D&D 3E/3.5 Brainstorming an oddball character. (Again? Again.)

[Dannyalcatraz]

I was just reading the Hengeyokai entry again. It really could be the best racial option. And there’s this part that could be hilarious depending on how the Multiheaded template interacts with the shapechanging:

In animal form, a hengeyokai is effectively disguised as an animal, gaining a +10 bonus on Disguise checks while in this form.

Is that going to be a +10 bonus to disguise checks to blend in with ALL dogs or just Multiheaded ones?

 

[Bohandas]

To me, LG anthropomorphic dog sounds like a hound archon

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

It does, but there’s problems with it. First, Hound Archon has a pretty big LA as I recall. Second, and more importantly, creatures with the Multiheaded template cannot be lawful- they MUST be chaotic.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The races:

Hound Archon: LG outsider- might not be compatible with Multiheaded template (must be Chaotic). 11 racial levels. Favored class Hound Archon. Not a lot of room for customization that includes spellcasting. Don’t think it will work.

Anthro Dog: kind of a blank slate. +2LA, lots of stat mods. Favored class Ranger. LA limits flexibility of design, slight, but otherwise, no downsides, no quirks.

Lupins: are sworn enemies of lycanthropes. Favored class Ranger. No LA. Usually lawful, not as hard-coded as Hound Archon. The Lupin backstory could supply some good plot hooks and round out the PC.

Hengeyokai: Shapechangers with animal, human and hybrid forms. Favored class Wu Jen. No LA. Tend to be Chaotic, so that fits. Multiheaded template should probably apply to all forms, but there’s no rule. Wu Jen may or may not have spells that interest me.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Question #1 : as a divine caster, I would think that none of a Divine Bard’s spells suffer from spell failure, even if the character is wearing armor they’re not proficient in. Is this correct?

Question #2: is there a way for divine casters to learn a select few arcane spells? (IOW, not Multiclassing.)

 

[Voadam]

Question #1 : as a divine caster, I would think that none of a Divine Bard’s spells suffer from spell failure, even if the character is wearing armor they’re not proficient in. Is this correct?

Question #2: is there a way for divine casters to learn a select few arcane spells? (IOW, not Multiclassing.)

Divine Bard

#1 "A divine bard's spells are divine spells, not arcane spells." Their spells are divine so there should be no arcane spell failure.
#2 I am not aware of one off the top of my head, but divine bards have most of the arcane bard spell list. The exception is "a divine bard can't cast spells of an alignment that doesn't match his."

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Thanks for confirming #1!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The PC is coming into focus, but concept has changed a wee bit. Alas, it’s at times like these that I lament the limitations of Feats being as rare a resource as they are.

I’m leaning towards going Hengeyokai, and using their fey origins to shape the character with Bloodline & Heritage feats. Likewise, the Metabreath feats, those that add spells or SLAs, Battle Caster, Practiced Spellcaster would combine to make the character stand out.

But of course, the race and most of the potential classes get no bonus feats to work with. At least, none that I could use to choose the feats in question. And some of the feats in mind have prerequisites...of other feats.

 

[Voadam]

Where is the cryo template from? I assume it gives cold subtype and a winter wolf type cold breath weapon?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Yep!

Cryo is a subtemplate of Multiheade. Taking it is a +1LA, and gives the Cold subtype (Cold immunity; double damage from fire except on a successful save), Breath Weapon: 10’h x 10’W x 20’L 1 per 1d4 rds per head, 3d6 cold damage, RefSav (DC10 + 1/2 # of heads + Con mod) halves.

Because the breath weapon availability is per head, a 2 headed creature could conceivably breathe cold as frequently as every round, if it rolled a sequence of 2s (staggered, of course). Even with slightly worse than average rolling, he’ll be “Coldzilla”. Which, while niche, is powerful enough I’m seeing that as a viable alternative to being a powerful spellcaster...or even a spellcaster at all. Especially with Metabreath feats.