So, I've purposefully made some sub-optimal choices for a character I want to play, but I'd like some advice on how to optimally build within these confines.
The character will be a level 7 Elf Eagle Shaman, or 6 levels of Eagle Shaman and splash a level of something (probably monk). The character's main shtick would be wildshape into a Young Roc (see errata for Eagle Shaman), grappling and then dropping enemies from the sky. The majority of encounters will be outdoors (Kingmaker campaign), but in tight spots would rely on summoning one of the Eagle options (again, see errata).
Thanks!
My Idea for an eagle shaman was to take 2 level dip in Inquisitor and if your GM would allow you you could grab the Eagle druid Domain. (GMs descretion because its a druid domain only, dont know how he would feel if you took it as an inquisitor, even if you have more class levels in druid) This would give you both an eagle familiar and an eagle animal companion. You could also get a bird cohort from leadership if allowed and be a crazy bird man.
For level 7: Eagle Shaman 5 (Inquisitor 2, or Eagle Shaman 6/Inquisitor 1 if you really want to wildshape now.
Human feat: Spell Focus (Conjuration)
Level 1 Feat: Augmented Summoning
Level 3 Feat: Power Attack
Level 5 Feat: Boon Companion
Level 7 Feat: Natural Spell
(Level 9: Leadership)
(Level 11: Superior Summoning)
(Level 13: Improved Initiative)
Lots of good birds, with enough stuff later in the game and your wildshape, could have potentially 10 birds flying around.
Edit: Scratch one of Power Attack since you are going suboptimal with Elf. Or leadership if not allowed for thematic purposes.
The GM is worried about me taking up too many actions in a round. I may even go the domain route instead of having a companion. But I'm liking that "Crazy Bird Man" build, for that kind of thing.
Since I'm wanting to focus on being wild shaped in combat, I came across Planar Wild Shape since originally posting, and it's looking pretty good to me.
I just was looking into this a bit more. When you grapple someone, you get the grappled condition as well. And the grappled condition makes it so you can't move. Except grab lets you grapple without also getting the grappled condition... but at -20 to the CMB check. :(
What are some classes (up to 4 levels worth), feats, traits, magic items, or anything else that can boost my CMB for grappling?
I've only really thought of Improved Grapple and eventually Greater Grapple. :(
Doesn't a huge bird picking opponents up and dropping them from the sky interest anybody? ;)
You can use the option to move when you succesfully maintain a grapple.
animal growth make yourself larger, whenever you successfully grapple a target you pull the target into your square. Then on the next round run straight up at half your movement (basically 2x your normal movement, your opponent might get a chance to break grapple but falling damage still happens) and then let go.
I believe that you cannot cast animal growth on a wildshaped druid. It would be like stacking two polymorph effects, which doesn't happen by the rules.
Another thing that doesn't happen by the rules is adding templates to creatures you can turn into, but I can see that the intent was that you could, otherwise the author of that particular archetype wouldn't have included Roc in the text of the wildshape ability. I'm sure most people would allow a houserule to fix the issue if an errata cannot be found. It certainly would make the Eagle Shaman more playable.
If your plan would be eventually to grab and drop, you will want a high strength. This is not only for carrying capacity but it's difficult to make a dex based grappler. I'd actually go Barbarian with Strength Surge for added success on the initial grapple, then moving half your speed and dropping enemies would be really fun. The problem with this is the amount of flying creatures you will run into later in the campaign, but at least you are still a Giant Bird and can get some decent attacks. Another option would be Lore Warden for the bonuses to CMB, but that does take a bit more time to get going.