Have many people tried this Prestige class for the Complete Warrior? I'm currently playing one (7ht lvl bar/3rd lvl bear awrrior) and have mixed feelings. What are the feelings of othere people who have tried them or run a game with one in it?
So I take it most people avoid this prestige class. :)
Its not so much that I avoid it as that I've never heard of it. If I had any experience at all with it then I'd put my two cents in. Sorry.
A bit from my Hoarde
Its not so much that I avoid it as that I've never heard of it. If I had any experience at all with it then I'd put my two cents in. Sorry.
A bit from my Hoarde
I find myself just as centsless here. The bear warrior, though I read about the class, isn't a PrC I've ever seen in action.
What specific problems/unease are you encountering?
Its not so much that I avoid it as that I've never heard of it. If I had any experience at all with it then I'd put my two cents in. Sorry.
A bit from my Hoarde
I find myself just as centsless here. The bear warrior, though I read about the class, isn't a PrC I've ever seen in action.
What specific problems/unease are you encountering?
Some of the strange things about the PrC are as follows:
The change is similar to the polymorph spell so I assume your type changes to animal.
By the time you meet the requirements for the PrC, a lot of creatures start having special damage reduction which as an animal you have very little chance of over coming other than through sheer damage.
The number of attacks it gets is static at three, which is nice at the early levels but quickly ends up leaving you with less attacks.
While the Str increase is nice I'm not sure it balances out the reduction of weapon damage (only a d4 for the first form).
Don't get me wrong the healing is nice and the huge strength bonus is nice, I'm just not sure it all balances out. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. I'm playing the PrC because of concept and for the most part enjoying it, but when the other characters in the party are getting more powerful from their PrC I feel like I'm falling behind. I want to contribute, but it almost feels at times that when I change forms I am contributing less.
Have many people tried this Prestige class for the Complete Warrior? I'm currently playing one (7ht lvl bar/3rd lvl bear awrrior) and have mixed feelings. What are the feelings of othere people who have tried them or run a game with one in it?
My only experience with it is in a one-shot adventure I ran where one of my players was a Bear Warrior . He was pretty fearsome in combat but he was a 5th level bear warrior and I think that's where things get "good" . Turning into a brown bear is a huge upgrade from black bear - +12 Str , +8 Con , more damage , yada , yada - but the real upgrade comes from Improved Grab . He'd hit for some pretty horrendous damage to begin with (although he never did face anyone with DR) and then a free grapple attempt . Raging in bear form he'd win easily and in a grapple you can still attack with natural weapons . It was pretty brutal .
But this adventure featured mostly human(oid) opponents with class levels rather than monsters . I could see how a Bear Warrior could have trouble with creatures that either had high DR or were too strong to grapple (which is a lot) .
Based on this limited experience I'd say that Bear Warrior in a typical monster-slaying environment might not be the best choice . But then again who cares ? In my mind D & D is plenty fun whether or not you're a hardcase in battle .
The only experiance I've had with a bear warrior was an adventure hook that the players never took. So all I'm going off of is a few practice fights I used to test it out. It was a half orc barbaian 8th bear warrior 1st He had wildshaping armor that morphed with him so his AC was actually pretty solid (for a barbarian anyway) but his animal attack pailed next to his +2 greataxe, however his size and stength bonus made grapple and bull rush ect. truly fearsome. So I stayed in human form unless some good old fashioned bullying was nessesary then I had some FUN
I suggest you try to stick it out until you get the next form which I agree is a huge boost and then being a bear pays off
Also look into the Improved natural attack feat in the monster manual (Increases nat attack dice by one size catagory)
And I hope you have a druid, if you don't, get one fast
two words ANIMAL GROWTH