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My thought is to make a cleric of Gozreh with the animal/plant domain. At 4th level I will get a animal companion as per druid-3. The feat boon companion will let it stay level with me as I advance. My thought was to be a fey type or have the mind set I am fey . The plant domain will allow me to make wooden arm/thorns unarmed attacks as well as later I'll get bramble armor more so a role-play mechanic than anything else. I planned on getting an ape as my familiar of choice but am confused to if I can have him use weapons if given the feats to do so or simply have him bash things with his claws and bite . My first thought was to get him medium armor proficiency (breastplate with a ready made saddle inlaid on the back) and weapon proficiency to use a large two handed weapon since he indeed has fingers and hands. If I use an int increase at 4th level it makes his int 3 which by definition in animal companions guide allows him to choose any feat. My concern is reward/risks as they don't get a ton of feats so how good would he be at sword vs just clubbing things with his claws . Any help or ideas on this concept would be greatly appreciated.
I think it will be cool as a cleric to have something to do when I'm not needed in a healing type setting to cast buffs on my animal companion and have fun watching it torment foes. Any advice is welcome . thanks ..
Really interesting idea, and as a GM I'd definitely consider allowing you those options. However, the language under feats for animal companions specifically says they cannot choose some feats, including Martial Weapon Proficiency. Though, this does seem to be waived if the animal has an intelligence of three or above, and has the capability to utilize the feat. So giving an ape the ability to use a sword seems definitely within the realm of possibility. Of course an animal companion ape will never be as good at wielding a sword as a character class would, but if you are doing it more for the flavor, and to have the role-playing goodness of riding an ape wielding a sword, I'd say go for it.
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thanks, My question however is we play PFS and no rules prohibit it from using the sword it would seem . That is my question . Would it be available for him to use or not as in one section it says he cannot take martial weapon profiency yet in another under feats if he has an int of 3 or higher he can choose any feat. Are there any other specific feats you would give him as a sword wielder ? My character is more for a role-playing aspect as I played a life oracle and was bored out of my mind at level 6 , same with my fighter/archer build. They either had nothing to do (oracle) or killed things so fast (fighter/archer) that others seemed to not have as much fun so in this char I'm hoping for a balance of the two . Thanks for your advice and any help is greatly appreciated.....
Unfortunately because of the ambiguity of the section on animal companion feats, I'd say the end result is: it's up to the GM. It seems clear to me that the intelligence of three and above provides the open door to any feat they qualify for. Neither Simple nor Martial weapon proficiency have a prerequisite, that I'm aware of. Which means the ape could select either as an available feat, if the INT of 3 waives the aforementioned restrictions. Again, that seems to be unclear via the current language, so it falls under GM choice.
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to get your ape to use weapons just put his level 4 stat increase into intellect and then have him take the proficiency feat for the desired weapon and its all good from there. you are correct.
things to make your ape truly shine in battle:
animal growth is a completely overpowered spell when compared to enlarge person.
even if hes wielding a weapon you could use magic fang to increase his bite.
the cleave progression works well with an animal companion since his bab will climb slowly and iterative attacks will be postponed. but great cleave only has a bab requirement of 4 so you can access both pretty easily.
possible feats
1 falchion proficiency
2 power attack
5 cleave
8 great cleave.
or you could focus him as a grappler and let him use his unarmed damage to put the hurt on your enemies.
feats
1 improved unarmed strike
2 improved grapple
5 dragon style
8 step up
for this i would suggest the caster taking improved initiative having a little grapple monkey to shut down other casters is awesome to have when you win initiative and they dont have a chance to get there spells off the addition of dragon style eats up 3 skill points but it also lets you charge through difficult terrain.
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yeah I double checked I get beast shape 3 instead :( .. I may just buy a wand of it instead lolol... I will have a decent charisma afterall . it should be fun to play her. She will have entangle and other usefull spells and be able to heal well still as well . Now I need to start looking at races and such . I have a couple boons from gming at a local con as well I may use for her too . Thanks again .
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for traits i LOVE beast of society and dangerously curious.
beast of society: magic trait
Benefit: Whenever you use your wild shape class ability to turn yourself into a Small or Medium-sized animal, the effect lasts for 2 hours per druid level instead of 1 hour per druid level.
dangerously curious: magic trait
You gain a +1 bonus on Use Magic Device checks, and Use Magic Device is always a class skill for you.
so youd have to pick one. which is easy if you plan on being a wildshaper go for beast of society but if you want to be a caster type just take dangerously curious.
if you go the wildshaper route i might suggest picking up reactionary the +2 to initiative is nice. and then just take the feat cosmopolitan to get umd as a class skill as well as one other mental stat based skill. you also net 2 languages with that feat very nice.
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For a little more in depth i am going to share an idea i have for cleric with a lot of utility.
ill take your ape companion hes fun
companion basics first through level 12
feats
1 power attack
2 cleave
5 falchion proficiency
8 dragon style
10 weapon focus falchion
skills
acrobatics 5
climb 5
ability increases
at 4 int
at 9 strength
items to get for ape
barded mithril breast plate would be nice
i would try to get a keen falchion.
amulet of natural armor
belt of physcial (whatever you can afford)
now for you
i would stick vanilla cleric none of the archetypes seem WOW inspiring.
take your plant and animal domains for flavor
race human for the feat
traits
reactionary
beast of society
feats:
human: sacrifice the feat and give you pet 2 to any stat con would probably be a good choice. its an alternate racial feature.
1 selective channeling
3 cosmopolitan
5 boon companion
7 extend spell
9 improved initiative
11 toughness.
the whole purpose to this build is to have the answer to every question your a cleric even though you have to prepare spells ahead of time you can still be very versatile. you could exchange toughness and improved initiative if you like but i find at higher levels going first means a much bigger deal and that extra 11 hit points can be a life saver.
selective channeling because in society you fight alot of humanoids. cosmopolitan to pick up perception and umd. if you have someone in the party to use magic devices for you then you could probably live without cosmopolitan but its a very nice feat to have. extend spell at 7th because by now you will have enough spell slots available to really make use of my favorite metamagic. and since you can share all of your amazing self only buffs with your animal companion he will be a beast.
Hope this was helpful.
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Ok I spoke to the GM and he said they won't allow me to give my ape companion a weapon as it seems they are against the rules for PFS. That said the character is coming around nicely and is now 4th level cleric of the animal / plant domain with boon companion feat and is getting her animal companion. So my question now is how do I make the best use of his large size and his 25 str? the apes stats are as follows :
str 25 (13 base, +8 for 4th level adv. , 1 for stat increase 4th level , 1 for added str/dex animal companion, 2 for alt racial trait human )(will either get an item to add to str later or add at 8th level ))
dex 16 ( 17 base , -2 for 4th level adv , +1 for animal companion )
con 14 ( 10 base , +4 for 4th level adv )
int 2
wis 12
chr 7
+5 total natural armor . bite 1d6, 2 claws 1d6 .
my question concerns on how best to progress from here. I know i want to get him medium armor ( breastplate ) so i have to take that as a feat. hopw would you best use him other than that however. Would you make him a grapple type or simply add to his natural weapons with improv natural weapons fr added dmg . he currently has 2 featss available with the next coming at 5th level. thanks for reading and any help you can give is appreciated.