Tauric Griffon PC Ranger...help

[GodPhoenix]

Ok...so I *just* got savage species and haven't had a chance to really pour over it...i'm hoping y'all can help.

I have a player who wants to make a Tauric Griffon character...fine. The abilities say to use some from the griffon and some from the base character (human). But we're using a point buy system...should I just stick with the point buy?

Second, skills. How many skill points would a first level Human-Tauric Griffon have? Should he get the griffon skill list?

I think I've got everything else worked out...but if there are some big glaring problems that I might not have thought of, i'd appreciate a heads up

Thanks

 

[James McMurray]

Warning: the Tauric Template is not well balanced! You have a +2 (I believe) level modifier added tot he hit dice of the base form. However, that doesn't take into account any special abilities the base form may have (such as flight) or any unbalanced stats it may have.

If you do go ahead with it, use the stat modifiers for the appropriate form and point buy together.

 

[Camarath]

The ECL of such a character is 10 plus the LA (and Hit Dice if greater than one) of the base humanoid (hobgoblin would be ECL 11, human would be ECL 10). It would be a Monstrous Humanoid with 8 racial hit dice (so (2+Int)x11 and three feats) . Both creatures racial skills count as class skills.

If using another base creature other than griffon this is how I believe one should calculate the ECL, add the hit dice of the base creature and the humaniod togather (note: the humaniod counts as having at least one HD) then add both creatures LAs to get the total ECL.

 

[Spatula]

Ok...so I *just* got savage species and haven't had a chance to really pour over it...i'm hoping y'all can help.

I have a player who wants to make a Tauric Griffon character...fine. The abilities say to use some from the griffon and some from the base character (human). But we're using a point buy system...should I just stick with the point buy?

Use the racial modifiers of the base creatures, as appropriate. For example, if the template says (I don't have it in front of me) to use the "bottom" creature's physical scores and the "top" creature's mental scores, then the character would receive +8 STR, +4 DEX, +6 CON for a griffon/human. See also the section in Savage Species on determining racial ability adjustments for monster PCs.

 

[GodPhoenix]

Re: Re: Tauric Griffon PC Ranger...help

For example, if the template says (I don't have it in front of me) to use the "bottom" creature's physical scores and the "top" creature's mental scores, then the character would receive +8 STR, +4 DEX, +6 CON for a griffon/human. See also the section in Savage Species on determining racial ability adjustments for monster PCs.

I think I should have clarified...I want him to start out at first level...ECL 1. So I want to use the griffon advancement chart and slap a human torso where the neck would be How does that change things?

 

[Camarath]

You need to add an aditional hit die to the class advancement. You should also remember that the character can not multiclass until it completes the full progression of the Griffon class.

 

[jgsugden]

I stronglt advise against most things from Savage Species. In my experience, the book is horribly balanced. There are far too many abusive situations in the book.

This is an example. A tauric griffon is clearly stronger than a normal griffon, yet the ECL for the two (using their calculation methods) is the same.

If you are stuck on the idea, I'd base the format on the Griffon advancement on page 175 of SS. I'd remove the negative mental attributes (as tauric griffons have human mental ability scores), but I'd bump up the ECL to 12 and stretch out the advancement by 2 more levels.

 

[Spatula]

Re: Re: Re: Tauric Griffon PC Ranger...help

I think I should have clarified...I want him to start out at first level...ECL 1. So I want to use the griffon advancement chart and slap a human torso where the neck would be How does that change things?

The human griffon has an extra HD, no INT or CHA penalty, no WIS bonus, and no bite attack. Same overall ECL, though. So remove the starting ability score penalties, remove the Wis bonus at 5th level, remove all references to the bite attack, and add in another HD... I'd put it at 8th level. Keep in mind that it can't take ranger levels until it finishes the monster class at ECL 10.