So we are starting a Skull and Shackles adventure. The gamemaster is fairly cool with allowing powerful races so I am thinking about rolling up a LE tetori grappler werecroc (human). The idea of combing the skills of a MMA fighter with the ability to do a death roll looks very cool in my mind.
Has anyone ever built something like this that could give some build advice?
Also where in Golarion would someone like this come from? I am thinking about having him worship Urgathoa due to his rather exotic eating habits.
Also my group loves using cool miniatures. I need a cool werecroc miniature!
Do you mean a skinwalker werecrocodile-kin or an actual werecrocodile? If it's the latter are you using the monsters as characters rules or just getting the lycanthrope stuff for free?
Tetori monks are very straightforward to build. In your case you're probably building a strength-based monk, Str > (Wis, Con, Dex) > Int > Cha. You get many of the grapple feats in place of the monk bonus feats and you use your normal feats to fill out the rest, probably including a style which assists. e.g.:
1: Improved Unarmed Strike, Stunning Fist, Improved Grapple, Bushwhack
2: Stunning Pin
3: Kraken Style
5: Kraken Throttle
6: Greater Grapple
7: Kraken Wrack
9: Rapid Grappler
10: Pinning Knockout
11: Body Shield
You could change this around a bit, get a different style, maybe instead of getting a style spend some feats on regular melee (e.g. power attack, lunge) or something else (ranged, skills, weapon or item mastery feats, etc.). All your bonus feats and at least a few others devoted to grappling mean it's likely to look fairly similar anyway.
I am doing a Natural Werecroc, so there will be a level hit. When the party hits level 2 I will still be level 1.
And I agree, with so much natural grappling I might see if I can afford to grab firearms to go with the pirate theme.
By the way I had no clue about the Kraken Style feats, just looked them up and they go brilliantly with my theme!
Tricky. If you're getting the kraken style line and rapid grappler ASAP then you've no handy feat slot to get EWP (some firearm) in since that requires BAB +1. You'll delay some of those feats at least a couple of levels, or else you will have to need to take a dip in the gunslinger class or some other with firearm proficiency (inquisitor with the black powder inquisition maybe).
Being a lycanthrope DR/silver will mean you won't need to worry about defensive feats like the Body Shield I put in that example at level 11, which is nice.
I don't mind delaying the firearms as we have someone playing some sort of gun mage, and a ranger. Ya could do without the body shield, but that is a freeking awesome ability as well, never seen it used at the table before. Actually I really don't see too much grappling unless it is a monster grabbing a player character, this character might be a nice change.
Also that crocadile has a once per minute sprint ability. That with monk movement would allow him to close in quickly on a foe at range.
Still struggling with some details of this character. Since he has to be lawful the only kind of lawful I could imagine being involved with a bunch of chaotic neutrals committing acts of piracy would be a lawful evil, and there would still be challenges from the lawful portion of the alignment.
Know of any good examples of lawfulevilish pirates?
We usually call those 'privateers'. They worked for some nation to target enemy nations' shipping, q.v. Sir Francis Drake. Maybe your guy got booted out for some reason and had to sell his skills elsewhere?
With those speed bonuses firearms look even less useful than usual for a non-gunslinger, a move and attack or grapple will cover more than the first range increment of any personal firearm, which is where they have some advantage over other missile weapons. Javelins and shuriken will be much better for you, maybe with a crossbow for very long range. You might describe shuriken as some sort of improvised weapons to get a slight bit more of a pirate vibe. You might also carry a handaxe as a tool and occasional weapon when you don't want to touch the enemy - pirates definitely used axes.
Edit: thinking about it, in PF just about anything which affects someone using unarmed strikes will affect someone using a non-reach weapon too. Forget the handaxe for that. Maybe a boarding axe to help climb.
The Sir Francis Drake idea is good, I had already bought a rank of craft mapmaking as I want this character to document any islands or landmarks he discovers and Drake was an explorer as well.
However, my big fear is having been or being a privateer for Cheliax. What other countries would be interested in disrupting trade?
Cheliax would fit like a glove, but any coastal country which has been at war (including cold/hidden war) with another coastal country would work. I don't have enough Golarion-fu to say which those would be, sorry.
I think profession (mapmaker) would be a better fit than craft (mapmaking). It couldn't hurt that profession is based off wisdom either.
Ok to fulfill the lawful aspect without necessarily being associated with Cheliax maybe he comes from a crime/privateer family. The fighting style is sort of a family skill which is taught to the natural werecrocs born to the family. His family are mobsters of the waterways.
The family takes contracts on destroying ships, be they merchant or military, even turning mooks into infected werecrocs to use as shock troops. Sinking ships doesn't bother them as in many cases they can dive to retrieve sunken treasures.
I like where this is going. Thanks for the input Avr : )