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The Wolf Warrior is a martial attacker who commands an army of wolves.
Requirements:
Race: Any humanoid
BAB: +5
Skills: Handle Animal 8 ranks
Feats: Leadership
Alignment: Any lawful
Wolf Shape(Su): A Wolf Warrior can take the form of a wolf the number of times listed per day, as a standard action. His stats as a wolf are his normal stats, with a +2 bonus to Strength, +4 to Dexterity, and +4 to Constitution. He can revert back at will (again a standard action), or automatically after a number of hours equal to his class level. While in wolf shape, he can fully understand and communicate with wolves, dogs, riding dogs, winter wolves, hell hounds, worgs, thrym hounds, wild hunt hounds, nessian warhounds, milivorns, elite milivorns, bearhounds, blink dogs, yeth hounds, nethersight mastiffs, legendary wolves, climbdogs, moon dogs, shadow mastiffs, canoloths, guulvorgs, hounds of the hunt, elven hounds, cavvekans, death dogs, vorrs, deep hounds, dire wolves, and chaos hounds and gets a +4 bonus on Charisma checks with them. He gains the wolf's senses, racial skill bonuses, trip attack, and feats. He is considered to be an Animal, but is not affected by Awaken.
Wolf Pack(Ex): A Wolf Warrior is followed by a group of loyal wolves, dogs, riding dogs, winter wolves, hell hounds, worgs, thrym hounds, deep hounds, wild hunt hounds, bearhounds, blink dogs, yeth hounds, nessian warhounds, milivorns, elite milivorns, nethersight mastiffs, legendary wolves, canoloths, guulvorgs, climbdogs, shadow mastiffs, hounds of the hunt, elven hounds, cavvekans, death dogs, moon dogs, vorrs, dire wolves, and/or chaos hounds with a total Challenge Rating no more than his cohort level. They will follow him even in his normal form, but communication will be limited. The alignment of Magical Beasts in his pack is the same as his own.
Resist Cold(Ex): Starting at 3rd level, a Wolf Warrior gains a small amount of protection from the cold.
Dire Wolf Shape(Su): A Wolf Warrior may now take the form of a dire wolf. He gets +8 Strength, +4 Dexterity, and +6 Constitution in this form. He gains the dire wolf's senses, racial skill bonuses, trip attack, and feats. He is considered to be an Animal, but is not affected by Awaken.
Magic Fang(Su): When in wolf shape, the Wolf Warrior's natural weapons are considered to be magic weapons with the listed bonus.
Winter Wolf Shape(Su): A Wolf Warrior may now take the shape of a winter wolf or hell hound, gaining its supernatural and extraordinary abilities. He gets +6 Strength, +6 Dexterity, and +6 Constitution in this form. He is considered to be a Magical Beast while in this form.
So it's a melee class that sacrifices BAB and competent followers for a small number of nigh worthless wolves and an incredibly limited form of wild shape?
Yeah, this is... very weak. Free to enter, but it still actively hurts anybody entering it, besides NPC classes.
Last edited by Milskidasith : 08-05-2010 at 09:53 PM.
As Bhu and Milskidasith pointed out, this class needs full BAB since it really doesn't get any good ways of increasing it's AB in any other way (spells/powers etc.)
Ditch the leadership nerf, and just say that the Wolf Warrior get a number of wolf companions in addition to the normal followers. Winter Wolves are only CR5 anyway, and they are the toughest ones on the list. Basically a toned down animal companion.
Givet it more skill points, 2 is way too low for anyone, and this PrC doesn't base anything on INT, so there will be no great boost there.
Power up the shapechange ability, as it stands right now it's extremely weak and you'd probably perform better in almost any situation in your normal form. Not what you're aiming for I guess.
So, yea. I like the idea, but as it stands right now it's down there with the fighter.
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You might could make his shapechanging like the Bear Warrior's bear form, where instead of the new physical ability scores replacing your old ones they are applied as a modifier (for example +2 Str, +4 Dex, +4 Con in wolf form). That would be a buff.
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Maybe it should be Cohort level rather than 1/2 Cohort Level. Might allow some of the higher level wolves before epic. Especially if you base it on CR rather than Hit Dice.
Allowing a 20th level character to have a CR18 wolf/hound cohort (I think Wild Hunt Hounds are CR 18) might not be so bad- how powerful can a druid animal companion be at 20th level?
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Last edited by hamishspence : 08-06-2010 at 09:10 AM.
Maybe it should be Cohort level rather than 1/2 Cohort Level. Might allow some of the higher level wolves before epic. Especially if you base it on CR rather than Hit Dice.
Allowing a 20th level character to have a CR18 wolf/hound cohort (I think Wild Hunt Hounds are CR 18) might not be so bad- how powerful can a druid animal companion be at 20th level?
Are spell-like abilities/maneuvers with a wolf-type flavour (Bite of the Werewolf, from Spell Compendium, or Wolf Pack Tactics from Tome of Battle) an option?
