Please help me make a gnomish werebadger.

[Zach J.]

Hello Playground,

I've just joined a D&D game that a friend is running. I've already played in one session as a human cleric of St. Cuthbert, but didn't care too much so he's been retired for use as a recurring NPC.

The party currently consists of...

Doval, a LG Half-Bronze Dragon Duskblade
Emerald, a CN Halfling Rogue
Dinkle, a CG Gnome Bard
Kor, a LN Human Samurai

The game is taking place in a large metropolis. The party is becoming more famous, especially the gnome bard who is starting to become a bit of a celebrity. My planned character is a gnome cleric of Segojan Earthcaller, the gnomish god of earth and nature. He's come to the city with a gnomish mining company, but wants to explore the world a bit before returning home. The twist is that he's a werebadger, specifically a were-dire badger. So I was looking for some help in building him. The only thing I'm not going to change are the fact that he's a gnome, a cleric, and a werebadger. Optimization isn't really an issue. I was more interested in feats and magical items that fit the flavor of the character.

[ComaVision]

What level are you playing at? A level 1 Cleric Were Dire Badger is at least ECL 6 (ECL 7 if natural rather than afflicted).

[Zach J.]

ECL is 10. I was leaning towards natural, rather than afflicted. I think when he first changed as a child that the local clergy took it as a blessing from Segojan and scooped him up for clerical training.

[torrasque666]

Watch as the replies come rolling in about how its a bad idea because you can never get 9ths.
3 RHD
3 LA
leaves 14 levels of cleric. Maximum spell level of 7th, in my opinion more than enough. However though, from my experience, look forward to focusing on spells that allow no save as your DCs might end up being a little low.

Correction: if playing with LA Buyoff, you can get up to 16 levels of cleric for 8ths.

[Zach J.]

Ha, yeah, I know it's not mechanically great or anything, but I'd rather play something that I find interesting and will continue to do so.

Here's what I've got so far...

NG Gnome Were Dire Badger Cleric 4

Deity: Segojan Earthcaller
Domains: Earth, Good

Str 12, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 18, Cha 12

HP 66

Skills (30 pts.)

Feats: Alertness, Iron Will, Toughness, Track

Reading through the Wikipedia article on Segojan Earthcaller I saw that several of his clerics are also multiclass illusionists. This gave me the idea for an afflicted character.

NG Gnome Werebadger Cleric of Segojan Earthcaller 3, Illusionist 3, Mystic Theurge 1

Str 10, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 17, Wis 16, Cha 12

Skills (49)

Feats: Agile, Scribe Scroll, Track, Weapon Finesse

[Rubik]

See if your DM will allow you to exchange one of the forms from the divine minion template with dire badger -- it's not that big of a leap, honestly. LA +1 isn't at all insurmountable, and it's definitely better for a caster type than eating a -6 level penalty for something extremely similar but utterly inferior.

You could also, perhaps, try an anthropomorphic animal, from Savage Species, assuming you don't mind being in your "hybrid form" all the time.

Alternately, is there a cleric domain with spells (such as Bite of the Were-X) that will let you simulate being a were dire badger?

Double-alternately, the druid (and shapeshifter druid) will let you do something similar without a single point of LA or racial HD, albeit with some obvious differences.

[Inevitability]

I now have the image of a holy badger, summoning more holy badgers, while using Bite of the Werebadger to be more badger-y. Happy day.

[Rubik]

I now have the image of a holy badger, summoning more holy badgers, while using Bite of the Werebadger to be more badger-y. Happy day.

Needs moar mushroom.

[Inevitability]

Needs moar mushroom.

Be a Symbiote with a Myconid. There, done.

[atemu1234]

The Lycanthrope template is an NPC template, really. It's no good for PCs - Level Adjustment, Racial Hit Dice, etc. - but on an NPC it can be cool. Your gnome probably won't work that well, even with LA buyoff.

[torrasque666]

The Lycanthrope template is an NPC template, really. It's no good for PCs - Level Adjustment, Racial Hit Dice, etc. - but on an NPC it can be cool. Your gnome probably won't work that well, even with LA buyoff.

Called it.

[Flickerdart]

The Lycanthrope template is an NPC template, really. It's no good for PCs - Level Adjustment, Racial Hit Dice, etc. - but on an NPC it can be cool. Your gnome probably won't work that well, even with LA buyoff.

It's game with a half-dragon and a samurai. Even a Cleric 4 with no other levels of anything might be a match for them, and that will only get worse over time.

However, I would recommend Druid over Cleric since you can just turn into a dire badger with Wild Shape, and also have a pet Dire Badger, and also summon Dire Badgers, for way more dire badgers than otherwise.

[Mehangel]

Well, if I were to make a gnome were-dire badger cleric illusionist mystic theurge. I would probably have its first level be illusionist just so that you could take the Precocious Apprentice feat (from complete arcane) at 1st level (giving you the arcane spellcasting prerequisites for mystic theurge). I would probably also change your stats switching your WIS with INT. And instead of leveling up into cleric I would level up into the archivist class which is an INT-based divine spellcaster (from Heroes of Horror). I would then continue to level up into archivist until 3rd (giving you the divine spellcasting requirement for mystic theurge). By doing this you can then level up into mystic theurge as planned and dont have to worry as much in increasing both INT and WIS.

As others have said, it wont be particularly powerful, but it would be alot better, in my opinion then leveling up into cleric, then illusionist then Mystic theurge. Another thing to take in consideration is that your characters INT is currently 12 which means that you gaining levels in Mystic Theurge wont give you any 3rd level spell slots. By changing your primary stat to INT (instead of WIS) and by changing out cleric for archivist, you no longer have to worry about that so much.

These are just my thoughts on the matter...