I was thinking about Jurassic Park and why it's named that, and came to the conclusion it's all about the shape of the words. But this led me onto a truly wonderful name: Cretacia Spark. To me, this sounds like some sort of terribly upper class British woman from a pulp novel.
Naturally, she needs a T-Rex animal companion. Also possibly a whip proficiency, though that's optional. Note that I don't want her to ride the T-Rex.
The problem is, most of the classes that get an animal companion don't seem to fit very well with "posh British". Druid and Hunter are a bit too much "guardian of nature" and a bit too little "irritating imperialist". Cleric's a bit religious, Oracle is it's own thing. Inquisitor has the educated skillset, but is still too committed to a deity, Beast Rider Cavalier rides the creature (and only gets it at L7 anyway), and Wild Child Brawler is nicely uncommitted, but lacks anything to make it appropriately posh. I could work with Inquisitor or Brawler, but neither is ideal.
So I went to look at Investigator, hoping for an animal companion archetype. What I found instead was a familiar archetype. So then I thought, "What about a Mauler Compsognathus? That's pretty close to being a young t-rex." Sadly a t-rex companion would get bigger at L7, while the familiar would get upgraded to an improved familiar, thereby totally altering the concept.
So, does anyone have any other ideas?
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Courtly hunter. It's definitely a possibility for a posh Brit. An urban druid with the nobility domain could work, but I think the courtly hunter is a better fit.
if you dont mind waiting a few levels you can take the feat Animal Ally
Then you can be whatever class you like
Animal ally: '...from the following list: badger, bird, camel, cat (small), dire rat, dog, horse, pony, snake (viper), or wolf.' No T-rex there.
There's probably a deity with nobility and animal domains somewhere. A cleric of such a deity might fit the concept too. Or, a summoner whose bipedal eidolon just happens to look like a T-rex albeit with a glowing sigil on its head.
Lucy_Valentine wrote: I was thinking about Jurassic Park and why it's named that, and came to the conclusion it's all about the shape of the words. But this led me onto a truly wonderful name: Cretacia Spark. To me, this sounds like some sort of terribly upper class British woman from a pulp novel.
Naturally, she needs a T-Rex animal companion. Also possibly a whip proficiency, though that's optional. Note that I don't want her to ride the T-Rex.
The problem is, most of the classes that get an animal companion don't seem to fit very well with "posh British". Druid and Hunter are a bit too much "guardian of nature" and a bit too little "irritating imperialist". Cleric's a bit religious, Oracle is it's own thing. Inquisitor has the educated skillset, but is still too committed to a deity, Beast Rider Cavalier rides the creature (and only gets it at L7 anyway), and Wild Child Brawler is nicely uncommitted, but lacks anything to make it appropriately posh. I could work with Inquisitor or Brawler, but neither is ideal.
So I went to look at Investigator, hoping for an animal companion archetype. What I found instead was a familiar archetype. So then I thought, "What about a Mauler Compsognathus? That's pretty close to being a young t-rex." Sadly a t-rex companion would get bigger at L7, while the familiar would get upgraded to an improved familiar, thereby totally altering the concept.
So, does anyone have any other ideas?
Make a Druidzilla build.
Take the Leadership Feat.
Make your cohort the Posh character.
Or you could just be a Mammoth Rider and roleplay it how you want. After all the prereqs for Mammoth Rider have no roleplaying requirements:
Mammoth Rider wrote: To qualify to become a mammoth rider, a character must fulfill the following criteria.
Base Attack Bonus: +6.
Skills: Handle Animal 9 ranks, Ride 9 ranks, Survival 5 ranks.
Special: Animal companion (or mount from a class feature that progresses as an animal companion) with at least 6 Hit Dice.
So play a Cavalier. Become a Mammoth Rider. T-Rex isn't one of the listed choices, but I don't see a GM ruling out a T-Rex, especially if you aren't asking for a mechanical advantage.
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1. Sylvan (Wildblooded) Sorcerer. No need to be nature-oriented, Charismatic, animal companion from the get-go. Lots of face skills. Abilities like Fleeting Glance and spells like Hideous Laughter or Poison would fit a rapscallion.
2. Are you open to ROBOT DINOS? Because Construct Rider Alchemist could work (they don't actually need to ride the Construct!)
3. You don't NEED to ride your mount as a Beast Rider Cavalier. You can get the Luring Cavalier archetype as well added into the mix to be a ranged character.
avr wrote: Courtly hunter. It's definitely a possibility for a posh Brit. I agree the flavour is good, but the mechanics make me cringe. It seems to trade off the best bits of the base Hunter and three skills I want in order to get random skill buffs with no synergy. :-( I'm not really sure how to make it worthwhile given the mechanics.
