Eagle Vs Roc I don't really think it's a competition. Roc gets a ton of natural armor, so you can literally use it like a tank (my Roc in Kingmaker had more AC than my plate armor wearing, heavy shield wielding cavalier) it also gets grab, so if you pump up its CMB (which is not at all hard to do) you can grab enemies and fly them out into the sea then let them drown. The Roc also gets much much better stats.
Go with the Roc, you won't be disappointed.
Commando, are you reading the same stats that I am? The Haast's Eagle is one of the most powerful ACs I've seen. Though I have to admit that at 7th level they get very close in stats, and the Roc has a lovely fly speed and good natural armor.
The grab is fun, but so is pounce... The other reason to go Haast's Eagle is that I'll likely never get another chance to play with one, since it is third party. However it is from the world in which our campaign will be set, so it's an option for me currently.
Hmm
Oh I see. No, I was looking at the Riding Eagle that's standard on the srd.
Idk, pounce and powerful charge is a pretty good combo - although that only works once per target. That might make it worth it. I say that because with a Roc, I never found the damage to be appreciable (however I was playing a Cavalier so most of the time the mount never got to attack anyways - but when it did, the damage was very minimal).
I was playing a roc-mounted cavalier and it was fun enough. Of course I did keep forgetting about hit attacks and the one time it hit the damage couldn't be compared to mine (but hey, go compare over 100 damage from trippling a power attack challenge hit with a lance+spirited charge toa mealy 10 average)
All in all any bird seems very fit for a pirate campaign, though of course a parrot, while less useful would be the most iconic
|
Hmm.(no, thats my thinking noise). Drop toughness for undersized mount and improved init for flagbearer if you want.I find that pathfinder favors offence, so i may even be tempted to drop con to 12. If you choose to drop str, look up lamellar curiass from ultimate combat for 8 lb armor. Feather domain..you'll find not much to do until Wadjet comes into play, as youcan only nova 7x per day, your sermonic performance has round limits. Keep guidance and stabilize as cantrips, and cause fear memorized. Always have at least 1 cure spell (or more) memorised as you cant spontaneous cure.
Actually I would trade +1 always on bonus for +4/+5 init, since a hangover cleric is meant to be a battlefield controller, which makes you want to always go first. When you get your hands on banner of ancient kings, thats when you really want flagbearer up.
if you want to play a campaign specific flier, id say go for it, since its the only time you'd get to : D
Dont bother about knowledge ranks. You have enough things to do with handle animal, ride, and probably Knowledge religion/diplo to do anything else. Its the wizards job, not yours.
|
Drogos --
So would you minimize Knowledge Religion too? I think that one sadly, is my job description.
Then which would be maxed in its place? Perception?
We'll be coordinating Knowldges Known. Maybe I tell the group outright that I'm covering Diplomacy and just aiding others on their knowledges, but it does seem I should know something about religion as an evangelist.
Though who knows? Maybe my character is just making stuff up the way I am. There is so little written up on Horus from the Pathfinder perspective. Thank goodness he is a "real" deity that could look up elsewhere!
Of course, I am the person with the fewest skill points of anyone. They're all going for reasonably heavy skill point classes.
Hmm
Since you are the person with the fewest skill points, just concentrate on Knowledge Religion and perhaps put a single point into another knowledge skill that fits your background -- probably Knowledge Local.
I find that it is normally worth a point to bring Strength up to 11 for characters wearing light armor. It can still be tough keeping at light load.
I would personally max Knowledge Religion until about 7th level. Part of that is I wouldn't want to know less than the wizard in what should be one of my character's tag skills.
Walrus. Two tons of cranky lard with built in lances... so lovely!
Crocodile.
Tick tock tick tock...
"Screeeeee!"
Wedjat flies in, and starts to preen himself.
Although he already thinks he's awesome, I still need to pick feats, tricks and skills for him. I'd love some suggestions, especially for feats. He's IQ 3, so he can pick anything he qualifies for.
I have a grand total of 3 feats, 5 skills and 11 tricks to pick. I'd be more than happy to look at your suggestions!
Giggling over the ability focus suggestion.
I noticed that the bestiary (non-animal companion version) got the feat fly-by attack. That one is pretty interesting.
Can animal companions take monster feats?
|
|
*scratches Wedjat's neck, passes him a piece of chicken, then jumps into wedjat and attempts to fly him off into the sunset, only to get dumped*
Whhaaat? No exotic military saddle? Not combat trained? (Check the combat training package under handle animal tab). Your pirority should be using his 2 int to learn full combat trainimg package (attack, come, defend, down, guard, heel) then see what others you want to stack on, attack(again, so he can attack undead), flank and bombard(maybe?), then his bonus tricks could go to hunt (I'm lazy and always have my animal companion fetch me lunch), breakout (liberating command in case of grapples) or maybe exclusive, so random druids do not charm wedjat and fly him off into the subset. Sneak if you really want to do aerial scouting.
Weight wise for riding : 40 lbs for exotic military saddle, 25 lbs for mw studded leather (Flutter will come after us with big sticks if we do not ensure he's adequately protected before flying into battle). A human female has min weight of 95 lbs, we are not including gear. You're up to 160 lbs just flying him with nothing on you. I think you need ant haul.
Skill wise : 1 rank in linguistics to learn common so he can benefit from sermonic performance. 1 rank in survival if you taught him the hunt trick, and the rest of the points into fly. If you are not doing a pounce charge, only way to get full attacks is to hover, which is a dc 15 fly check. Unfortunately, a haast eagle is not as agile as a roc, so he will need to work more on it. Otherwise make it a point to land Wedjat before he makes his full attacks(when he does it without pounce).
wedjat cannot take flyby attack, because its not listed in feats animal companions may take. Unless gm gives permission of course. If GM gives permission, id say take the hover feat, and say goodbye to those troublesome dc 15 fly checks forever.
Feats: Power attack, extra item slot(cloak, for cloak of resistance), Improved unarmed strike
or if you're worried about charge lane(shouldn't be that bad): power attack, improved unarmed strike, dragon style
Bodyguard and In Harm's Way work well with companion creatures, especially if the PC can heal them after they take the hit. If you want these feats faster there's a Bodyguard archetype for animal companions which also offers some other options.
If you focus on pouncing into flank and maybe have the PC carry a Menacing weapon the bird's attack bonus might get high enough to make Power Attack work pretty well. Improved Bull Rush might be fun for knocking people off of ships and cliffs, but if you don't expect a lot of fights in those areas it is probably just a wasted feat - animal companions aren't usually great at CMB anyhow though your buffs might help a bit.