Thank Derklord for the idea. I was intrigued by the unusualness of such a fighter. "We love to fight lying down."
Race human
Class shifter (style shifter) 10
20 pb:
Str: 18 [16+2], Dex: 12, Con: 12, Int: 10, Wis: 16, Cha: 7
traits: Reactionary, Dirty Fighter
Feats
Power Attack (1st), Bonus Feats: Dodge, Monkey style
Furious Focus (3rd),
Wildcard Feat, Crane style (5th),
Shifter rusch (7th),
Stunning Fist(9th),
Wildcard Feat (10th)
Class Features: defensive instinct +2, half Wis mod in AC, shifter’s claws (magic weapon, ignore DR/cold iron and DR/silver), shifter’s fury, trackless step, wild empathy, wild shape (form of the wild), woodland stride
Style aspects
Monkey: You gain a bonus on damage rolls while prone equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum +0). You can crawl up to half your speed as a move action. At 8th level, whenever a creature provokes an attack of opportunity from you, that creature is considered flatfooted against your attack.
Crane: You reduce the penalty on attack rolls for fighting defensively by 1, to a minimum penalty of 0. At 8th level, when an attack misses you, you can move 5 feet as an immediate action without provoking attacks of opportunity.
Lamellar leather armor
Amulet of Mighty Fists
Ring of Protection
Boots of Elvenkind
I ask for advice on what can be improved in the build, as well as in equipment and recommendations for interesting forms for wild shape. I would be grateful for your help.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hmm... the Monkey Style dmg bonus is interesting but I wouldn't say that the feat path is particularly good for a single-classed Style Shifter. I think one of the better builds available is to dip into MoMS to combine Crane/Snake style, and two levels of High Guardian Fighter for Combat Reflexes based on strength.
With the Shaping Focus feat you'd continue advancing your Wild Shape, making the Allosaurus a very good choice. Pounce and 15ft reach with around 10 AoOs per round that triggers on movement and missed attacks.
For a build making good use of being prone, consider a Hunter/Sacred Huntsmaster with the Paired Opportunists and Intrepid Rescuer feats. It's a bit tricky to give Monkey Style to your companion but it's doable.
Then you'd both be prone and take AoOs against any enemy that attacks either of you.
I ask for advice on what can be improved in the build, as well as in equipment and recommendations for interesting forms for wild shape. I would be grateful for your help.
You definitely want a Cloak of Resistance in your gear list, and I'd not bother with Stunning Fist or Furious Focus. You only have two uses per day of Stunning Fist because you're not a monk, and it's not worth taking Monkey Shine for this reason. Furious Focus only works while two-handing a weapon so that's not going to be useful while wild-shaping.
Hmm... the Monkey Style dmg bonus is interesting but I wouldn't say that the feat path is particularly good for a single-classed Style Shifter. I think one of the better builds available is to dip into MoMS to combine Crane/Snake style, and two levels of High Guardian Fighter for Combat Reflexes based on strength.
With the Shaping Focus feat you'd continue advancing your Wild Shape, making the Allosaurus a very good choice. Pounce and 15ft reach with around 10 AoOs per round that triggers on movement and missed attacks.For a build making good use of being prone, consider a Hunter/Sacred Huntsmaster with the Paired Opportunists and Intrepid Rescuer feats. It's a bit tricky to give Monkey Style to your companion but it's doable.
Then you'd both be prone and take AoOs against any enemy that attacks either of you.I ask for advice on what can be improved in the build, as well as in equipment and recommendations for interesting forms for wild shape. I would be grateful for your help.You definitely want a Cloak of Resistance in your gear list, and I'd not bother with Stunning Fist or Furious Focus. You only have two uses per day of Stunning Fist because you're not a monk, and it's not worth taking Monkey Shine for this reason. Furious Focus only works while two-handing a weapon so that's not going to be useful while wild-shaping.
Thank you very much for your help. Interesting ideas, I'll try to change my build.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I think one of the better builds available is to dip into MoMS to combine Crane/Snake style, and two levels of High Guardian Fighter for Combat Reflexes based on strength.
Myself I looked into a MoMS for a dip as well, but did Snake and crane styles with a focus on Snake for shifter style.
Why does everyone want to dip into MoMS for Style Shifter? I don't get it. Where is the synergy?
Plus, that's a completely different build. The idea (that I first mentioned here) was to fight from prone, bypassing the normal penalties via Monkey Style, to get wisdom-to-damage to all attacks from Form of the Monkey. That build can actually make use of Wild Shape (Form of the Snake for instance doesn't work with natural attacks and Snake Style doesn't work when Wild Shaped), and thus has a reason to stay in class, unlike most other Style Shifter concepts that I've seen (or came up with).
Additionally I liked the idea of monkey style but found the slower movement of crawling around a little too much
Monkey Style makes standing up a swift action with a successful DC 20 Acrobatics check.
I think one of the better builds available is to dip into MoMS to combine Crane/Snake style, and two levels of High Guardian Fighter for Combat Reflexes based on strength.Myself I looked into a MoMS for a dip as well, but did Snake and crane styles with a focus on Snake for shifter style.Why does everyone want to dip into MoMS for Style Shifter? I don't get it. Where is the synergy?
Plus, that's a completely different build. The idea (that I first mentioned here) was to fight from prone, bypassing the normal penalties via Monkey Style, to get wisdom-to-damage to all attacks from Form of the Monkey. That build can actually make use of Wild Shape (Form of the Snake for instance doesn't work with natural attacks and Snake Style doesn't work when Wild Shaped), and thus has a reason to stay in class, unlike most other Style Shifter concepts that I've seen (or came up with).
Additionally I liked the idea of monkey style but found the slower movement of crawling around a little too muchMonkey Style makes standing up a swift action with a successful DC 20 Acrobatics check.
I even found a video to show DM how such a fighting style could look like. Go to Video
Do you think it's worth going to the third style feat, monkey shine?
Why does everyone want to dip into MoMS for Style Shifter? I don't get it. Where is the synergy?
Combining styles is always fun, and Stunning Fist as a bonus feat if you want to go down Dragon Style. The synergy is "more styles is better than one", especially on an archetype that revolves around styles.
Plus, that's a completely different build. The idea (that I first mentioned here) was to fight from prone, bypassing the normal penalties via Monkey Style, to get wisdom-to-damage to all attacks from Form of the Monkey.
But you get all of the good stuff at level 1. Why wouldn't you want to combine that with a feat path that actually does something?
That build can actually make use of Wild Shape (Form of the Snake for instance doesn't work with natural attacks and Snake Style doesn't work when Wild Shaped), and thus has a reason to stay in class, unlike most other Style Shifter concepts that I've seen (or came up with).
We've been through this in the thread you linked. The sensible reading is that Natural Strikes affects the Style Aspects (obvious mistake), and that it applies to all natural attacks you get through Wild Shape (since Natural Strikes alters Shifter Claws and Form of the Wild alters Wild Shape). Claiming otherwise is just pedantic and actively leads to a worse game for all of us.