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Lucy_Valentine wrote: avr wrote: Courtly hunter. It's definitely a possibility for a posh Brit. I agree the flavour is good, but the mechanics make me cringe. It seems to trade off the best bits of the base Hunter and three skills I want in order to get random skill buffs with no synergy. :-( I'm not really sure how to make it worthwhile given the mechanics.
You are not exactly looking for an optimized character, nu?
You don't lose anything that really matters – you can still pelt things with arrows, that makes for a viable character, plus you get a ton of boosts to being a better face.
Plus, you CAN weaponize Courtly Hunter features. With some decent CHA, you can use Aspect of the Frilled Lizard + Skill Bond to pump Intimidate for yourself and your companion. You can use Warning Shot, get your companion Intimidating Prowess, Bully Breed, Dazzling Display...
If you tried to build Courtly Hunter like a regular Hunter, of course it will be a bit underpowered. But you CAN use its specific advantages.
Worst case scenario, you STILL have the Animal Focus feature, even if it doesn't provide combat-specific boons... but that doesn't matter, cause you can always get Planar Focus and give your T-Rex fire damage on hit.
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On the non-mechanical side, in Golarion, this sort of character sounds like something that could show up in Sargava. She's totally Chel to the bone, exiled here to the sweaty backside of civilization, and making the best she can of it with her 'precious,' which she has named Boopsie, and decorated with a tabard of the Chelish flag, and some frilly pink fluttering ribbons on it's tiny useless forepaws.
Because tiny shivering overbred lap-poodles are *so* last year, darling.
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If you want a civilized person of culture to have a Tyrannosaur, perhaps your civilized person should culture it?
Take the feat Craft Construct and talk your GM into letting you change the appearance of a Homunculus to a T-rex. Of course you don't want a tiny T-rex (or do you?) so that means adding more HD until it grows to Large sized. Going by the Monster Advancement rules "As a general rule, creatures whose Hit Dice increase by 50% or more should also increase in size". We want 3 size increases so we need to add at least 50% more HD 3 times.
Base Homunculus: 2 HD. +1 HD for the first size increase. 3 HD small +2 HD for the next increase. 5 HD medium +3 HD for the last size increase. A Huge Homunculus would be +4 more HD. An actual Tyrannosaurus is Gargantuan...but that wouldn't fit the look, would it? Large should be good enough.
The accumulated stat changes from Tiny to Large are (+4+4+8) +16 strength, (-2-2-2) -6 dexterity, (+2+4+4) +10 constitution (but constructs don't have con), (0+0+2) +2 Natural Armor. Also for Large size -1 attack, +1 CMB, -2 fly, -4 stealth. Assuming you start with a normal Homunculus the size increase should give a 2d6 bite attack.
Looking at the Monster Creation rules a 2 HD construct is CR 1. We increased to 8 HD and according to the chart that would be the equivellent of 6 HD. The accumulated changes from CR 1 to 6 are: (+5+5+10+10+15+15) +60 HP, (+1+2+1+2+1+1) +8 AC, [+1,+2,+1(2)+2+1(2)+1(2)] +8-11 to attack, [+2(3)x3, +3(4), +3(5)] and a range of +12-18 damage. Since this is a make your own monster lets keep those minimal and say +8 to attack, +12 damage.
If you keep the flight, keep the 20' ground speed. If you ditch the flight, ask the GM if you can upgrade the ground speed to 30'.
So end stats are going to be something like
Large Construct, Init -1, Darkvision 60', +10 perception.
AC:18 touch:8 flat:18 (-1 dex, -1 size, +10 natural armor)
HP: 71(8d10) Saves: Fort +4 Ref: +8 Will +5
Move 20' fly 50' (or move 30', no fly would be better)
Bite 1 +18(2d6+23+poison) (remember 1.5 times str bonus for damage)
Space 10'x10', reach 10'
Str 24, Dex 9, Con --, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 7. +2 stat points to distribute from advancement.
Base Attack: +10 CMB: +11, CMD: +21
Feats: Lightning Reflexes, +3 more from HD advancement.
Skills: Perception +12, suggest selecting 2 different skills.
And the poison should advance to DC 16 to match the new CR.
Cost would be a minimum of 2k for a base Homunculus +12k for the extra +6HD for a total of 14k gp. Adding an acid or fire breath would be fun. Also its possible to pay for more HD.
