hey all! First time poster and whatnot.

Anywho, I'm planning on making a Beastmorph Vivisectionist Tengu for a PF campaign that's starting soon. Stats aside (we're using 4d6 drop lowest), I was hoping for some ideas/recommendations. Yes, I've read the guides, but more brains in the think tank certainly helps! What I do know so far:

-We're starting at Level 5, 10.5k gold + whatever the class can normally start with in rolling gold to spend

-I plan on replacing the Sword Trained trait with Claw Attack, but that leaves me wondering if I still need to take Feral Mutagen if I do so. Does it have any benefit if I'm already able to make claw and bite attacks from the get-go?

-Are any of the Racial Feats helpful for this kind of build?

Beyond those two questions, any other general ideas/items to aim for/selections to keep in mind would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance for any help y'all can provide!


Well, I'll say tengu isn't necessarily great for this.

Their racial proficiency in bladed weapons is wasted since you'll be using natural attacks, but it seems you're aware of this. Their racial stats are also less than ideal with no bonuses to strength or intelligence and penalties to con on a melee character. That being said, if you're set on tengu for RPs reasons then it's quite okay to do something sub-optimal. Just wanted to point it out in case you weren't aware.

Since you are replacing sword trained with claw attacks, you don't need Feral Mutagen discovery. The only benefit to taking it could be is that while under the effects of Mutagen you always get the extra attack types, so if you every use beast shape as an extract you might get to maintain those attacks if you transformed into a form without them, however I'm not 100% sure on that.


Ehhhhhh, feral gives you a better bite and claw attacks, but not much more at that point. May want to shore up the loss of health from the Tengu con penalty. Tengu Wings looks like they could be a useful feat for early flight.

An agile AoMF is a good item to aim for, especially if you're going Dex heavy (which I assume you are).

If your DM lets you use Blade of Mercy with your natural attacks (they're all slashing, but aren't quite weapons) then you'd want the 13 str to qualify for Power Attack. Use it to lead into Cornugon Smash and Hurtful.


@Claxon, Our DM is giving us some Races, but not an extensive list. He's given us:

Human
Half-Elf
Elf
Dwarf
Gnome
Halfling
Grippli
Half-Giant
Suli
Tengu
Kasatha

I mean, I picked it partly for RP reasons and partly due to possibly skipping Feral Mutagen, but if there's a better race to go for in this list, I'm all for suggestions!

@Sangerine, I'm assuming Dex is primarily to take advantage of Sneak Attack, among other things? As for Blade of Mercy, well... It might be possible. He's a rational DM, so if it can be negotiated and explained well enough, he's usually down for at least searching for middle ground.


Tengu get a bonus to dexterity, and if you use both the feat Weapon Finesse and the Agile AoMF (you actually need Wep Fin to use it) then you get Dex to hit and damage with all of your natural attacks.

You only get light armor as an alchemist, so every bit of dex helps with your AC. Your SA will mostly be secured with flanking, though later you can pick up Shatter Defenses to go with Cornugon Smash (which is why you need Power Attack).

This will let you scare the crap out of people, beat them down, and begin sneak attacking them.

A sillier option is to use Gang Up and Press to the Wall to flank with the ground, trees, rocks, etc. But that gets kinda silly, and you may get the CRB tossed at you.


Hmmm, I suppose I'll have to keep that in mind. In that sense, it would be a Dex based bird monster, I suppose.

Btw, in your opinion, if you were to pick a different race to go with for this class from the list I posted, which would you run with? Like I said, I'm being given flexibility here in terms of what I can make, so I'm game for changing it up if it'll work out better.


For min/maxing? Human. Bonus feat, bonus skill rank per level, floating +2 (for dex).

Based on my current mood? Halfling. Small gives bonus to AC and attack rolls. Bonuses to dex, size bonus to stealth as well. It'd be fun to play a sneaky little ball of horror.

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