[3.5e] Stretchybear! (Build advice)

[Admiral Squish]

Alright, I'm here for one reason, and one reason only: To find out if this crazy thing actually works this way. I was looking through the eberron books and noticed there seemed to be a way to get some pretty crazy bonuses with very little actual effort. Specifically, i noticed Weretouched Master. And with my long-standing fascination with Warshaper, I naturally checked the two against each other. What I found shocked me. A way to get 40+ strength with no LA, RHD, or anything of that nature. 50 if I really tried. However, all I can do momentarily, is pray these stack the way I think they do.

And so, I present, for your viewing pleasure, the stretchybear

First, start with a shifter with the razorclaw trait. Five levels of barbarian for rage bonuses and survival as a class skill. For feats in this phase, you want Razorclaw Elite and Power Attack. Max out survival, and proceed immediately to Weretouched Master. Go with the bear heritage, which boosts your claws to 1d6 right off the bat. Feats here include great rend and shifter savagery for your bonus shifter feats, with one free feat, probably best spent on cleave or something of that nature. Then, at ten, you get the capstone alternate form. Now, I'm not sure how this would be ruled, but hopefully shifter savagery and all your other claw feats apply to hybrid bear form as well, as well as your bonuses during a shift. That's +20 strength there, before rage. Then go into Warshaper, which leaves you with +5 feet of reach, +4 str and +4 con, along with fast healing 2 and flashmorph if you go all the way through. twlefth- and fifteenth-level feats are probably best spent on great cleave and extra rage, since you've only got two uses per day. From there, wisest would be continuing in barbarian, to net those rages and other such things, but you could squeeze in five levels of kensai before epic.

The end result is +24, before rage, and your 4th, 8th, 12th, and 16th level bonus points. The end result, +30 bonus to strength when in rage, without items, with fifteen feet of reach and claws that do 3d6 damage and a bite of 4d6, two claws on a charge, bonus damage when both hit, and improved grapple, along with fast healing 2, and 4 rages. Throw in quick draw and a long sword in one hand and take advantage of multiple attacks, and still take advantage of all the the claws and related bonuses.

Playable from 1st, with a minor dip in power from 5th-9th, then a serious jump in power at 10th and a steep increase from 10th-15th.

Overall, seems pretty crazy. Please tell me how much of this legal, so I can adjust accordingly. Thanks!

[The_Snark]

It's not wrong, exactly, but the errata (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/er/20040125a) for the Eberron Campaign Setting hits your build pretty hard. Somebody at Wizards noticed that the capstone for the Weretouched Master was pretty unbalanced- bears and tigers were undeniably superior to pretty much everything else, and the capstone was a huge jump in power for those two animals—and changed it so that the bonuses granted were specific (and quite a bit smaller).

Long story short, your hybrid form loses 12 Str, and you won't be getting perks like natural armor; your animal form works like a Polymorph spell, meaning your Strength will be fixed at 27. It's still playable, certainly, just not quite as potent after level 10.

[Admiral Squish]

Curses! Foiled again!

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Long story short, your hybrid form loses 12 Str, and you won't be getting perks like natural armor; your animal form works like a Polymorph spell, meaning your Strength will be fixed at 27. It's still playable, certainly, just not quite as potent after level 10.Animal Form may be fixed Str, but things like Shifting, Rage, and Warshaper can be applied after the Weremaster capstone, meaning you can get rid of the need for Str at all in the base character.

[Chronos]

I don't know enough about the Weretouched Master to say for sure, but might you get more benefit from using an avenger-variant druid (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#druidVariantDruidicAve nger) as the base class, instead of Barbarian? You still get Rage and Fast Movement, but you also get Wild Shape, and of course some spells. All you're lacking compared to a standard druid is an animal companion, spontaneous summoning, and a penalty to Wild Empathy.

Maybe toss in some Master of Many Forms if you go this route, too.