Carion Crown Character help

[northbrb]

So I will be playing in Carrion Crown soon and I decided I want to make a Werewolf, I am doing this by making a Skinwalker Barbarian and taking the Beast Totem Rage powers and all feats and Rage powers that give my character animalistic characteristics

I know this will take a while to really be capable and useful just with my natural attacks so I wanted to get some advice on what weapons or fighting style I should go with while I advance my natural attacks?

[Master of the Dark Triad]

I'm not sure how open you are to opinions of what other classes might make a good werewolf, but a shapeshifter ranger might too.

Just a thought.

[northbrb]

I am not a fan of spells plus the rage powers and raging work really well for a character who "Shifts" into a werewolf style character

I am pretty stuck to Skinwalker Barbarian, my biggest problem is choosing a fighting style or weapon build that will require no feats from me that do not function towards natural attacks as well.

[MattR1986]

If your DM interprets this AP the same way I did, you are in for a very steep uphill battle to do well in Ravengro. Unless you have some savvy companions, life is going to be difficult for you being a werewolf. I don't know if you've talked to the DM or not, but I'd really get his take on this before committing so heavily to that race.

[Rynjin]

There's no issue in that regard if he just remains un-shifted when in view of the villagers.

[MattR1986]

@ Rynjin

Spoiler:

There are a number of important encounters in the town that if he is reliant on his shapechange thing to be useful he's going to have issues. Hell the AP STARTS on what is very likely to be a combat encounter

[Rynjin]

True, but if he can hold out and use a weapon until 2nd (and pick up Lesser Beast Totem) he should be golden.

[MattR1986]

Spoiler:

There are different encounters that are kind of sandboxed and don't really specify when they happen. This thing is supposed to take you to 4th. I'd imagine the second fight with Gibs wouldn't be till 3rdish and Event 5 with the burning building would be late as well. This doesn't account for if the DM includes the alternate events like I did and have zombies keep popping up in the Restlands or all the other extra encounters that can happen with the table or monsters given at the end.

I haven't even looked at Part 2-5 but it wouldn't surprise me if other areas weren't crazy about werewolves as well. I think in the 2nd you're dealing with vampires. Again it would depend on how lenient the DM is with prejudiced against supernatural races.

[Rynjin]

Spoiler:

Book 2 is a Frankenstein type of story, a mystery in the first half, followed by a good ol' fashioned dungeon crawl in the second half that IIRC has the highest average PC death count of any AP book released so far.

Book 3 is werewolves + Zombies.

Book 4 is Lovecraftian horror.

Book 5 is vampires.

Book 6 is everything (and liches).

But yeah, none of that matters. As you said, AP runs to 4th. If he can hold out until 2nd (which shouldn't take a whole lot of time) he's gold. If he wants it at 1st he could always take a level of Ranger and snag Aspect of the Beast. He can retrain it later if he likes.

Actually, Skinwalkers may count as lycanthropes for the purposes of snagging Aspect of the Beast. I know I'd allow it even if it isn't necessarily RAW.

And even if none of that is the case, so what? Maybe it makes things a mite harder for the party. Can still be hella fun to play. Probably MORE so than a squeaky clean character.

[MattR1986]

lol I'm glad I didn't keep my CC group to book 2 then. I'm sure I'd have some upset players on my hands. Its not to say that being a werewolf will automatically be a bad idea. I'm sure it could be fine. I would just ask the DM to see what their take is on it so the player has fair warning of what he's getting into and can decide if its worth it.

I had a player thinking of doing orc or half orc and I said he could but he was likely to face a lot of adversity due to geography and history. The group turned out to be a social disaster as it was, having an orc would have probably taken it over the edge.

[Rynjin]

It's totally worth taking to Book 2 and onward. The dungeon at the end isn't unbearably difficult, but it's unforgiving as far as the average AP goes. If you goof around too much, or make too many mistakes, or just rush ahead without thinking, you will die.

[northbrb]

My friends and I played the first book of CC back when it first came out but now we want to try it again and actually finish it. we got through the 1st book and began the second book.

[Mathius]

If you shift in view of the public it would be very difficult for you socially but could be very fun.

[northbrb]

My only issue now is trying to figure out my non-shifted fighting style, I dont want to use any feats that wont benefit me in my shifted form.

So my weapon option needs to be good enough on its own.

[northbrb]

My GM loves this idea a lot and thinks it will be thematically interesting for the game.

[MattR1986]

Unless it's a tarp! then you have nothing to worry about. A word of advice: make sure someone in your group has a charisma above 9 and some ranks in knowledges and diplomacy.

[Tholomyes]

MattR1986 wrote:

Unless it's a tarp! then you have nothing to worry about. A word of advice: make sure someone in your group has a charisma above 9 and some ranks in knowledges and diplomacy.

And honestly, if it is a trap, find yourself a new DM. Any DM who "loves [the] idea" only because they can't wait to screw over the player who wants to play that concept is a big red flag.

[northbrb]

Not a trap, My DM is a good friend of mine and I have been gaming with him for almost 14 years now.

[prong999]

I've run Carrion Crown twice, but had to stop at book 4 due to RL complications - work schedule for the first time, and one of my players getting pregnant the second time. (It wasn't me!)

I think Carrion Crown is the perfect AP for playing a werewolf or something like a Vampir (or whatever they are).

Unless your party is really small, or your DM is a hardcore TPKer, I wouldn't be too worried about your feats for Haunting of Harrowstone. I'm sure that as a barbarian, you are probably going to take something like Power Attack at first level.

Just carry a greatsword for your human form, and use that on hostile villagers or zombies until you level. If your party spends a reasonable time around town doing research, you'll probably level before you goto the prison, anyway.

About the only thing I would caution you about is that Carrion Crown is a very story driven AP, and it takes a lot of active playing by the party members. A barbarian without any social skills might get a little boring for you. A ranger with knowledge (Nature) and perception might be more useful outside of combat. However, if you are ok with waiting for your party to find the clues, a barbarian's combat power will be helpful too.