Critique my creepy Cancer Goblin!

[Shadowmancer777]

Says it all in the title! I had a rough idea for a flavorful, if a touch creepy, Goblin Alchemist. He will be an oversized, mutant Goblin. He boasts to all his tribe mates "I'm so tough, I ate my brother before we were born!" Little did he know the two were twins and they actually fused! He cant quite get the nagging voices out of his head, and the constant gibbering and bickering drove his tribe mates mad, and he was thrown to the wild. Shanks' parasitic twin Giblit was always plotting and learning, twisting their corrupted body to suit his purposes. Shanks was just happy to be big, tough and feared. This brawny little freak will be an Alchemist combo of Preservationist/Vivisectionist.
Discoveries: Vestigial arms, Parasitic Twin, tumor familiar, etc.
His main schtick will be to lob mutated nasties at his enemies, creatures grown from his own body! They all look as they should, if a bit....Goblin-y. He also has a Giant Flea (working) familiar with the Parasite archetype (Wilderness Origins) to infest his enemies and bend them to their wills. I also dabbled with the concept of the Possessed Hand feat line, to add a 4th member jumbled in this mess of a body. Not by any means optimized, but it was alot of fun to theory-craft.

I'm open to suggestions! Im honestly not sure if this is a character I'd ever actually play, so feel free to use him for your campaigns if it tickles your fancy. Let me know your thoughts and opinions!!

[Fox Soul]

I see you stated two familiars. Last I checked you can only have one, as different classes that would grant familiars only stack.

Other than that, it is a horrible thing for me to imagine, but I love the amount of care you put into designing this guy.
You made a happy little monster that is full of horrors.

[Toolbag]

I agree. There are a lot of adventuring possibilities built into this guy that should make the game interesting.

[Secret Wizard]

When you mean Oversized, you mean as in the template? That makes you medium size and changes your ability scores?

Cause if so, you could look into getting more into melee.

I was gonna recommend the Purging Emesis feat.

[Shadowmancer777]

I'm glad you spotted that Fox Soul! Actually, if you read the feat for Hands Detatchment, it says you CAN opt to take it as your familiar. It already lists the abilities it gains and has before it even makes any mention of making it become your actual familiar, just use the statistics for a Crawling Hand, give or take a couple type changes and abilities. Thank you for the feedback guys! I often make alot of theorycrafts that I tell myself I'm gonna play, and then never do, so I've opted to start posting them so at least SOMEONE can get some enjoyment out of them.

[Shadowmancer777]

Secret Wizard wrote:

When you mean Oversized, you mean as in the template? That makes you medium size and changes your ability scores?

Cause if so, you could look into getting more into melee.

I was gonna recommend the Purging Emesis feat.

What a flavorful feat! I'll definitely keep it in mind. And Oversized Goblins are a subtype of Goblins that change their ability bonus and size, so you are indeed correct, you read my mind with the melee bit.

[Gray Warden]

Shadowmancer777 wrote:

I'm glad you spotted that Fox Soul! Actually, if you read the feat for Hands Detatchment, it says you CAN opt to take it as your familiar. It already lists the abilities it gains and has before it even makes any mention of making it become your actual familiar, just use the statistics for a Crawling Hand, give or take a couple type changes and abilities.

Just for completeness, that only means that you get the hand as an additional choice for your familiar. So, a Wizard could choose to have a standard familiar AND a non-familiar detached hand (which gets Int bonus, natural armor bonus, empathic link, speak with animals of its type and speak with master as a standard familiar, but not the rest), OR a detached hand that also acts as a full-familiar.

Other than that, I suggest you give a look at this thread.

[Shadowmancer777]

Thank you for clarifying, that was what I was trying to get at. Also, that thread is very inspiring! Skin send is a great extract for Alchemist, especially with infusion. I was also thinking Vomit Swarm and Vomit Twin, both of which flavored to look like tumorous amalgamations of various kinds. Imagine a skittering swarm of goblin teeth, fingers and eyes coming at you!

