| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I would actually base it off a Shapeshifter Ranger, drawing a bit from the Monk of the Four Winds, the Monk of Many Styles, and the Ironskin Monk.
Let's list what you want for this class:
- Good accuracy and damage with natural attacks.
- An animal companion.
- Limited wild shape.
- Some utility.
- Flurry?
First of all, I'd like to note that Flurry with natural attacks sounds great but it isn't that awesome until level 12.
If you have, say, two Claw attacks, you can full attack at level 11 for +BAB/+BAB, whereas a regular character would have to suffice with +BAB/+BAB-5. It's at level 12 when they start getting new extra attacks that the natural weapon fighter loses ground, gradually. So perhaps flurry can be delayed.
With that in mind, here's a progression:
Stalker 3/4 BAB, +Fort/+Ref/-Will, 4 skill points per level, class skills just like a Ranger except for Spellcraft
Level 1: Proficiency with simple weapons and light armor with no metal on it, gains 2 claw attacks (if the PC already had 2 claw attacks, they increase by one step in damage), +2 natural armor CMD, gains Feral Combat Training as a bonus feat and a free Style bonus feat, damn the prerequisites, taken from the Master of Many Styles bonus feat list.
Level 2: Gains Elemental Fist (you can use it with claws thanks to Feral Combat Training) as a bonus feat with damage progression like a Monk of the Four Winds and can use it once per day per Stalker level, also gains Fast Movement like a Barbarian (only active while unarmored or with light armor).
Level 3: Gains Shifter's Blessing like a Shapeshifter Ranger but it uses CON instead of WIS to determine how many rounds it lasts, gains another Style bonus feat no prerequisites.
Level 4: Gains an Animal Companion with Druid level -3, and gains a list of spells similar to the Ranger, except it trades out all abilities based on weapons (like Lead Blades or Gravity Bow) for similar level spells from the Druid's spell list. Caster progression is just like a Ranger. Also gains Spontaneous Casting, allowing the Stalker to "lose" a spell in order to make an Elemental Fist attack that doesn't count on your daily uses of Elemental Fist, but you add X 1d6 dice to the damage, where X is the level of the spell "lost". Your casting stat is CON, not WIS.
Level 5: +1 to natural armor and CMD, gains claw weapon training, granting you +1 to attack and damage with claws and increasing their critical range to 19-20. Also, you gain Multiweapon Fighting as a bonus feat.
Level 6: Your base Elemental Fist now deals 2d6 damage, and you gain something like Pummeling Style, allowing you to pool attacks and dealing them all together. (This is the level where DR starts mattering a lot, so this should be useful to avoid it.)
Level 7: Gains Woodland Stride. Also, you can activate your Styles and your Shifter's Blessings simultaneously. Another Style bonus feat.
Level 8: Gains another Shifter's Blessing, you can maintain two Styles at the same time like a Master of Many styles, and grants Animal Companion +2 natural armor and CMD, increasing by +1 every 5 levels.
Level 9: Claw weapon training improves, granting you a total of +2 to attack and damage with claws and increasing their critical range to 18-20.
Level 10: You gain Pounce (that can only be used in combination with claw attacks). Elemental Fist deals 3d6 damage, you gain +1 to natural armor and CMD.
Level 11: Choose one - SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST: gain your STR bonus as a bonus to Will saves; or, MAGICAL INSTINCT: gain the Quicken Spell metamagic feat, but instead of increasing the spell level by +4, it increases it by +2. Another Style bonus feat
Level 12: Gains Dual Form Blessing like a Shapeshifter, and, whenever you use Elemental Fist during a full-attack, you get an extra claw attack at BAB-7. (This is your replacement for Flurry... getting extra attacks when you use a full-attack with Elemental Fist).
Level 13: Claw weapon training improves, granting you a total of +3 to attack and damage with claws and increasing their critical range to 17-20, also gain another Shifter's Blessing.
Level 14: Allows your Animal Companion to benefit from your Shifter's Blessings, gain A Thousand Faces like a Druid. Your Elemental Fist damage increases to 4d6.
Level 15: +1 to natural armor and CMD, and now you can maintain three Styles simultaneously. Another Style bonus feat.
Level 16: Gain Timeless Body and immunity to poison and polymorph.
Level 17: Claw weapon training improves, granting you a total of +4 to attack and damage with claws and increasing their critical range to 18-20, and, whenever you use Elemental Fist during a full-attack, you get TWO extra claw attacks at BAB-7.
Level 18: Gain another Shifter's Blessing, gain another Style bonus feat, Elemental Fist damage increases to 5d6.
Level 19: You and your Animal Companion gain Evasion, Resilience (like the Ironskin Monk), becoming immune to death effects and are treated as fey rather than humanoid.
Level 20: You gain +1 natural armor and CMD, and you and your Animal Companion gain DR 10/neutral, you can maintain three Shifter's Blessings simultaneously and a bonus Style Feat.
How does that sound?
The sacred fist warpriest goes without armor or weapons. Could that meet your needs?
1. Thanks for the nice comments, just trying to help!
2. How about removing Shifter's Blessing and spells to add a Ki Pool based on CON and Wild Shape? Then you could remove light armor and get that CON to Armor when unarmored thing you wanted. Make sure to note is natural armor, so it doesn't apply to touch AC but to flat-footed. You want to be a though skin guy with this class.
3. There's honestly two approaches here: pool natural attacks to "imitate" full iteratives, or grant so many bonuses to a single kind of natural attack that you can imitate it in terms of power. I went with the latter, since the former is territory of Alchemists, while the latter is more like something Druids currently do.
Choose one and try to support it.
@Oathbreaker: Here is another approach you might like...
My two cents, Brawler with the Wild Child archetype. Fist fighter with and animal companions. No Wild Shape though.
|
There are three options that would work in the ACG.
One: Sacred Fist Warpriest. No AC or Wild Shape, but Flurry of Blows works well, and you can combine it with Feral Combat Training. You can houserule it to use the druid list instead of the cleric list for a more druidic feel.
Two: Feral Hunter. Druid Magic, Animal Focus, Wild Shape, and applies teamwork feats to summoned creatures.
Three: Wild Child Brawler. No spells or wildshape, but a full progression companion and great unarmed damage.
Dandy as f~#~. Glad you liked it.
I had the idea for the class in my head for some time. It started simply as "a druid that can lose a spell to cast an uber Elemental Fist".
It's pretty BETA so let me know what bugs do you find.