I have always liked the idea of playing a melee character that was the opposite of common advice. Don't go large, with strength and reach....go tiny, with dex and lots of AoOs.
I am thinking of trying to build a melee character around a 1 lvl dip in Mouser. The debuff plus flanking are nice pro-party buffs and you get the nice AoO if the enemy moves out.
I am thinking that it might work well with any class that has easy access to reduce person or the beast shape line. As such it would work well with Druids and Alchemists. I also think that a Kitsune monk could pull this off well with use of fox shape and later on the ability to pounce.
Has anyone seen a good build for Mouser?
I don't know if you've seen this but it's a build theory with this concept taken to the extreme.
Looking at building a Goblin Mouser myself.
But you're looking at going small via Reduce Person.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I worked up a goblin mouser swashbuckler 1/ daring champion cavalier X.
I really just wanted the special abilities from the 1st level of mouser, and then figured I would go into daring champion all the way. Chain Challenge + Precise Strike + Challenge + AoO galore meant ripping enemies to shreds. Daring Champion gives you all the stuff you care about from Swashbuckler, but the ability to use combat teamwork feats, especially the flanking ones can make this build incredibly strong.
I worked up a goblin mouser swashbuckler 1/ daring champion cavalier X.
I really just wanted the special abilities from the 1st level of mouser, and then figured I would go into daring champion all the way. Chain Challenge + Precise Strike + Challenge + AoO galore meant ripping enemies to shreds. Daring Champion gives you all the stuff you care about from Swashbuckler, but the ability to use combat teamwork feats, especially the flanking ones can make this build incredibly strong.
Whoa! Thanks, Claxon!
I was mainly looking at it because I LOVE "Roll With It" and thought of how funny it would be to have this little gobo running around, getting underfoot, and rolling away screaming "Waaaahhhhhhh!!" if he gets hit.
edit: I wonder how a Vanguard Slayer would work with the goblin Mouser 1/Slayer X ?
I actually think that mouser works very very well as Alchemist X/ Mouser 1.
Basically you can build a Hyde alchemist but instead of focusing on Str and Enlarge you focus on Dex and Reduce. Chug a combined extract of reduce person / ?? and go to town with a feral mutagen or chuck a few bombs. The reduce person plus mutagen gives you a +6 Dex bonus. Pick a small race and now you are down to tiny. Beastmorph would give you some added utility to your form and pounce. Your now a tiny pouncing machine. 3 natural attacks should be enough. Especially since the build would be more versatile (extracts, bombs, mutagenic forms) than a pure monk melee build and probably wouldn't have your GM screaming Ban It, Ban It Now!
^Nice! Especially since your bombs don't lose any damage for the reduction in size.
But, how does the Mouser really benefit you?
My husband has a halfling mouser with a 2-level brawler dip. He buys Reduce Person potions by the sixpack and uses the Plume of Panache to give him reach while he's tiny (since he doesn't normally threaten when he's tiny). It's a really fun build.
The character I play as his partner is a Holy Tactician paladin with a cavalier dip and a brawler dip to get teamwork feats on the fly and pass out two of them at once. The Mouser ability has the unique property of letting you be both adjacent to an ally and flanking with them at the same time, so if a bad guy actually lasts 2-3 rounds, my Paladin can pass out Outflank and Paired Opportunists to everyone, and his Mouser can trigger both conditions at once.
The original point of the build was for the Mouser to debuff the bad guy while everyone else takes him out. But one issue we have run into is that foes will often just concentrate on taking out the Mouser if other party members haven't gotten into position or use reach weapons or have trouble hitting. So if your Mouser happens to be the only one who can hit the bad guy or the only person in reach, expect to take a bunch of full attacks every round. (We're mitigating this by having my paladin pick up Antagonize to force foes to attack her instead--we'll see how it goes.)
^Nice! Especially since your bombs don't lose any damage for the reduction in size.
But, how does the Mouser really benefit you?
Mainly a benefit if you decide to go the small reduced to tiny route. I think the benefits to the party as a whole are nice. If you go medium to small then it's not worth it.
You mean the swordsmans flair, blue heinkerchief?
Just for the pure awesomeness of the concept, I may go this route for my Grippli PFS boon. It could be fun to lay down the pain as a tiny frog.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
MOUSER BUILDS? I BARELY KNOW ER
Mouser 1 / Rogue (Vexing Dodger) 19
Halfling or Goblin
Major Magic (Reduce person) for going tiny
EWP (Elven Branched Spear) for 5ft reach while being tiny and dex2attack and dex2dam
Technically a gnome could get the proficiency through Tinkerer, yet doesn't get a dex bonus.
Monkey Goblin or Grippli would be best for the vexing part of the build due to natural climb speed.