Giant Squirrel

[Kmart Kommando]

you forgot the flying squirrel.

 

[Meeki]

If you have a better Idea I'm open to suggestions. If you give it class levels its going to have weapon proficiencies, and ranger was too beefy, but I thought the nature theme still should be there. I suppose we could go druid

Ranger is too beefy for a large magical squirrel? Haha

Personally I think scout is much more powerful than ranger but can a scout use skirmish with melee weapons? I don't have the book.

 

[Quartz]

Sorry but this is not LA 0! Look at those stat mods. LA +3 at least.

 

[Tyonisius]

Sorry but this is not LA 0! Look at those stat mods. LA +3 at least.

You don't think the 24 HD is enough of a level limiter? =D Just realized that you probably meant the original posters squirrel... but it still has 7 hit die. I take it back... I looked at it again and 2 or 3 LA seems appropriate.

Personally I think scout is much more powerful than ranger but can a scout use skirmish with melee weapons? I don't have the book.

Yeah, skirmish works with melee.

 

[Sylrae]

I dont think +2 or +3 would be appropriate. maybe +1. It's large and has some stat mods that are big sure, but it doesn't have enough even after the 2 attacks to be equal to a class thats level 7. With that many hit dice, the stuff it gets is pretty reasonable IMO, and maybe a tad weak. I designed it primarily as a monster to use though, and the character concept was an afterthought. Why do you think the LA should be so bloody high?

 

[Tyonisius]

I dont think +2 or +3 would be appropriate. maybe +1. It's large and has some stat mods that are big sure, but it doesn't have enough even after the 2 attacks to be equal to a class thats level 7. With that many hit dice, the stuff it gets is pretty reasonable IMO, and maybe a tad weak. I designed it primarily as a monster to use though, and the character concept was an afterthought. Why do you think the LA should be so bloody high?

Well, it's your creature so you can set the LA to whatever you like. However, depending upon what you compare it to, I'd say it's stronger than some level 7 classes. It gets HD equal to a fighters, BAB equal to a fighters, two good saves, decent skill points depending upon how much they bump up their intell to begin with, they don't need to bump it up much to max though because they only have a few class skills, it also has the +4 to MS and +8 to Bal and Climb.

Now the stats... +10 Strength, +6 Dexterity, +6 Constitution, -4 Intelligence, +4 Wisdom. What this means is that it's over all attack bonus will be really nice, it's AC will be really good (especially when coupled with the +5 NA). The constitution means even more HP than the fighter level 7 fighter in the group. And the +4 Wisdom means they can multiclass into cleric and cast spells even if they use wisdom as a dump stat (not to say they would but they could). And the plus to Con, Dex, and Wis means even higher saves.

Large size and high strength make it great for grappling.

It's weakest point is that it only gets 2 abilities from the 7 HD, but they aren't bad abilities to have either... though in that they get 3 feats which I think balances that out.

Over all I definately thing that it is more powerful that an equal level 7 build, specially if you think about it in the long run.

The end result is that if you compare it to a straight level 7 class (I'm only going to include core for my comparison) the only thing I think is more powerful than it are the full casters... and if this thing gets close enough to grapple...

7 HD makes it too powerful in my opinion. I don't think 1 LA is enough, but it's closer. You could also take away some of the benefits of the 7HD.

 

[Quartz]

Remember that you've not just got to look at the start but further down the line too. Just think of the giant squirrel taking levels as a monk. +5 damage, +2 AC, +3 HP/level. Shudder. Or give it 2 levels of Fighter, a polearm, Power Attack, Leap Attack and Shock Trooper. And it can fight in total darkness.

LA +3 seems a good starting place. Consider a giant squirrel Monk 2 vs a human Monk 12. We'll bump the squirrel's Con to 18 for his 8th HD, so he's got 7d10+2d8+36 or 84 HP. The human monk has Con 16 for 12d8+36 or 90 HP. The squirrel has a base AC of 17, the human AC 14 (Dex 14). The squirrel attacks at +8 for 1d6+5, the human at +9 for 2d6+1 (Str 12). It about fits.

 

[Sylrae]

Weakened it a bit and added the +2. And you should note, it may be a large creature but it does not have reach.

What are leap attack and Shock Trooper? I dont play fighters very often and dont know how those feats work.

Is that more balanced?

 

[Tyonisius]

Yeah, it's definitely more balanced, might not be perfect, but it's close enough for me. One question, why does he have a higher str bonus than a dex bonus? I dunno, I always thought of squirrels as dexterous than strong. Anyway, I'd probably allow it in my campaign now, though I'd obviously reserve the right to edit it if the need arises.

 

[Sylrae]

One question, why does he have a higher str bonus than a dex bonus? I dunno, I always thought of squirrels as dexterous than strong.

The initial squirrel I came up with (I dont remember where I came up with, DID have a much Higher Dex than strength.)

I followed the guidelines in the Monster Manual. They basically said that as you make an animal bigger, you lower Dex and Raise Str. So I did. It made sense too, because it Grizzly bear size, you would think it would be less dextrous than the tiny animal. Thats also how it got the DR.