"Secret Wizard wrote: You are not exactly looking for an optimized character, nu? Well obviously when building a character from a name, with an animal companion picked without respect to stats, there's a significant compromise of effectiveness there. But there is a limit.
I had a plan for an archer hunter and discarded it because it seemed to be missing the joy of Teamwork feats. I feel like a 3/4 BaB class with no bonus feats isn't a great archery platform? But it has buff spells and a tyrannosaur, so maybe that's enough. I like that Planar Focus feat. :-)
Set wrote: On the non-mechanical side, in Golarion, this sort of character sounds like something that could show up in Sargava. She's totally Chel to the bone, exiled here to the sweaty backside of civilization, and making the best she can of it with her 'precious,' which she has named Boopsie, and decorated with a tabard of the Chelish flag, and some frilly pink fluttering ribbons on it's tiny useless forepaws. Boopsie is going to have a MASSIVE BOW and some RIDICULOUS ACCESSORIES with RUFFLES.
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Lucy_Valentine wrote: The problem is, most of the classes that get an animal companion don't seem to fit very well with "posh British". Druid and Hunter are a bit too much "guardian of nature" and a bit too little "irritating imperialist". Cleric's a bit religious, Oracle is it's own thing. Inquisitor has the educated skillset, but is still too committed to a deity, Beast Rider Cavalier rides the creature (and only gets it at L7 anyway), and Wild Child Brawler is nicely uncommitted, but lacks anything to make it appropriately posh. I could work with Inquisitor or Brawler, but neither is ideal. So why is a prim and proper lady of quality breeding off adventuring in the first place? --Answer: she's been trained to fight in the grand aristocratic tradition.
STR+? 17 or 12
DEX:+? 12 or 17
CON: 12
INT: 13
WIS: 12
CHA: 13 (or one 14 and two 12s)
racial trait: Eye for Talent
character traits: Masterful Demeanor
01 Fighter1 [Drill Instructor], FEAT(c), FEAT(g)
* If there's anything a Chelaxian gal loves to do, it's boss people around. (Also picks up Heavy Armor Proficiency here if you go high-strength/low-dex.)
02 Hunter1 [Primal Companion]
* You've been adventuring awhile now, and oh my gosh, how much is that dino in the window? You simply *must* have it now! Only the very best in Boopsies will do. Good thing you learned a few tricks from that summoner you traveled with.
03 Hunter2 [Precise Companion:Outflank], Boon Companion
04 Hunter3 [Hunter Tactics][teamwork feat:Escape Route], STAT>18
05 Fighter2 [Drill Instructor][Combat Expertise][Pack Flanking], FEAT(g)
* Further leveling: two more of fighter or other non-animal-class-advancing, and the rest Primal Companion Hunter.
~ ~ ~
*Home-game suggestion: ask your GM if you can stack the Roof Runner archetype with Primal Companion (it overlaps in one teensy area, the 20th-level Master Hunter, which you'll never reach); this will trade some outdoor stuff for a couple usefull dexterity-based rogue skills.
I'd suggest keeping the concept, but changing how you achieve it a bit.
Take a class that grants a familiar, not an animal companion. Choose Compsognathus. Add the mauler Archetype.
Now (by third level anyway) you have a medium sized dino, and one that will probably work out a lot easier in most social situations.
While there are plenty of classes that can do this, I'd suggest duettist bard (whip proficiency is included)
A human summoner with the Keleshite Princess trait. Dino themed eidolon.
As a princess, it is difficult to get more posh, and you have your servants to ensure you don't have to actually get your hands dirty yourself.
Invest solely in social skills and flaunt your status 8)
Sylvan sorceror has the charisma to be a posh aristocrat. Sure your bloodline is fey-based but that doesn’t inherently dictate your nature, just has a tendancy. Just pick up boon companion.
in my game I had Baba-Yaga have a pet Tyrannosaurus Rex (monster - not animal companion) with a magical gem studded silver collar with nametag "Phoebie" that allowed scrying(as a focus) and limited spell level casting of spells through it (generally to heal the beastie or convert it to a more docile green persian cat form). Scary posh on the GM's side of the table...
for a character where you want it to stay in the realm of relatively cute, might I suggest an animal companion velociraptor with a tasteful hat from the british queen's selection or something from Hyacinth Bucket's wardrobe. You can always select the +2 Dex & Con rather than a standard size increase.
Familiars are better and you have several choices, they're just not combat flunkies.
Lastly, the PC can just be a wizard or unchained summoner and call forth creatures in nice attire. Probably the most powerful build. So long as the clothes have no mechanical effect, you're in flavor town.
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