[Decimus Drake]

Have you considered tentacles? I wish I knew about the Hand's Detachment feat when I made my witch; not sure how to visualise it learning new spells or my witch communing with his hand each morning to prepare spells.

[Scott Wilhelm]

The character concept you're describing seems like it might be a good fit with the Master Chymist Prestige Class. At present, I don't have any technical advice for you.

Master Chymist is that PC where you develop an alter ego like Bruce Banner and the Incredible Hulk, and as you take levels, your alter ego gains more abilities. The idea that your character is a dual personality with him and his brother that he ate in the womb seems like a good match.

Huh, I guess I do have a game-mechanics comment. The ability of Parasitic Twin is that you get to reroll Will Saves, but it seems a shame that Alchemists have poor Will Saves to begin with. Definitely 2 saves are better than 1, but if failing the save is a concern, then maybe increasing the bonus should be a priority.

[Dragonborn3]

Decimus Drake wrote:

Have you considered tentacles? I wish I knew about the Hand's Detachment feat when I made my witch; not sure how to visualise it learning new spells or my witch communing with his hand each morning to prepare spells.

Tapping out Morse Code.

[Gray Warden]

Decimus Drake wrote:

Have you considered tentacles? I wish I knew about the Hand's Detachment feat when I made my witch; not sure how to visualise it learning new spells or my witch communing with his hand each morning to prepare spells.

Reading her own hand, while detached (so that it's oriented as if it was another person's).

On a side note, if used as a full-familiar, the detached hand is probably the best option for a combat-oriented Mauler familiar. Being Diminutive means that it gets +6 Str when going to Medium size. This means that, at 3rd level, it will sport a nice 22 Str (13 base + 6 polymorph + 2 Battle Form + 1 level). If used by an Alchemist (or Sorcerer/Bloodrager with the Aberrant Tumour feat) as its own Tumour Familiar, it can be reattached out of combat to fully heal from any damage. A single level into Beast-Bonded Witch, or two levels into Eldritch Guardian, would allow it to get Power Attack too. And since it only has one attack, both Power Attack and Str to damage get multiplied by 1.5x. Not to mention grab!

So yeah, if you change your mind on the Parasite flea, I suggest you use your detached hand as your familiar and make it Mauler. This of course means that you will have one less "body part" to lose, but making your hand able to detach, turn Medium Size and crush people on the go has its own appeal too. Also, if you go standard Small-size Goblin, you can have your hand dirty (quite literally) going melee (with the help of Mutagen), while you ride it and toss bombs around.

This is definitely going to appear as a NPC in my Rappan Atthuk campaign.

[Zarius]

Waaait... Maulers get polymorph AND battle form bonuses? O.o

[Shadowmancer777]

This post flew off the rails in the best possible way! I never even thought to make the possessed hand a tumor familiar as well. It could even take the Die For Your Master feat, giving it even more tank potential. I was pretty attached to the idea of having them Medium, but this just a concept I slapped together, feel free to modify it how you see fit!

[Dragonborn3]

Abyssal Bloodline Familiars could work too, increasing the claw damage to 1d6. The Celestial Bloodline Familiar is a creepy little helper, granting Fast Healing to whoever it is touching.

Draconic: You hand suddenly grows wings!

Fey: Your hand pulls a WB Frog on people and distracts them.

Infernal: Animals won't willing go near the hand.

Bloodline Familiars.

[Cevah]

If your Detached Hand has the Mauler archetype, you have to name it Bigby.

/evah

[Dragonborn3]

Cevah wrote:

If your Detached Hand has the Mauler archetype, you have to name it Bigby.

/evah

Or be named Bigby.

[Shadowmancer777]

A new thought occured to me, actually! The promethean alchemist archetype stacks with the preservationist. Now you can add one more beasty to the mix.

I'd imagine it as another tumor creator, sloughed off the belly when it had grown far too large for the Goblin twins to bear. To their surprise, it stood up, a mouth where the belly button used to be, webbed digits as wings, a ropey tongue darts around looking for blood and blowing wet raspberries, its hollow balloon of a body filling and expelling air. The simpler of the twins would affectionately name it Raspberry.