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I've got a game starting tomorrow, and my GM ok'd primal companion hunter, 20 point buy, any race. What are some interesting things you can do with evolutions on an AC at level 1? One thing that jumped to mind was take slam attack and improved damage slam on a horse AC. Since that does 2d6 damage when you're large, with increased damage it bumps to 3d6 + str which is pretty good for first level! Any cool combos I should be aware of?
A lot of the good animal companions get large at 7th level. How does this interact with the large evolution? Since the bonuses are the same my gut is that the 4 point version isn't applicable, but that you can eventually spend to spend 6 points to up size to huge, based on the extra text.
Does that make sense? I couldn't find an official ruling and I just wanted to see what other people think. I think given the level prereq and spending 6 points is enough, any thoughts?
Zern laughs at the feeble attempts the creature in his grasp makes at escaping. He holds it down and pulls a coil of rope off of his pack to tie the creature up with.
Seems to be working perfectly well now.
Zern maintains the grapple on the little "quickling". and then will pin him.
Zern delays until the quicklings move up to the group and then lashes out at the nearest one, wrapping him up and taking him to the ground in a grapple.
"Ha, hold still now! If you don't squirm it won't hurt as much!"
Zern grins an ugly smile when he sees more troublemakers. "Time to get messy!" He calls to the others who he notices have showed up again. Seeing Driana arrive he adds "Too bad you found your armor girly! I expect that cloak back!"
Zern is heading over to the sound of explosions straight away.
Hahahahahaha! Zern just starts laughing almost helplessly. He watches Driana grow fur and continues chuckling. "Oh that's rich. Here, I'm not heartless." Zern offers Driana his cloak. "My name is Zern. Zern Parq."
Zern catches the wand and looks at it for a moment. Then he starts to take a step into the wagon."Haha, fair enough. We can both- Uhh, ahh!" He cries akwardly. He looks at Driana for a second then turns around swiftly at her eyeful comment.. "Wha.. what happened? Wait, reverse it? I don't know what happened? I can't use magic, I can just brew a few potions!" He peeks back to see her covered in a towel. "Something's not right. Maybe we should leave here?" He looks down at the wand now in his hand and starts to back out the door of the wagon.
Nope! I fully expect for this to end badly and for Zern and Driana to end up thoroughly chastised, possibly with their own property confiscated, but in the frying pan together! That or we'll escape with the loot, and in the process will have gifted the GM with a delightful hook of a vindictive re-occuring witch antagonist. *grins*
Zern, feeling flush from his Intimidation of the Troll, decides not to back down. "I'm a idiot? I'm not pointing wands at people. I wasn't the one who killed the owlbear, or throttled the gnome, or knocked that witch unconscious. And why would I need to rob you? I have my own wares I can sell!" Hopefully... Zern stands firm in the doorway, not wanting to advance, but certainly not scurrying off. "Now you can be reasonable and take my help, and we can both make out well here. Or you can try to throttle me. Whatcha think?" He gives a big friendly attempt at a grin, which looks as ugly as the rest of him.
Lol, you guys crack me up. Driana's impressing someone with all of her wrestling around and flashing her teeth though. I'm trying to play Zern as mostly lawful, but I figure mutagen gives him the ability to be reckless and not worry about social convention like her normally does.
Zern watches Driana's impressive performance then follows her when she picks the old lady up, making sure to grab two of the apples and place them in his sack. He stands in the doorway of the wagon trying to look casual but feeling excited by the mayhem. "So that's what happens to people who try to trick you. Remind me not to be on the receiving end of your wrath any time soon. Though, I noticed you like to.. *ahem*.". Zern is still struggling for words. And shakes his head a little confusedly. "You seem to have yourself a bit of a haul there. Need a hand carrying anything? I can identify Granny's potions here for you with a little time and work. So... Say a nice split?" He tries a grin, but all he manages to do is show a lot of pointy teeth.
Zern follows the Troll as it tries to slink away "What? WHAT'S THE MATTER TROLL? AREN'T YOU GOING TO GET ANGRY? Why are you running away!?" He follows the troll for a dozen strides before letting him slink away. He then turns his attention back to the old crone and Driana. He walks up as Driana offers the crone her own fruit and watches attentively.
Sure thing boss.
Zern takes in all of the sites and ponders the Owlbear mystery. The actions of the other Tiefling both frighten and fascinate him. I remember having that fire, before the monks beat order and discipline into me. They said that they could protect me, but... Driana. What an interesting name. Zern wanders around the festival, and eyes the old crone with her apples. He then sees Driana march up and ask for one and quickly heads in a different direction. He finds the Troll harrassing people and marches up to him. He pulls out a vial of a dark, bloody looking vial and stares at it for a moment, then glances over to Driana and downs it. "Hey, ogre! How about you pick on someone your own size! Or am I too large for you? Little goblin, how about a wrestling match?" Zen's muscles bulge and his horns descend an inch as they grow larger. His brow thickens and his teeth become a little pointed. He growls at the Troll
Hahaha. I absolutely understand how you got there. I always added the modifiers together (1.5 + .5 = 2x) before plugging in strength, but if you do them separately that does add up to 9. Fortunately with mutagen it's an even 8, so halves don't lose anything :P
Very true. It actually gives me the same amount of damage with a single attack as both of my claws do (well, 2d4 +10 vs. 1d6+10, basically the same), so if I can full attack use both claws, it's two chances to hit, but if I have to move or charge I use unarmed strike to maintain similar damage levels.
I have an enchanted formula book that enhances the bonuses that I get from mutagen once per day from +4 to +6, at the expense of having a-2 to a single mental attribute to -2 to all mental attributes. Any uses of mutagen after the first use the standard +4. Sadly I can't use dragon style bonuses yet! At level 5 I'll get feral combat training, and will finally be able to use dragon style with claws.
