I don't read the comics, just watched the movies. So I don't know much about Groot.
GM says the concept will actually work well for the campaign. We can use the Race Builder rules from the Advanced Race Guide to make the plant race.
How would you build his race?
What class would you make him? (From the movies, I would think either barbarian or bloodrager. But he also seems to have a little magic and some nature-ish stuff. So maybe the ranger archetype that has rage? Or a druid that doesn't shapechange? Not sure.)
there is already a Groot themed race:
-plant with humanoid like look
- hard bark skin (+2 nat ac)
-it can somewhat change it's body :
"Ghorans have considerable control over their mass and can shape their bodies however they wish within the basic confines of a humanoid silhouette..."
- it can make itself bloom (and bear fruit):
"..Ghorans with a Charisma score of 11 or higher gain the following spell-like abilities: ... goodberry (created berries bud from the ghoran’s own body).."
- it can take precautions before it dies to be reborn as Groot Jr. :
"Seed (Ex): As a full-round action, a ghoran can expel the seed from an orifice in its abdomen. If planted in fertile ground and left undisturbed for 2d6 days, the seed grows into a healthy duplicate of the original ghoran, save that the duplicate can reallocate all skill ranks upon sprouting. Once a ghoran expels this seed, it gains 1 negative level, and it dies as soon as the duplicate sprouts. This duplicate replaces the previous ghoran character."
and more
My advice would be not to try and play a character form a movie or book. Instead play a character based on the source material. The problem with trying to play a specific character is that you can never get it quite right. You end up not having all the things the character can do, and also have things the character can’t do.
I don’t really see Groot as a martial character. To me he is more of a spell caster that uses a lot of touch attacks. A Verdant bloodline Ghoran sorcerer would actually work quite well for a Groot inspired character. Tanglevine would actually cover a lot of what Groot does in the movies.
get an animal companion\familiar raccoon?
My advice would be not to try and play a character form a movie or book. Instead play a character based on the source material. The problem with trying to play a specific character is that you can never get it quite right. You end up not having all the things the character can do, and also have things the character can’t do.
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Well I have to hope he understands a PF build won't exactly match a comic/movie superhero. Just want to see how close we can get.
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I don’t really see Groot as a martial character. To me he is more of a spell caster that uses a lot of touch attacks. A Verdant bloodline Ghoran sorcerer would actually work quite well for a Groot inspired character. Tanglevine would actually cover a lot of what Groot does in the movies.
This surprises me. The only spell-like things I remember from the movies are the glowing flowers, the cushioning nest, and tripping people with vines. Yes tanglevine does sound perfect for that last. Most of the fight scenes were him raging around smashing things and throwing people. Is you opinion from stuff in the comics or something I misremembered from the movies?
get an animal companion\familiar raccoon?
Actually, if he plays Groot. I will probably play Rocket Racoon.
As ZZA mentions above, the Ghoran race may worth a look, along with using Bloodrager as the primary class. The Abberrant and Verdant bloodlines (with the Crossblooded archetype) may be close enough to be fun and workable.
I feel like the answer to this riddle is easy yet little known.
Play an adaptive shifter Ghoran.
Rather than turning into animals adaptive shifters just shift parts of themselves, they get natural attacks, gets bigger, stretch limbs, get spikey, heal on the fly.
All sorts of things like that.
I feel like the answer to this riddle is easy yet little known.
Play an adaptive shifter Ghoran.
Rather than turning into animals adaptive shifters just shift parts of themselves, they get natural attacks, gets bigger, stretch limbs, get spikey, heal on the fly.
All sorts of things like that.
Never heard of Adaptive Shifter before. (I don't think I've even heard of that book before.) But I kinda like it. I will see if he is interested in a class from a book he doesn't have.
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I was also going to suggest Adaptive Shifter. The player MUST accept the fact that no build will fully realize the character concept of Groot; they must make a build to capture the essence of Groot, but they will not be able to BE Groot.
Ghoran is an obvious choice so you don't have to worry about race builder. And while Adaptive Shifter does technically have the ability to Wild Shape into an animal, and animals are the best to wild shape into, BUT starting at 8th level they can instead use Plant Shape I (turning into Plant Shape II at 10th and III at 12th) which is more in line with playing a plant-based creature anyway. And you're not going for optimization anyway, else you wouldn't even look at the Shifter class lol.
Adaptive Shifter brings a lot to the table though. Enlarge Person+reach with natural attacks (15 ft natural reach, or 20 if you pick up Lunge feat!), full BAB, Wild Shape, AC bonus in the form of Wis mod plus 1 per 4 levels and even the ability to full-attack with natural attacks like they're martial weapons with Shifter's Fury. It's not bad and would probably be tons of fun with a Groot-like creature. and for fun, Groot refuses to speak any language other than Druidic with a dialect, making it sound like they're only ever saying "Groot"
And Rocket Raccoon could be a gunslinger who's secretly learned Druidic (via GM permission) from Groot.
Ghoran Druid (Leshy Warden archetype)
Id make rocket an alchemist personally but I’ll admit partially because I hat gunslingers
But yeah, rat folk Alchemist would be cool and good.
I'd say that a vine leshy kineticist with the leshykineticist[/b] archetype is about as close to Groot as you can get it Pathfinder.
I'd say that a vine leshy kineticist with the leshykineticist[/b] archetype is about as close to Groot as you can get it Pathfinder.
Yeah, I've actually built one of those in Herolab (Leshykineticist/elemental ascetic) focused on healing/draining life from enemies as free actions when they hit with a flurry of Kinetic Fists. It was Wood/Wood/Void as the chosen elements, focused on strength and wisdom. Might be able to dig it up somewhere...
You could even get a familiar and get it anthropomorphized.
Well bummer. He decided he doesn't want to play Groot anymore.
Oh well, maybe it will come up later.