I’m creating a character for an Urban campaign setting. Usually, I’m a bit of a min/maxer, but was looking for something a little more wacky. The goal then is to make an bug/arachnid-themed archer/caster to creep about the dark corners of the city, setting up traps and shooting down foes before they can escape.
I started with the Verminous Hunter. Not the strongest archetype, but it gets me access to some cool spider abilities and a vermin companion. Low Int means few tricks, but I figure bugs are fairly expendable anyway, and it makes them easy to retrain.
The new Magic Tactics Toolbox has the Patient Ambusher archetype for Hunters, which is compatible with the archetype and I though captured the creepy vibe of a Spider Queen, waiting for her prey.
Drows have a feat called Spider Summoner, which allows me to summon some vermin when I use Summon Nature’s Ally. I could take this later, but I’d definitely want to pick it up down the line. The Poison use and Darkvision fits the theme.
We’re starting at level 5, and I’ve already rolled for stats (pretty decently). I’m looking for help with Feats for this build, what weapon I should be looking for (longbow?), and for info on traps. Would it better to focus on spell summoning, traps, or something else? I’ve never really used a character like this before and would like some advice. If there is a blank ____, that means I need help filling that slot.
Any advice on spells would be great!
Añara
Female Drow Patient Ambusher/Verminous Hunter 5
Chaotic Neutral
STR 14, DEX 16 (14+2 Drow), CON 12 (14-2 Drow), INT 13, WIS 19 (18+1 lv.4), CHA 14 (12+2 Drow)
Feats and Class Abilities:
Level 1: Feat: Spider Summoner, Vermin companion, Orisons, Vermin Focus, Vermin Empathy
Level 2: Precise Companion: Precise Shot, Track
Level 3: Feat: ____, Trap, Learned Traps: Snare Trap and Freezing Trap
Level 4: Improved Empathic Link
Level 5: Feat: ___, Swarm Stride
Traits:
1: Dangerously Curious (to get UMD)
2: Reactionary
Spells:
Spell-like Abilities-Dancing Lights, Darkness, Faerie Fire
0-Detect Magic, Resistance, Flare, Read Magic, Enhanced Diplomacy
1- Summon Nature’s Ally I, Entangle, Obscuring Mist, Produce Flame, Heightened Awareness
2-Summon Nature’s Ally II, Summon Swarm, Spider Climb, Barkskin
Admittedly, I'm not completely sold on this build. If you have any other ideas for how to create an effective Bug-themed stalker, even in a different class, let me know!
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As a 6-level caster you're already a spell level behind the specialists and the gap is only going to grow. Traps are kind of hard to make work but if your allies are willing to work with you to lure enemies to a prepared battlefield they might work. If you spend feats on archery it works well, no question, and that's where I'd suggest putting your spare feats.
On other ideas:
A summoner is obviously better at summoning. Your eidolon can be spider-themed with extra legs, webs, stealth etc. Some of their battlefield control spells could be themed as traps. They're not terribly stealthy by default but with the right traits and magic that can change.
A cleric can summon too, and with the trickery domain and the new animal/insect subdomain you can add more stealth & spider flavour. They get glyph of warding which I think you will find better than the traps from feats.
Edit: one more idea. A toxicologist druid, perhaps with the cave domain, gets loads of spider flavour.
I can't believe I forgot about the summoner. I'll definitely give that a try. I love the idea of getting spiders to crawl out of the walls and engulf some terrorized bandits.
Any idea on what my stat spread and feats would look like?
The feats are easy. You wanted spider summoner, and you need augment summoning and so spell focus (conjuration). You get 3 feats by 5th level and summoner doesn't give you bonus feats.
Stats? Without combat feats and with a class lacking support for it you're not going to indulge in combat personally. You are going to want dex for stealth, AC and to go first with summons or battlefield control, int to stretch your skill points a little further, cha because it's your casting stat. As a drow with those rolls str 12, dex 16, con 12, int 14, wis 13, cha 21 looks pretty impressive.
A quadruped base form with 2 extra sets of legs has a base move of 60' which isn't bad. Sadly web & poison are minimum 7th level. Anyway, with the 4 remaining points skilled (stealth), climb, bleed (standing in for poison) and improved natural armor seem good. The 2 feats might be power attack and furious focus, or it could get dodge and mobility to aim for spring attack later - it's not the most powerful option but it might be thematic.
Alright...take 2. The other thing I'm considering is going into the Naturalist Archetype and maybe convincing my DM to let me take Vermin Aspects from the Verminous Hunter instead of Animal Aspects (more for theme than anything).
Añara
Female Drow Summoner 5
Chaotic Neutral
STR 12, DEX 16 (14+2 Drow), CON 12 (14-2 Drow), INT 14, WIS 13, CHA 21 (18+2 Drow+lvl 4)
Ranks of Skills: Bluff +5, Spellcraft +2, Linguistics +3 (how does this work to speak to my summons?), UMD +5, Stealth +5
Feats and Class Abilities:
Level 1: FEAT: Spider Summoner, Cantrips, Eidlon, Life Link, Summon Monster I
Level 2: Bond Senses
Level 3: FEAT: Spell Focus (Conjuration), Summon Monster II
Level 4: Shield Ally
Level 5: FEAT: Augment Summoning, Summon Monster III
Traits:
1: Slippery (to get Stealth)
2: Convincing Liar (Fits the spider theme, and gets me Bluff as a class skill for social settings)
Spells:
Spell-like Abilities-Dancing Lights, Darkness, Faerie Fire, Summon Monster III (8/day)
0-Detect Magic, Resistance, Mage Hand, Read Magic, Message, Open/Close
1- Enlarge person, Glue Seal, Grease, Infernal Healing
2-Glitter Dust, Haste, Invisibility
================================
Spider Eidolon 5
Quadraped
STR 16 , DEX 16, CON 14 (13+1vl 5), INT 7, WIS 10, CHA 11
Skills: Perception +5 , Stealth +13 (+5+8), Acrobatics +4, Climb+1, Intimidate +1
Evolutions: 2-Limbs (x2), Climb, Skilled (Stealth), Improved Natural Armor, Bleed
Special: Darkvision, Link, Share Spells, Evasion
Looks good. The only thing I'd change is that enlarge person is only marginally better than magic fang considering Large animals usually don't get reach, and it takes too darn long to cast. Magic fang of course also lets you bypass DR /magic.
While Summon Nature's Ally isn't as good as SM it can be used while your eidolon is present, so Naturalist should work.