Home campaign. It is not quite really an aquatic campaign. However, a noticeable portion of 'things' will take place on/under water. So most of the group is Undine or Gillman. We have a wizard Elf who will rely on spells and items to function well enough underwater. We have a rogue, slayer, and gunslinger agility combatants for consistent moderate damage. We have a wizard and sorcerer for arcane might.
What we don't have is high strength, high durability, or divine caster. Sometimes you just kinda want a chunk-of-meat PC for breaking down doors, standing toe-to-toe, and dealing big damage numbers.
A divine caster isn't mandatory, but would be a nice addition to the group. Self-healing would be good for the high durability aspect. The classic is paladin for that. However, a paladin really won't mesh with the group dynamic we have. War priest or rage prophet would work. Or just skip the casting and just go barbarian and/or fighter.
I think I'm really wanting a fairly high strength character this time. But I can't think of any aquatic/amphibious races with a bonus to strength. I could just go with one that doesn't have a penalty to strength. What seems like a high strength and/or high durability amphibious race?
I suppose I could just go with a high strength druid and wild shape for watery times.
Any ideas or suggestions?
Planar Heritage (Undine) -> Aquatic Ancestry
Swim speed and the ability to breathe underwater. Human, Half-Orc, Half-Elf, and any of the planar races with the Mostly Human alternate racial trait are on the table then (assuming you start over lv 2). Check out the Variant races for Str bonus, like Sunsoul Ifrit.
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One level of Internal Alchemist would solve the breathing problem, and if you're going for a mounted build you don't have to worry about your movement.
You don't even need to take the Aquatic Combatant feat if being mounted counts as "firm footing", which I'd argue it does.
Phantom Blade spiritualist. Beefy, casting without worries from underwater, and covers a lot of the basic divine caster needs.
Just to push forward a weird ass build: Kinetic Knight Kineticist with the Combat Vigor featline for self-healing. Use Water as the element to gain access to swimming and water breathing through utility talents.
I hadn't been in love with a melee druid because, in my experience, They tend to not be all that durable. Having to get a decent wisdom cuts down on what you can put into the physical stats. Then Wildshape loses your armor. But I had never considered the possibility of the Swift Girding spell to become an armored animal. That will bare consideration.
I think I might have difficulty convincing my GM that octopii can wear armor. However, I probably wouldn't use octopus as my go-to form. I find the 'dozens-of-attacks' builds kind of annoying. They take so long to process your turn. Especially with all the grapples and constricts.
A big ol armored shark though would be kinda kool.
Hmm...
I will also look into the Phantom Blade and the Kineticist. I am not all that familiar with either.
I will have to ask the GM if the Planar Heritage thing is allowable.
I really do feel what you really really want is a Spelleater Bloodrager, which provides several self-healing options, while being something you can combine with, say, Aquatic Bloodline or Naga Bloodline for underwater utility.
The spell eater, aquatic bloodrager is looking like a strong contender.
Did some digging. Neither sharks, snakes, nor octopii can wear armor. The snapping turtle, crocodile, and elasmosaurus can wear armor. So croc until I can get huge sized.
The aquatic druid has a -2 level on wildshape penalty. Not ideal for a melee druid. However, the kraken caller has some neat things, no level penalty, but can only take aquatic or amphibious forms. So that would still work for this. But none of the animal shapes that can wear armor are aquatic or amphibious.
Could carry a bag of holding with my aquatic armor. Wild shape and have the party wizard use a wand of swift girding on me to put the armor on if needed quickly.
Might play with some builds.
@Scott: For some creatures the rules require barding stitches to attach/wear armor, and they sound rather horrible and incompatible with swift girding too. I wouldn't recommend them.
@Scott: For some creatures the rules require barding stitches to attach/wear armor, and they sound rather horrible and incompatible with swift girding too. I wouldn't recommend them.
they are really awful. I was looking at getting them for my snake companion. However, I realized there is no magical equivalent of them and no way to overcome the saving throw penalties. In the end I just had it take the feat extra item slot (armor). By RAW it can only wear magic armor, but my DM is reasonable and allows it to wear mundane armor as well.
For something unique, since it's a home game your DM might let you play a Darfellan from 3.5 Stormwrack.
It's a killer whale/ humanoid that can hold its breath 8xCon score rounds, uses echolocation and has a bite attack.
Couple with martial class of choice.