So the devil monkey is my stand-out favourite critter from Bestiary 6 and I really want to play one, or something resembling one, and from there probably go into Barbarian. What would be the optimal way to do it?
a) Straight-up use the Awaken spell. Would the racial HD be too high a price, though?
b) Just use a Vanara? They're not optimal Barbarians, but make decent Rangers, I hear. I kind of want to be a gigantic hulk though.
c) Dust off the old Taer race from the 3rd edition book Unapproachable East? Are they any good?
d) Just build a custom race? This is kind of a last resort, since it's so easy to abuse custom races and I don't want to be that guy.
e) Something I haven't thought of yet?
The most important thing here is being a baboon tank.
Ask your DM as this is strictly in DM fiat territory. Assuming I was the DM, I would be comfortable giving you Rock Throwing/Puncture Armor, but dial you back to Medium or Large (you would still be growing and if the campaign lasted long enough you would grow up step by step til you hit Huge). For ability scores, I am not sure. Maybe an Orc adjustment (+4 str for -2 all mental) but you would also get full benefits for size?
If you want to have minimal homebrewing, you could ask if you could be a Tiefling monkey/Vanara (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races/featured-races/arg-tiefling/ see Non-Human Tieflings - it is pretty much just a fluff change but there is a precedent for it in base rules). Take one of the alternate Tiefling heritage's for bonuses to strength or con to fulfill your baboon tank concept.
Why a tiefling, specifically? Devil monkeys are not actually fiendish; the 'devil' part is a misnomer.
How about a Shifter with the Monkey aspect?
How about a Shifter with the Monkey aspect?
The Monkey Shifter seems kind of underpowered, honestly. Plus I'm not that interested in playing a shapechanger. I want to be all baboon, all the time.
If a player ask in a game I ran, I'd hand them monkey goblin, Vanara or Orang-Pendak for a monkey/baboon race.
If you want barbarian, Orang-Pendak has +2 str/wis and -2 int so it seems like a pretty good fit. There are also archetypes, like urban barbarian, and/or unchained barbarian, that are friendly to dex characters that put the other two races in a good place. None have a minus to str or con so it depends on what you think a 'tank' is.
If a player ask in a game I ran, I'd hand them monkey goblin, Vanara or Orang-Pendak for a monkey/baboon race.
I thought about that, but aside from the Vanara, those guys are all Small. I'm trying to make a really big character.
I thought about that, but aside from the Vanara, those guys are all Small. I'm trying to make a really big character.If a player ask in a game I ran, I'd hand them monkey goblin, Vanara or Orang-Pendak for a monkey/baboon race.
If you play one of those you could convince your GM to give you the giant template. This lets you be larger, and a fair price may be giving up a class level. Then you can be an Abyssal bloodline Bloodrager and actually grow a size when you rage.
Sounds fun, hope you can make the concept work.
Why a tiefling, specifically? Devil monkeys are not actually fiendish; the 'devil' part is a misnomer.
Because of the 'Non-Human Tieflings' section. It allows you to LOOK like [insert race] while keeping the abilities of tiefling. As such, if you take a Non-Human Tiefling [Vanara], you look like a monkey with some demonic features but take your abilities 100% from the tiefling.
In game terms, the difference between non-human tieflings and human tieflings is purely a matter of size. Unless they have specific tiefling-related size modifiers, the tieflings of each of these races are the same size as their non-fiendish ancestors. They gain any of the bonuses or penalties related to that size, but gain no racial bonuses except those of the tiefling; beyond size, their humanoid ancestry is purely cosmetic
So what this means is you can have a race that looks like a devil monkey, has a plus to str or con, has a prehensile tail, and even 'oversized arms': all within the rules.
vanara infernal bloodrager?
If you play one of those you could convince your GM to give you the giant template. This lets you be larger, and a fair price may be giving up a class level. Then you can be an Abyssal bloodline Bloodrager and actually grow a size when you rage.
This looks a lot like what I'm looking for. Thank you. Has anyone played Abyssal bloodline before? I'm seeing kind of mixed things about it on the optimization guides.
So what this means is you can have a race that looks like a devil monkey, has a plus to str or con, has a prehensile tail, and even 'oversized arms': all within the rules.
I believe this would also work with aasimar as well as tieflings, although tieflings probably mesh better if I want to go the Abyssal Bloodrager route.
I hadn't planned on giving this character any kind of fiendish heritage, since that comes with a ton of its own baggage and I don't like to get into that unless it's part of the character, but the character is still largely undefined so it could work. If I do go tiefling, it looks like the best options for that would be demodand, demon, devil, oni, and qlippoth. Demon also makes the most sense with Abyssal bloodline, of course. Is there a rules reason those two should be together? I know that tiefling sorcerers can get some synergy by matching bloodline to heritage but does that apply to bloodragers as well?
As far as assimar go, archon and agathion both look pretty good, and agathion in particular goes well with the monkey vibe. Plus, aasimar don't get any ability penalties, which is very nice. I'm not sure how I'd work out the backstory of how an aasimar uses Abyssal bloodraging, though.
So it looks like my best options here are:
a) giant orang-pendek. Medium size, Large while Bloodraging.
b) aasimar or tiefling, possibly giant. Medium-to-Large, Large-to-Huge while Bloodraging.
There is absolutely no requirement for tiefling and bloodrager heritage to be the same. So Infernal Tiefling + Abyssal Bloodrager should work fine.
I don't think you can use fiendish heritage on bloodrager abilities but I could be wrong. I mean, if you want to be a monkey you might want prehensile tail which replaces that anyways.
I would not focus on using natural attacks as with what you have so far two-handing is much more efficient. I'd leave it as a backup while raging and just focus on two-hand power attack. The strength bonuses you have will be through the roof, and if you really wanted to make this crazy you could dip into mutagenic master brawler for another +4 to strength.
Aasimars don't need celestial heritage. Maybe your mother was corrupted by fiendish influences (in whatever fashion you'd like) and so gave birth to you in a sacred and holy place to purify you. (Perhaps on a ley line connected to Nirvana). Instead of counteracting the demonic abilities, it just added to it.
I find seemingly unconnected mechanics to be great fun in weaving into a story.
Yeah, the fluff of the character is still very much up in the air. The overall campaign, from what I can tell, has kind of a Frank Frazetta/Robert E. Howard pulp adventure vibe going on, so I'm trying to come up with something distinct, but also not inconveniently out-of-place in a savage world.