For months I've wanted to create a character based on the phrase "a murder of crows" as a backup for my current campaign. I'm thinking a Tengu Pack Lord or Beast Master with 2-3 "Crow" companions and maybe some summoned "Crows" or a "Crow" Familiar that all act as though they've convened a hearing, judged their enemies, and either deem them innocent & worthy of help or guilty & deserving of death.
I think this character would be a heck of a lot of fun to roleplay. My play style is RP heavy, so I always start with concept then roll the character to fit, and my GM allows rule-bending privileges for good RPing, so I'm flexible on the build but I'm not sure how to make it work. Or if it even can work. I'm hoping you guys can help.
RACE: Tengu
ALIGNMENT: Lawful Neutral
ABILITY SCORES: High Intelligence & Wisdom
SKILLS:
- Perception
- Sense Motive
- Survival
- Linguistics
- Appraise
- And perhaps Diplomacy?
FLAVOR: I also plan to make regular use of any non-combat spells that add to my flock numbers but don't increase my turn time (ie Charm Animal, etc)
FEATS: Tengu Wings & Raven Form (unless I can do this with Wild Shape & still keep the Crow flavor?), Boon Companion, Then maybe have my companions take team feats
COMPANIONS: I need Multiple "Crow" Companions (at least 2, I'm thinking Axebeaks or but any crow-like animal would work as my GM will allow for creative renaming -- but not reclassing, so I can't make a "crow" swarm)
THE BIG PROB: How can I make multiple companions effective in combat & keep them from getting one-shotted? (The GM actually plays all companions & he roleplays them according to their (my) alignment and will happily march them to their deaths if they're not up to snuff) Has anyone made a functional multi-combat-companion build & lived to tell the tale? If so, what classes? Feats? Alternative ideas?
FAMILIAR: I'd like to have some sort of "Crow" (Raven) familiar too. Is that possible with a companion?
FIRE POWER: I'd like to be able to summon additional "Crows" in combat like SNA spells (creating the "murder"/flock effect) though I can give this up if my companions are strong
*I know this is a wall of text & a ton of questions. So thanks in advance to anyone who actually makes it this far & double thanks to anyone who is kind enough to offer help.
You can get a lot of mileage out of a Boon Companion feat for each companion - but I wouldn't go with more than two. I think there is a trait that helps a smidge too, which can effectively keep your companion level at or very very close to parity with character level for quite a while. In high level play there is not much you can do unless there are magic items that can be acquired that keep the companion level up with you.
Quite a few druid domains grant a familiar - the Eagle Domain grants a hawk familiar. Re-flavor as a crow and you're good to go. However, that swaps out Nature's Bond (which grants animal companion).
I would suggest a Huntmaster Cavalier as your best bet (archetype in the Animal Archives supplement). There was a 3.5 3pp that had getting a familiar done via feats, but I don't recall the specifics off the top of my head.
I don't know of any "official" way to get 2 companions *and* a familiar. It sounds like your GM may be willing to work with you on this, so you may be able to do so at the cost of one/several feats.
Makes a nice tie-in with a Houndmaster too.