| Vestax159 |
Afternoon folks,
My character is a monk of Irori and I tend to search a lot for good role-playing ideas for my characters. After digging around a little about Irori and loving this god, I noticed one of his servants is an intelligent celestial white tiger (Chem Chem - http://pathfinder.wikia.com/wiki/Irori). Now I'm a bit of a fan boy when it comes to white tigers and would like to adopt this into my character in ways that I don't think the existing rule set would allow. I have created two options to portray this in my character and will be going with whichever one seems more balanced and fun. After reviewing the alternate class features I have decided following this outline would be the best way to do this. Keep in mind this is a rough draft.
The first is that a shapeshifting ability has been granted to me by Irori. An aspect of Chem Chem if you will. Problem with this is that I'm worried about how to balance this as it seems like it could be overpowering.
Shapeshifter
At 1st level, you gain the supernatural ability to
turn yourself into an aspect of Chem Chem (White Tiger) and back
again once per day. The effect
lasts for 1 hour per monk level, or until you change back.
Changing form (to animal or back) is a swift action
and doesn’t provoke an attack of opportunity. While in this form a monk can use all of his monk abilities treating any attacks made as unarmed attacks. However, while in this form his attacks must be considered lethal.
You lose your ability to speak while in this
form because you're limited to the sounds that a normal,
untrained tiger can make, but you can communicate
normally with other animals of the same general
grouping as this form.
A druid can use this ability an additional time per day
at 2nd level and every two levels thereafter. At 20th level, you can use this ability at will.
While in this form you gain the follow attribute increases. These increases are considered size bonuses.
+2 Str
+2 Dex
+2 Natural Armor
You also gain the following abilities.
Scent
Low-Light Vision.
At the below levels these bonuses are increased to and the additional abilities are added.
6th
+4 Str
+4 Dex
+4 Natural Armor
Abilities
Pounce
Darkvision
12th
+6 Str
+6 Dex
+6 Natural Armor
Abilties
Large Creature
18th
+8 Str
+8 Dex
+8 Natural Armor
This ability replaces Stunning Fist, Abundant Step, Quivering Palm, and Empty Body.
I'm afraid this is going to be very overpowering attribute wise. Perhaps remove the dex bonus? 16th and 18th level is also lacking in abilities, would like to add some flavor type things. Like the one I saw somewhere else, run at 10 times your speed once per hour maybe?
The second is an animal companion. A character similar to Chem Chem who has been sent to protect me along my travels. I actually kind of like this over the previous option. The problem here is that I don't know how terrible effective the animal companion will be especially without the buffs from a druid. I haven't played many d20 games with companions to know how to properly balance this so this option isn't underpowered.
Animal Companion
This options functions identically to the druids animal companion with these exceptions. If the animal companion is ever killed it is reincarnated and returns to the monk within 24 hours. The monk must select the type Cat, Big. This ability replaces Stunning Fist.
The animal companion gains an intellect of 8 and can understand common. Though it cannot speak to anyone outside of it's type (cats). Given the animals intelligence the DM may control the animal as his discretion. Keep in mind though that this animal was sent by a diety to protect the monk. This ability replaces link.
The animal companion gains the ki strike ability at level 4, 10, and 16 respectfully. This ability follows the same rules as the monks ki strike, however it is always considered active (The animal companion has no ki pool). This ability replaces shared spell.
The changes to link are to reflect the roleplaying side of things. This isn't a normal creature and it helps with the fact that monk doesn't have handle animal. Also helps balance out the lack of spells (speak to animals).
The ki strike addition is to help with the monks obvious lack of spells. So later on he will be able to overcome damage reduction which would normally be done through spells.
Your animal companion gains several monk abilities. When you obtain the following abilities your animal companion also benefits from them.
3rd Level: Fast Movement
3rd Level: Maneuver Training
4th Level: Slow Fall
5th Level: High Jump
5th Level: Purity Of Body
11th Level: Diamond Body
13th Level: Diamond Soul
17th Level: Timeless Body
20th Level: Perfect Self
These abilites replace Abundant Step, Quivering Palm, and Empty Body.
Again, these are rough ideas and I know they are probably horrible imbalanced but looked for some help with that!
