So here's the idea:
A character who (appearance-wise) is a juxtaposition between the Mandolorian and Blaidd from Elden Ring:
A ex-knight who enters self-exile after being subject to a curse that causes him to always look like a hybrid-form werewolf, though he retains his mind more or less.
He opts to live in the wilderness away from people (as a hermit) and wear a self-made helmet forged to look like a wolf in the presence of others, to hide his true face (in his view, most people would assume that someone wearing a helmet don't actually look like the helmet.
Occasionally, to support his lifestyle, he'll serve others as a mercenary, guiding and protecting travelers through the wilderness.
I already have a few possible ideas for class (full martial, obviously), but having trouble pinning down anything. So far:
- Cavalier (would probably need to be an archetype without a mount)
- Barbarian (Armored Hulk and Pack Rager archetypes)
- Ranger (having Endurance as a bonus feat to wear medium armor even while at rest)
- Vigilante (Faceless Enforcer)
- Maybe an Oracle dip for the wolf-scarred face oracle's curse, or some other class archetype that gives the curse?
- Maybe a full BAB prestige class that grants some divine spell progression? Don't really know what my options are there.
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If you haven’t chosen a race I would suggest Skinwalker probably the werewolf-kin variant. That’s going to have most of what you need feature wise right there and their bestial transformation has no time limit so u can stay in it permanently if u want.
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This may be a little outside the box but have u considered the Vindictive Bastard Ex-Paladin archetype? I think it may work for the character u want to make. If I were making this character I would consider a Werewolf kin Skinwalker with this Paladin archetype. You could say that the change from say human to Skinwalker and a permanent alignment change that causes your fall from grace are all part of the curse. Vindictive Bastard has some decent class features for a mercenary type character and can fit the former knight background as well. Also this archetype still gets paladin spellcasting so you wouldn’t need a prestige class to get divine spells. I don’t know give it a look-see and see what u think. Might need a dip to get some needed class skills and skill points though.
If Paladin is an option there is the Hunting Paladin archetype that might be useful to you.
Or you can opt for a Bloodrager (I like the Id Rager due to some of the inherent flexibility it offers). It can offer some spellcasting while being a full BAB class.
I would go for a Rougarou instead of a Skinwalker. Just say that all the racial abilities are the result of the curse.
Since the character is living in the wilderness, he should be able to survive in the wilderness. For that you are going to want a class that gets as class skills key wilderness survival skills. You are also probably going to want a class with a decent number of skill ranks. That is going to make going with a paladin or cavalier difficult. There are some archetypes for paladin that does add those skills. Even then paladins get so few skills that creating a character that could actually survive in the wilderness is going to be extremely hard.
Barbarians do have more wilderness skills as class skills and get more skill ranks. They still do not get Stealth or Knowledge Nature as class skills. Stealth is not absolutely necessary but would be useful. You can use a trait to make it a class skill. If you are going with a Rougarou or Skinwalker they both take a penalty to INT so you will actually have fewer skill points than normal.
Ranger seems like it would be perfect for this concept. A Ranger is the class that is best suited to survive alone in the wilderness. Not only do they have all wilderness survival skills as class skills, they have more skill points than anything but a rogue. They have a lot of wilderness-based class abilities. They get good Fort and Ref saves, that will be useful in surviving in the wilderness. Rangers get Endurance as a bonus feat at 3rd level, so you don’t even need to worry about that. They are already a full BAB class with divine spell casting, so you don’t need a prestige class to gain that. If you go with Rougarou for race they get a bonus to STR and WIS which is perfect for a Ranger.
My recommendation would be a Rougaro Ranger.
Nothing says a ranger cannot be a knight. Other than the fact they don’t have proficiency in heavy armor there is not much a ranger does not have that a knight would. If he really needs that he could simply spend a feat to gain it. The being a knight could easily just be part of the background and the character could have easily retrained the previous class before the game begins.
Almost any archetype would fit as would a plain vanilla ranger. Spirit Ranger would give him a bit of an Oracle feel. Shapeshifter could be due to learning how to tap into his curse. Warden boosts his ability to survive and guide people in the wilderness.
Thanks, all. Very good advice to consider for this character.
A bit of clarification, I mentioned prestige class with spellcasting progression specifically as a means to progress the spellcasting from an oracle dip more than anything else.
I could see this character maybe mistaking a polymorphic curse into a rougarou as lycanthropy, hence why he never changes shape due to phases of the moon, so the rougarou suggestion is definitely a good idea.
Cavalier actually grants a decent number of skill ranks (same as a barbarian), but ultimately, I would tend to agree that ranger is a better fit, as rangers can easily be knights; just knights of a different sort.
Wild Stalker archetype is an intriguing fit, but the fact that it doesn't get rage until 4th-level, loses favored enemies, hunter's bond, AND combat style feats to get the basic rage at a lower effective level and a handful of rage powers (no greater rage, no tireless rage), makes it lose a fair bit of luster.
The Spirit Ranger archetype would be an interesting choice. The spontaneous casting of ranger spells x times per day is particularly appealing.
My thought was a GREEN KNIGHT Cavalier. It gives you Endurance and Diehard as bonus feats at level 1 instead of a Mount. Aside from you already stating that you wanted one of those feats, they're also the prerequisites for the STALWART feat, which I think is great. You also become pretty darn tough , which seems to suit what you're looking for as well.
If you're willing to do 1 level of Monk you can get CRANE STYLE as a bonus feat [ooc](without the prerequisites, because Monk)[ooc], and you can use Crane Style with the Stalwart feat to fight defensively with only a -2 to hit instead of -4, and you also get +1 to AC, giving you -2 to hit for +3 AC. By taking 3 ranks in ACROBATICS you get another +1 AC when you fight defensively, and you could take the ALDORI CAUTION background trait for another +1. This means you'd have a total of -2 to hit for +5 AC when you fight defensively, but with the Stalwart feat you'd instead get DR:5/- when you fight defensively. Later on you could take IMPROVED STALWART to make that DR:10/- instead. You don't technically Need the Monk dip for this, but it saves you 3 feats.
You don't have to do all of this, but doing it means you end up being one tough mother ... hubbard. I think standing there and just taking the hits, but shrugging them off like they're nothing is very thematic for this character.
I am not sure Spirt Ranger is compatible with Nirmathi Irregular. They both alter the ranger’s spells. Nirmathi Irregular grants extra spells, and spells not normally on the spell list. Spirit also grants extra spells that can be cast spontaneously.
I have seen some GM’s that would take that approach. From the warning about the sprit ranger’s spontaneous casting, it looks like you may have encountered GMs like that.
I believe there was a thread about adding spells to the spell list counting as altering spell casting. I did not bother reading the whole thread because it did not interest me that much.