I have been toying with the idea of making Monk/Druid characters based on the Way of the Angry Bear guide that was posted a number of years ago (The Way of the Angry Bear). I really like the flavor of Monk and Druid together, and I love the idea of a Monk that synergizes their unarmed combat abilities with Wildshape.
However, I ran into the fact that the Feral Combat Training feat has been errata'd and nerfed, making the type of build talked about in that guide a bit less significant than originally intended, aside from the complications that arise from multiclassing and gestalt-like characters.
In my understanding, Feral Combat training is still useful, in that it can be used to have one of your natural attacks from Wildshape work with both Flurry of Blows and abilities from feats that are based on Improved Unarmed Strike (such as Dragon Style). What it doesn't do post-errata is let you use your Monk's unarmed strike damage die for natural attacks while in Wildshape. Correct me if I'm wrong.
So I figured I would homebrew a Monk/Druid prestige class based around this type of build to get around the limitations of Feral Combat Training and represent the build in one cohesive class. Enter the Feral Disciple:
Requirements
Alignment: Must be Lawful Neutral
Skills: Knowledge (nature) 5 ranks
Feats: Feral Combat Training
Special: Wild Shape class feature
Special: Flurry of Blows class feature or Multiattack feat
Class Features
Base Attack: Medium
Saves: Fortitude, Reflex and Will
Class Skills: Acrobatics, Climb, Escape Artist, Fly, Handle Animal, Knowledge (Nature), Knowledge (Planes), Perception, Ride,
Stealth, Survival, Swim
Skills Per Level: 4 + Int modifier
Hit Die: d8
Wildshape: The Feral Disciple's class levels stack with Druid levels for the purpose of determining their Wild Shape ability.
Monk Abilities: The Feral Disciple's class levels stack with Monk levels for the purpose of determining their Unarmed Strike
damage, their Flurry of Blows ability, and their natural AC bonus.
Monstrous Wildshape: At 1st level, the Feral Disciple must choose a monster type: Aberration, Dragon, Fey, Magical Beast,
Monstrous Humanoid, Undead, Ooze, Outsider, and Vermin. They gain the ability to assume the form of creatures of that type with
their Wildshape ability. At 2nd level, they can assume the form of a large creature of the chosen type, a tiny creature at 4th
level, a Huge creature at 6th level, a Diminuitive creature at 8th level, and a Gargantuan creature at 10th level.
Bonus Feats: At 1st, 5th and 9th level, the Feral Disciple chooses a bonus feat from the following list (Bleeding Attack,
Crushing Blow, Domain Strike, Dragon Style, Elemental Fist, Flyby Attack, Hamatulatsu, Improved Natural Attack, Monastic Legacy,
Multiattack, Natural Spell, Noxious Bite, Rending Claws, Scorpion Style, Shaping Focus, and Wingover).
Feral Ferocity: At 3rd level, the Feral Disciple may use their unarmed strike damage die for natural attacks while in Wild Shape. Additionally, their natural attacks while in Wildshape count as Magic Weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
Monstrous Style: At 4th level, the Feral Disciple gains a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls while in Wildshape. If the Feral Disciple has the Multiattack feat, their penalties to secondary attacks are reduced to -1.
Extraordinary Wildshape: At 7th level, the Feral Disciple gains all of the extraordinary special abilities and special qualities
of any shape they take using their Wild Shape ability, wether or not they appear in the list of the relevant spell.
Improved Monstrous Style: At 8th level, the Feral Disciple's bonus to attack and damage rolls while in Wildshape increases to +2. If the Feral Disciple has the Multiattack feat, their penalties to secondary attacks are reduced to 0.
Wildshape Mastery: At 10th level, the Feral Disciple gains all
of the spell-like abilities of any shape they take using their Wildshape ability, whether or not they appear in the list of the
relevant spell. These spell-like abilities are based on their Wisdom modifier.
Overview and Thoughts
The basic idea here is that you are a Monk who goes into Druid to get Wildshape, and then enhances their Wildshape with Unarmed Strike and its related abilities via Feral Combat training. From the Druid angle, you're giving up spellcasting progression in exchange for enhanced Wildshape abilities and Monk gestalt synergy. I also leave open the possibility of entering the class without being a Monk via the Multiattack feat, which supplements Flurry of Blows.
Monstrous Wildshape is a bit like the ability of the Master of Many Forms prestige class from 3.5 D&D, but it is more narrow and specialized to one creature type.
The bonus feats serve one of three possible functions: to give you more abilities from feats that are based on Improved Unarmed Strike, to give you access to some Monster feats, and to help you fix up the losses to abilities from being multi-class, bringing you closer to a gestalt Monk/Druid. They're all feats that naturally go with the build.
Feral Ferocity is essentially intended to do what Feral Combat Training was originally exploited to do. On the surface, it might not seem like it does much, but it can do a lot applied to your secondary natural attacks while in Wildshape.
Monstrous Style helps make up for the cost to your BAB of multiclassing and slowly eliminates the penalties for doing full attack actions while Wildshaped. Even if one comes into the class without Multiattack, it is a very useful feat for the build and this serves the function of moving us toward the equivolent of Improved Multiattack, which doesn't appear to exist in Pathfinder.
Extraordinary Wildshape is a nice ability that is identical to the 7th level ability of the Master of Many Forms.
Wildshape Mastery is our capstone that essentially makes up for giving up Druid spellcasting by giving you the ability to use spell-like abilities of your Wildshape forms. If there's anything I'm worried about being OP about this, this is it. Might go with Supernatural abilities instead.
My main questions are:
- Does this actually work within the rules as I think it does?
- If it does work within the rules, is this balanced? Overpowered? A little underwhelming? How does it compare to a pure Druid build based on a similar concept?
- General thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions? Critique?