Might help to make the class as wolfy as possible.
well.... yes I agree that it needs full bab, but... commanded followers in some form or another (be it animal companions, or undeads) tend to be tallied up by HD not CR, also I would give it something extra to overcome resistances/Dr and the such because once as a druid I had this problem, and your guy doesn't have spells, and can't use many magic weapons in wolf form. also perhaps some strategical bonuses should be suggested such that everyone reading this doesn't just think nerfed fighter with wolves. flanking gives the +2 to attack which is easier to do with wolves, and faster transportation, but also consider that some of these animals have...unique... abilities. For example blink dogs can dimension door at will cutting off any pray attempting to avoid hell hound's breath weapon. now I'm sure that this is not the best of examples, but quite frankly i'm too lazy to find a better one. regardless you need enough HD of helpful wolves to help you. I suggest making leadership effect only wolves, adding an animal friendship spell like ability, and saying that with a diplomacy check equal to lets say 4X HD of target you can make them friendly and helpful, and likely to hang around your pack for a while. also wolf politics could be added in where you take over the pack of another if you kill the alpha-male, but remember that if you make a massive army of wolves remember to feed them.
True- but sometimes, when the creature has a fairly high CR for it's Hit Dice, you can end up controlling a creature with a far greater CR than you. Zombie Dragons from Draconomicon, when combined with an altar and Desecrate, spring to mind.
well.... yes I agree that it needs full bab, but... commanded followers in some form or another (be it animal companions, or undeads) tend to be tallied up by HD not CR, also I would give it something extra to overcome resistances/Dr and the such because once as a druid I had this problem, and your guy doesn't have spells, and can't use many magic weapons in wolf form. also perhaps some strategical bonuses should be suggested such that everyone reading this doesn't just think nerfed fighter with wolves. flanking gives the +2 to attack which is easier to do with wolves, and faster transportation, but also consider that some of these animals have...unique... abilities. For example blink dogs can dimension door at will cutting off any pray attempting to avoid hell hound's breath weapon. now I'm sure that this is not the best of examples, but quite frankly i'm too lazy to find a better one. regardless you need enough HD of helpful wolves to help you. I suggest making leadership effect only wolves, adding an animal friendship spell like ability, and saying that with a diplomacy check equal to lets say 4X HD of target you can make them friendly and helpful, and likely to hang around your pack for a while. also wolf politics could be added in where you take over the pack of another if you kill the alpha-male, but remember that if you make a massive army of wolves remember to feed them.
First, that is VERY hard to read.
Now then, many of the things you said are things I actually originally had, but later changed. Wolves were originally based on CR, but as hamishpence said that is often imbalanced. Leadership was also designed to be wolves-only, but that proved to be underpowered. As for how you obtain the wolves, that would likely be up to the DM.
Druid animal companions do scale by CR x 1.5 not HD (making them unique). This is rounded up to the next level divisible by three and subtracted from the druid's effective level (hence dire wolf CR 3 is -6 as is tiger CR 4); this is ignored for CR 1 creatures. So I'd say if you do scale by CR not HD stick to CR x 1.5 at least and be careful since magical beasts can get some nice abilities. Although the current cap seems like it could work, just be careful of some creatures they can get some decent abilities.
Also why is his strength in Dire Wolf form only +4 when dire wolves get a much higher bonus to Str? Also I'd go ahead and give him the full supernatural abilities and immunities that hell hounds and winter wolves get by 16th level they aren't much.
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I just don't think this is strong enough to really do anything. 2nd level has absolutely nothing, and third has cold resistance 5. 6th and 8th are weak abilities that are drastically worse than cheap magic items. And the other abilities just don't make up for it.
A few recommendations- change Charismal to Charisma, change Voor to Vorr, and maybe add mastiffs, war mastiffs, and dire jackals to the list.
I figured that creatures that while doglike, were also reptilian, creatures that can shapechange into a humanoid form, and hyenalike creatures, could be left off the list.
There might be one or two others- but I think thats a good enough Dog/Wolf type list for now.
I'd also recommend shifting the first magic fang ability to level 2 and handing it out every two levels after, to a maximum of +5 at lvl 10. Anyone against?
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The sky's the sky wherever you go. People are people.
Cogito ergo cogito
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sandstorm, pg 140
An ashworm can be an asset in the dessert
More ashworm recipes coming next week!
Crazy Awesome Avatar by Balford!
I'd also recommend shifting the first magic fang ability to level 2 and handing it out every two levels after, to a maximum of +5 at lvl 10. Anyone against?
Sounds good to me, but I'll wait and see what other people have to say. Also, I fixed the typos.
While Mastiffs and War Mastiffs aren't really different enough to warrant a mention, I like climbdogs- would give the character access to something that can climb up walls.
Shadow Mastiffs also seem to have been left out.
Also- one I forgot:
Book of Exalted Deeds:
Moon Dog- 9 HD CR 12:
Spoiler
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Last edited by hamishspence : 08-06-2010 at 02:38 PM.
While Mastiffs and War Mastiffs aren't really different enough to warrant a mention, I like climbdogs- would give the character access to something that can climb up walls.
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