Wolverine Magus! An exercise in why reincarnate avoids non-humanoids, and the fun of doing it anyway.

[Lloyd Jackson]

I shall preface this with several disclaimers.

disclaimers:

1. I know what the reincarnate table says, including that glorious, glorious 1%.

2. There any many compelling reasons why reincarnate only includes humanoids.

3. I chose to ignore the advice of experience game-designers in favor of my own whims, despite points one and two.

4. The players agreed with my madness and have found it hilarious.

5. The players are all first-timers, to pathfinder and PnP RPGs. I am have never been a player, and have only been DMing for the last nine months or so.

Having somewhat explained myself for the probable, "This is MADNESS!" and "Fool!" I would like to get some outside thoughts on what to do next.

The Situation
During the expedition to Brinewall castle found in 'The Brinewall Legacy' of the Jade Regent adventure path, the magus, Kaladin, fell under the scorching rays of Nindinzego. The party, having a strong bond of fellowship personified in the party cleric,"I hate you all!" Aria Lina, immediately left to reincarnate their fallen comrade, once the situation with Ameiko had been resolved.

Visiting a druid acquaintance located in the Seer-spring gardens of Magnimar, the party beseeched him to once again raise one of the party. After an impressive diplomacy check, and some grumbling about interfering with the proper course of nature, the druid agreed, and the ritual began....

The players waiting with baited breathe, I rolled in the 3.0 reincarnate table. It seemed suitable druidic. The result: Wolverine! The players' response: 'Yay! Wait, that lacks hands....'

The Question
How would you do to assist the player in the latest DM hijink? What manner of creature is the noble Kaladin: Animal or Magical Beast? Arcane spellcasting while slightly furry? What about his new found anger management issues? Inter-species communication, can he speak?

I look forward to your thoughts, advice, and comments.

P.S. I find reincarnate to be one of the finest tools of role-playing fun and DM shenanigans available, ever since my first experience with the spell, which resulted in the male fetchling sorcerer becoming a female drow noble.

[galahad2112]

First off, this is awesome. There might be some slight mechanical issues to be discovered during the course of play, but this sounds like a load of fun. And since having fun is the point of any game, I'd say "Well done!" or as the kids around here say, +1.

In terms of animal vs. magical beast, I'm pretty sure that any animal with an int of more than 3 is by default a magical beast. Basically, you could use the same rules as the awaken spell. I would think that the rules for spell combat would work the same with a natural attack. However, he will find that spellstrike is USELESS now, since a touch spell could always have been delivered with a natural attack, much like spellstrike allows with a manufactured weapon. On the plus side, you might rule that most combatants will not recognize that the wolverine is casting spells, because, you know, wolverines don't cast spells...

[Stubs McKenzie]

An animal can only have 1 or 2 int, so animal is out. Magical beast is probably closest, but I would.be pretty careful about magical beasts and Polymorph Any Object ( on a scroll or the like)... lots if fun creatures he will be able to permanently become (permanent spell duration of course).

Can't cast while raging, cant speak anything but wolverine, no hands.... going.to be a.tough one.

[Gnomezrule]

The problem may arise that wolverines lack the ability to make the fine somantic compents and can certianly not speak. This is one of the main reason the newer reincarnate lists only have humanoids. I would suggest if you are allowed to chose to ask for Henogoki (might have spelled that wrong)back in 3.0 Oriental adventures they were animals with a human,hybrid and animal form. Basically like the Kitsune but any animal.

[Davor]

1st: He can't cast spells while raging.

2nd: I would TOTALLY allow a character in this situation to take the Natural Spell feat. His ability scores are probably lacking now that he's a Wolverine, so you may as well give him the ability to contribute. I'd even allow him to cast spells through his claws.

I think the main question is... what does he do with his Magus spellbook? Does he strap it to his back? Carry it in his mouth? Might want to invest in a beeswax cover if that's the case...

Have him take a rank in Linguistics and learn Sign Language. It may not be great (I'd probably impose a -2 penalty to all attempts to communicate with creatures that can understand Sign Language), but it's doable.

Other than that, it's awesome. I'll have to find a way to use this spell on my party without forcing a character death...

[Name Violation]

3.5 had a weapon enhancement called "mouthpick" that allowed any weapon (even 2 handed) to be weilded inplace of a bite attack.

the feat "natural spell" may be of use (the gm should allow it, talk to them about it)

IIRC the devs said raising an animals int abouve 3 doesnt automatically make it a magical beast, since that changes a lot of other tings too

[Nephril]

have him take natural spell, i would allow him to purchase or come across an item that gave him very short range telepathy 15 feet or so. and he could still only communicate with someone he shared a language with. to deal with the raging since he has a rage i would allow him to take "extra rage power" as a feat and he could take moment of clarity so he could act normally. maybe put a limit on how often he can use it per combat or just let him make some kind of will save vs damage done to stay out of rage. maybe he can work into rage prophet but homebrewed a bit to match magus. just a few ideas.

[blahpers]

Hey, could have been a flumph. Nothing like a flying jellyfish dripping with acid (and covered with it) and constantly making quiet farting noises to stay aloft to accompany an adventuring party to the inn (*flumph*), or visiting the king (*pffww*), or sneaking into an enemy encampment (*prffff* *flmmmf*).

[CalebTGordan]

If we can have scary backstabbing rogue squirrels, we can have a wolverine magus. Just treat the wolverine as if it had the awaken spell cast on it. Move on from there.

[Tiny Coffee Golem]

CalebTGordan wrote:

If we can have scary backstabbing rogue squirrels,

My next druid is totally going to have a squirrel army to act as scouts/assassins/inflitrators, etc.

[Golden-Esque]

CalebTGordan wrote:

If we can have scary backstabbing rogue squirrels, we can have a wolverine magus. Just treat the wolverine as if it had the awaken spell cast on it. Move on from there.

This is probably the best suggestion in the thread. Here's what I would do, personally.

1) Use the following as your base physical ability scores: Str 14, Dex 15, Con 16. This is the Medium-sized base physical scores for a wolverine animal companion. Use your mental ability scores before you died. (Link to Wolverine Companion: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/animals/wolverine)

2) Your creature type becomes Magical Beast (augmented animal), as if you were an ordinary wolverine that had an awaken spell cast upon them. Likewise, you can speak any languages that you knew before you were reincarnated. (Link to Awaken spell: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/a/awaken)

3) You are required to take a specialized version Natural Spell in order to cast magic. You ... did just level up, right? In addition, I'd allow you to apply your special, um, circumstances to all shapechanging effects you become subjected to. (Link to Natural Spell: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/natural-spell---final)

Hope that helps!

Alternatively, you could also work it where you use Alter Self to transform back into your original, humanoid body. But only temporarily. Get a lot of badger scrolls and whatnot, allowing you to transform into your humanoid body in combat only while remaining a badger at all other times. It has a bit of a Ben 10 feel to it, but it should work well.

[Paladin of Baha-who?]

Anthropomorphic Animal may be useful; although by RAW it cannot be used on a magical beast, since this whole situation is outside RAW, you could just houserule it to be allowed.

[Shuriken Nekogami]

just give him natural spell as a bonus feat.

[gregg carrier]

I agree with Paladin, shenanigans deserve more shenanigens! Either get a polymorph on him or anthro animal and have him as the fuzzy guy in the party... he even gets a bite attack now.

[Stubs McKenzie]

I'd PaO into a sphinx :)