Cool Variant Multiclass Monster combinations?

[Olaf the Holy]

It occurs to me that the variant multiclass rules could be a cool way to give well-known monsters surprising new tricks, without all the hassle involved in giving them actual class levels, or even the somewhat lesser hassle that comes with adding Simple Class Templates.

Changing out feats is easy to do on the fly though - we do it all the time when we GM.

Can any of you think of interesting combinations to spruce up old monsters? This is mostly a mid-to-high level tool, of course.

I'll start:

Succubus devotee of Lamashtu, Cleric VMC.

New Feats
1 - Agile Maneuvers
3 - Decoy of the Trickery domain 5/d
5 - Iron Will
7 - Channel Negative Energy 1d6 (Madness variant channeling) 8/d, DC 19
Dropping Combat Reflexes & Weapon Finesse

It's not a big change, but enough to catch a well-read PC a little off guard, I think.

Storm Giant Paladin

New Feats
1 - Power Attack (And Code, Aura of Good)
3 - Detect Evil
5 - Awesome Blow
7 - Lay on Hands 9/d, 7d6
9 - Iron Will
11 - Smite Evil 1/d, +2/+15
13 - Combat Reflexes
15 - Mercy(Shaken)
17 - Improved Crical(Greatsword)
19 - Divine Weapon Bond +4, 3/d
Dropping Cleave, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Sunder, Vital Strike, Improved Vital Strike.

I mean, is that cool or what?

[Avoron]

Monktopus
giant octopus with monk variant multiclass

1 - Multiattack
3 - Improved Unarmed Strike, unarmed damage 2d8
5 - Combat Reflexes
7 - evasion
9 - Hammer the Gap
11 - ki pool (magic, cold iron, silver), 6 ki points

[Olaf the Holy]

I guess you could do animals and the like.

Honestly, I was mostly thinking of using it for intelligent creatures. I like it because it gives me a quick way of differentiating individuals without having to muck about with challenge ratings and hit dice.

Classes kind of add structure to an NPC, gives them a sense that they have an actual role in the world, outside of just being there for the pcs to slaughter.

Giants especially give the sense that they're all identical and bred for a single purpose.
That's fine for Fighting Uruk-hai, but less fine for a tribe of mountain folk that the pcs encounter while travelling. Those should be different from each other.

Meanwhile, lions are sort of not that different, so I probably wouldn't use it there.

Albeit the Monktopus is admittedly cool.

[UnArcaneElection]

This is a pretty cool idea. And if you are near some kind of Island of Dr. Moreau, Animals VMC {somethingorother} would even fit thematically -- when they slide back into being Animals after the failed Alchemical/Vivisectionist Awakened Anthropomorphic Animal Transformation procedure (this Vivisectionist isn't particularly competent), they don't entirely lose the class abilities that they were trained with, and end up with VMC class abilities (potentially going through an intermediate stage where they have a Class Template instead).

[Avoron]

Olaf the Holy wrote:

Honestly, I was mostly thinking of using it for intelligent creatures.

Elder Monktopus

kraken with monk variant multiclass

1 - Multiattack
3 - Improved Unarmed Strike, unarmed damage 6d8
5 - Improved Grapple
7 - evasion
9 - Kraken Style
11 - ki pool (magic, cold iron, silver, adamantine), 10 points
13 - Kraken Throttle
15 - +3 dodge bonus to AC
17 - Kraken Wrack
19 - improved evasion

There you go: a highly intelligent creature with lots of tentacles. Toss in the giant and advanced templates, give it greater shadow body piercings and an amulet of mighty fists, then let it loose. The Final Embrace line would be epic on this monstrosity, but I couldn’t pass up my one chance to make a kraken with Kraken Style.

[CBDunkerson]

Note that this is somewhat similar to the Simple Class Templates from Monster Codex and the Class Grafts from Pathfinder Unchained. With some combination of the three options it is fairly easy to give any creature the feel and effective abilities of the various classes.

[Olaf the Holy]

I did mention simple class templates in the OP.

I'll have to check out those graft things.

Edit: Hmm. Those look like they're intended for making new monsters entirely? Eh, looks like a lot of work.

Probably useful for making monsters from scratch, so at least there's that.