need help with VoP

[bitemenow10]

im trying to build a bear warrior, warshaper with vow of poverty but i need some help tanking
im secondary offensive in my party but have asked my dm for a rebuild

all books available

thanks in advance

 

[milo]

What level are you?
Human
I would personally go Druid/Warshaper/Nature's Warrior for tanking. Pick up natural spell and multiattack. Girallon's Blessing is great and lasts 10 min/ level. Nature's favor and animal growth are great for Damage. Once I know the level I could be more help.

 

[bitemenow10]

im level 9 and soon level 10
im also looking for a good feat progression...

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

I forget what exactly Bear Warrior requires to enter. If it just requires rage, and you don't want to multiclass, a Druid alone can get you in. Use the Unearthed Arcana Avenger variant (also found here: Variant Character Classes :: d20srd.org )

I think that would work best, since you also want VoP. Druid is possibly the best class for VoP in core, though I'll tell you from experience that it's still overrated. Giving up the ability to ever use wands, scrolls, or the lovely stuff from Magic Item Compendium is rather painful. Make SURE your DM takes a loose reading of the VoP rules. As written, you're not allowed to carry your divine focus (holly), even though it is free! Most DMs are reasonable on this, but make sure.

For feats, really there aren't enough good exalted feats to worry too much. Snag touch of golden ice so every single natural attack gets an added ravage effect. The Nymph's Kiss (I think that's the name) feat is mandatory for level 1 to get the most skill points out of it. Which brings up a point: the VoP table doesn't list a level 1 bonus feat, the text does, and text trumps table. I would dare say Exalted Wildshape is a required feat at llevel 8, it's just so good! All other exalted feats are up to you. For non-exalted, the only feat that is required is Natural Spell. Beyond that...have fun.

If you REALLY want to do the bear theme, consider Totem Druid from dragon magazine. Also found here on p. 35: http://www.crystalkeep.com/d20/rules/DnD3.5Index-Classes-Base.pdf

you lose all other wildshape otpions, but get some very nice benefits for taking bear shape, including free Natural Spell feat and eventually the ability to speak while in wildshape. If you did this, might be better to multiclass with Barbarian than take the Avenger variant -- The Totem Druid's animal companion bonus would be lost to you, and technically you can't combine two variant classes anyway (though the required penalties of each of these two don't interfere with each other, so it's reasonable).

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Oh, and if you go Druid at all, there's a level 2 spell that is especially useful for this kind of build. Blood Frenzy (from Spell Compendium) basically only works on someone with the rage class feature. It lets them enter a rage w/o burning one of their daily uses of it.

 

[Runestar]

I think that would work best, since you also want VoP. Druid is possibly the best class for VoP in core, though I'll tell you from experience that it's still overrated.

Really? I thought that VOP should be made mandatory for all druids - as a much needed nerf. VOP is that crappy.

Changeling qualifies automatically for warshaper, so you can dump druid (which is a waste if you only want to take 5 levels). I am thinking that you should be able to manage a barb/warshaper/bear warrior/frenzied berserker build. Should be able to hold its own in combat, though you will want to check with your party beforehand if they are comfortable with FB. Else, just scrap FB in favour of more lvs in bear warrior.