Seeing that the beast is wounded, Zern claws at the Owlbear, trying to bring it down. "Stay down you beast!" He growls at the beast.
Zern realizes this is serious and suddenly his feet spread out and get closer to the ground and he quickly yanks out a bottle and chugs it. Then he moves up next to the Owlbear and calls "I wonder how Owlbear tastes after some cooking!
Zern had given up trying to sell his wares for the time being after not having what the goblin had wanted. He wandered over to the magic show and began watching the silly little gnome. After the bear-owl-claw beast thing broke free he debated. It's all just part of the act, right? Looking around and seeing that it wasn't, Zern started to feel both panic and a conflicting blood lust in his veins. He looks around to see if someone is going to do something, wandering if there is a good direction to run, or if he should help. He shakily draws a vial from his pouch full of a black, bloody looking liquid and stares at it for a moment, then shakes his head violently. Then his tail flashes into his pack and pulls out a firework. He lights it and chucks it at the owlbear, covering his ears.
Zern turns back to the Goblin who had headed his shouts. "I can indeed make your weapon shoot fire! It will blind your foes and scorch them so they can't see you. Let me see..." Zern starts patting around, searching for some cartridges or something that looks like them. "Well... let's see. I have this fire you can throw, this acid... oh! I must have left the fire you can shoot back at the inn!" He says shiftily.
Zern continues calling out "Alchemy, wonders, Fireworks gallore. Give me your gold and have a good time!" loudly and obnoxiously. He glances around nervously, occasionally trying to pull a hood up over his horns. The hood doesn't fit well, and the horns poking out of it only accentuate his strange features. "I really need some coin, I paid most of what I have left for the caravan to get to this blasted fair. I hope someone here needs something burned or eaten. With all of the wizardry, I wonder if anyone will even want fireworks." He spots another tiefling at a distance and starts to frantically look. "Are there others like me here? Could my mother have sent another of her children to reclaim me!? Or perhaps another one on the run from her parents..." He takes a few steps towards the other tiefling while continuing to hawk his wares.
I totally understand that view, and normally I would tone down the build to something more well rounded but Jellyman said anything goes. As for the background, I'm still working on it, I'm just not done with it because of my travel the past few days. Also, I know I mentioned a "planned alignment change", but if it does happen it will be because the DM says that my in character actions are worth it, not because of a random change in my character sheet. -Though now that you've said that I'm feeling bad, and will think about swapping out the barbarian level for fighter.
...Feral combat training is sort of the cornerstone of the build, and Zern will be picking it up at level 5. At which point he can use dragon style with his claws. I had forgotten about needing to change alignment back from lawful after the monk level, darn. If we were starting at level 5 I could have just said that I changed alignment, but you're totally right. As is I will need to start with a Lawful alignment and I will lose the ability to rage until I move away from that alignment. I did actually exactly intend for the third level to be monk (I just changed it to note that better), which is exactly how I would qualify for dragon style, then take dragon ferocity with the bonus feat. Skills are now modified (I had acrobatics earlier and lost it when I had to modify the build). Oh, I listed it in equipment, but I have the Journal of Beast within, which allows me to gain a +6 bonus from mutagen instead of +4 at the cost of -2 to all mental attributes instead of just 1. Preparation Ritual Beastly Concoction (Su) This journal grants you the ability to make an extremely potent and savage mutagen. Spend this boon when you imbibe your mutagen. The mutagen grants you a +6 alchemical bonus to your selected ability score instead of the normal +4; you take a –2 penalty to all of your mental ability scores (Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma) while the mutagen is in effect.
I've removed rage references, because my character cannot currently rage, and picked expeditious retreat and Shield for my extracts. My complete formula list is laid out now (it's mainly so big since I spent so much money on the formula book that I'll be able to coast on that from here on out). Thanks for the help! That's what I get for trying to modify stats on my phone in the airport. It should all be good now... I think. Also I totally understand the confusion and apparently very useless combo that I have build so far. It will all start to pay off next level and it will really hit it's stride by level 5-7.
Hey Thalrik, will you look over my number crunching for Zern Parq? I had to change the order of things and want to make sure everything still matches up, and that's kind of your superpower. -still tweaking equipment, but everything else should match up. Also if anyone has suggestions for buffing with first level alchemist extracts other than shield I am all ears.
A slightly short and enormously broad shouldered tiefling strides up the lane, grunting "Fire, get your alchemical treats here. A vial of fire, only a few gold pieces. Fireworks, acid, I make it. You buy it?" He appears a little furtive as he holds a vial of alchemist's fire in one hand. Spotting Zoggle with his (relatively) huge gun, the tiefling approaches and breaks into a sickeningly ugly contortion that roughly approximates a grin. "Goblins like fire, fire, fire and burning, yes? Alchemist's Fire?" He asks a little hopefully.
Because I don't have a huge number of rage rounds, and I almost feel bad, because by level 9 I'm going to have a 30-32ish strength and have 5 natural attacks 4 of which do 2x or 1.5x strength damage. Actually, speaking of lots of attacks, too bad we don 't have anyone who can buff like a bard or wizard.
Thalrik, I appreciate the thought, but I'm planning on taking Raging Vitality down the road, and while urban barbarian is cool, I'm interested in... Actually I just notîced that you can combine urban barbarian and invulnerable rager! That's perfect since I only planned on taking two levels. I love out on some HP.., but I already have a ton, andI still get the strength boost I wanted. I actually thought about doing a total Dex build and getting an agile AoMF, but I'm going to be building completely around strength and getting a bunch of natural attacks. I am sorta debating swapping my race, but I would feel bad optimizing this character any further.
Hey guys this is Ashern's character, working on the backstory and will fill in that and tweak equipment soon. |
