Bear warrior... options?

[Nomnath]

So my current character is an ex monk fist of the forest who recently picked up a level in lion spirit totem barbarian and a few levels of swordsage. Currently my combat trick to do a pouncing charge trance rage flurry bite with added sneak attack damage from assasin stance and swift invisi boost.

Anyways, I was looking at where to go from here, and fell in love with bear warrior from CW. Just think about it.

NPC: oh look it's a human monk, he seems to be itemless.

....

Oh he's charging at me pfft.

...

He just grew claws and fangs wtf?

OMG he just turned into a bear.... the pain... my spleen (<--sneak attack vitals).


Back to point: The flavor for bear warrior is that you identify with the spirit of the bear's and learn to shift into one. But my barbarian is lion spirit aligned so I'd much rather he not have a crisis of faith like that. Anyone have a reasonable way to convert bear warrior into a lion warrior? Maybe trade 2 str for the rakes?


Related Questions: How would all my attack options interact? In bear/lion form can I still unarmed strike? Feral trance let's me add my bite into any full round attack, so I think I can still flurry with it. Pounce automatically counts the 2 rakes if I got them. But how do the new claw attacks fit into the picture? Can I get 2 claw attacks in with a full attack and can then also tack on a flurry of blows? Or do I have to choose unarmed strike or claw. Also I currently have 2 attacks from BAB, would i get more claw attacks if I had to choose claw over unarmed strike?

 

[Empirate]

Strangely enough, I just recently made a homebrew PrC based on the Bear Warrior, but with lion forms... I can send it to you if you're interested. It also has a bit of a divine flavor, but I'm sure you can adapt it to your needs - if your DM is cool with homebrew, that is.

 

[Dandu]

Go Warshaper.

Check my barbarian guide for details.

 

[Nomnath]

Empirate: That would be helpful, please do send a copy.

Dandu: Thanks for the link, lots to mull over, I definitely think that warshaper is the way to go. I've spent about 10 levels already. Do you think I should go 5 bear warrior then 4 warshaper or 1 bear warrior, 4 warshaper, then 4 more bear warrior?

 

[Dandu]

I would go into Warshaper immediately upon qualifying, as Bear Warrior does not reward you with as many class features.

 

[Wyvernhand]

You can't make natural attacks with limbs that are already comitted to natural attacks. Thus, if you shift into a bear, you can either make your Feral Trance bite attack, or your bear form bite attack. Just like you can't swing a sword with the same hand you make a claw attack with, you can't make a bite attack with the same mouth you are making a bite attack with. Your mouth is too busy biting to bite.