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Howdy,
I'm helping a friend build a Leonal Agathion character and don't have time to do as in depth delving as I normally do, so I need help brainstorming. Anyone got cool ideas for classes/archetypes/feats/special abilities/etc that would work well for improving upon the base Leonal? I can take it up by a few CR-worth.
Thanks
Paladin seems thematically appropriate. They're NG, but then so are some paladins of Sarenrae, and they already have the ability to lay on hands. Hospitaler, Oath of Charity, or Divine Hunter are decent archetypes, but so is the standard paladin. Surprisingly, Empyreal Knight would not be a great choice as most of their abilities overlap with those of the race.
Paladin seems thematically appropriate. They're NG, but then so are some paladins of Sarenrae, and they already have the ability to lay on hands.
Say what now?
Paladin seems thematically appropriate. They're NG, but then so are some paladins of Sarenrae, and they already have the ability to lay on hands.Say what now?
Sorry, I'm too used to housing that. Sarenrae is a NG deity with a very well-known paladin order, and in my games I generally make the order NG as well, as it makes little sense to me otherwise.
Thematically, barbarian or ranger are the most suitable for the Leonal, with Inquisitor and Bard coming in seconds. These are all classes that provide combat buffs, and Leonals are basically close-in combatants (or they want to be). keep in mind that they are among the weaker fighters of the tougher celestials, but with the right buffs can end up okay.
==Aelryinth
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Paladin seems thematically appropriate. They're NG, but then so are some paladins of Sarenrae, and they already have the ability to lay on hands.Say what now?
Yeah, officially speaking, all Paladins are LG.
That said, an individual Leonal could easily be LG, so Paladin is still on the table. Or the GM could house rule it.
On the other hand, a Leonal Barbarian would not necessitate such a thing, and would potentially be pretty sweet. Go Celestial Totem, grab the Fey Foundling Feat and, when raging, your Lay on Hands heals 7d6+28 damage, which is just crazy good.
That's totally what I'd do, thinking about it. Grab Power attack instead of one of the Leonal's other Feats, maybe Extra Rage, too, wear Medium Armor, grab an Amulet of Mighty Fists, go to town as a pouncing, nigh invulnerable, Leonal Barbarian.
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I was also considering the possibility of rogue to take advantage of that pounce. Seemed appropriate for what is essentially a big cat-- pump his initiative, and pounce for full attack plus sneak attack damage on the first round with flat-footed opponents. Thereafter take advantage of the multiple natural attacks by applying sneak attack damage as well (the group has plenty of melee-ers to flank with).
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I was also considering the possibility of rogue to take advantage of that pounce. Seemed appropriate for what is essentially a big cat-- pump his initiative, and pounce for full attack plus sneak attack damage on the first round with flat-footed opponents. Thereafter take advantage of the multiple natural attacks by applying sneak attack damage as well (the group has plenty of melee-ers to flank with).
The big issue with this is that Sneak Attack isn't actually gonna be very high. I mean, what level is this? If it's 14th, you get 3 levels of Rogue for 2d6 Sneak Attack. That's...okay, but probably not something you build a character around.
Eh, we're going for min-maxing over flavor. Yeah, go barbarian all the way then. It'll be crazy strong.
Nothing wrong with adding paladin levels, the players won't even notice the difference, it'll just be a stronger Leonal. However, a ranger would make sense as well. Don't forget:
Creatures with class levels receive +4, +4, +2, +2, +0, and –2 adjustments to their ability scores, assigned in a manner that enhances their class abilities.
One of those +4s should go to Charisma if paladin, and wisdom if ranger. I really recommend the paladin levels because they will stack with its existing Lay on Hands abilities, and will significantly boost its poor will save, which is this creature's greatest weakness currently.
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Eh, we're going for min-maxing over flavor. Yeah, go barbarian all the way then. It'll be crazy strong.
Celestial Totem Barbarian actually seems very flavorful to me. Admittedly, the Fey Foundling thing is straight min-maxing, but the basic concept is really pretty sound conceptually. Ranger and Paladin are also up there, but Barbarian's solidly in-theme.
Nothing wrong with adding paladin levels, the players won't even notice the difference, it'll just be a stronger Leonal. However, a ranger would make sense as well. Don't forget:
Creatures with class levels receive +4, +4, +2, +2, +0, and –2 adjustments to their ability scores, assigned in a manner that enhances their class abilities.One of those +4s should go to Charisma if paladin, and wisdom if ranger. I really recommend the paladin levels because they will stack with its existing Lay on Hands abilities, and will significantly boost its poor will save, which is this creature's greatest weakness currently.
Note: This is not necessarily how all GMs will run this, as it's the 'quick rules' on stat adjustments. The actual Ability Scores rules in the Monster Introduction recommend subtracting 10 from even scores, 11 from odd ones and then using those as racial mods. So doing this with whatever method of stat generation is standard is both fairer and more sensible, IMO.
That's certainly what I'd do, and probably closer to the official word on the matter as well.