PDA

View Full Version : Optimized Cockfighting? [3.5]



deuxhero
2009-10-23, 09:42 PM
Are there any chicken infested builds that focus on training and using the chickens as minions? Every (ab)use of the flaw I have seen either sells the chickens, floods the world with them, or beats people with them.

Chickens don't have game stats, but I think some book recommends a raven with less flight.

subject42
2009-10-23, 09:47 PM
I think that there's a "Fell Explosion" (or something) metamagic that makes enemies that are killed with a spell explode.

Since chickens don't have many hitpoints, you could probably abuse that for fun and profit.

deuxhero
2009-10-23, 09:48 PM
Not quite what I had in mind (I was aiming more for "Chickens pecking and clawing foes to death").

sofawall
2009-10-23, 09:50 PM
And I was going to suggest Greater Consumptive Field...

Well, you could always go Bard :P

taltamir
2009-10-23, 09:50 PM
with just a bit of DR, chickens cannot harm you... unless they are made into a swarm, the swarm as a whole might have a powerful enough attack to overcome DR.

Glimbur
2009-10-23, 10:04 PM
Sofawall has a solid idea here. A bard with Dragonfire Inspiration and silly amounts of inspire courage plusses can make any force that makes enough attack rolls into a rolling apocalypse. Throw on Leadership for a cohort bard to use regular Inspire Courage for extra hilarity. Sadly, [Exalted] and sweeping the world clean of life with a swarm of deadly chickens probably don't mesh so Words of Creation might be off limits. There's still enough. Just watch out for AoE's... or get an endless supply of chickens and use Alphorns to remove the bards from the frontlines.

Mr.Bookworm
2009-10-23, 10:07 PM
Well, I think you want to look in the Book of Erotic Fantasy for that sort of thing. :smalltongue:

On an interesting note, by RAW (but not by sense) you can create an infinite amount of chickens in with free actions and a spell component pouch. So, y'know, make a chicken black hole, or something.

sofawall
2009-10-23, 10:09 PM
Are there any chicken infested builds that focus on training and using the chickens as minions? Every (ab)use of the flaw I have seen either sells the chickens, floods the world with them, or beats people with them.

Chickens don't have game stats, but I think some book recommends a raven with less flight.

I think he already knows.

deuxhero
2009-10-23, 10:10 PM
Sofawall has a solid idea here. A bard with Dragonfire Inspiration and silly amounts of inspire courage plusses can make any force that makes enough attack rolls into a rolling apocalypse. Throw on Leadership for a cohort bard to use regular Inspire Courage for extra hilarity. Sadly, [Exalted] and sweeping the world clean of life with a swarm of deadly chickens probably don't mesh so Words of Creation might be off limits. There's still enough. Just watch out for AoE's... or get an endless supply of chickens and use Alphorns to remove the bards from the frontlines.

AoE?

No one said killing everyone, just mean "heroes" who go around attacking chickens (surprised that didn't come up yet...)

sofawall
2009-10-23, 10:11 PM
AoE?

Area of Effect.

Mr.Bookworm
2009-10-23, 10:14 PM
I think he already knows.

So he does. Back to Beavis and Butthead jokes for me, then.

If you wanted to use them as minions, though, I'd recommend killing them, reanimating them, and getting that feat that makes your undead explode. Now get an airship, and start dropping undead-chicken bombs. Or get a catapult. Or try to convince your DM that you can make a Colossal+++ exploding undead chicken swarm. Your willingness to horrifically abuse the natural order of things is the limit, really.

Beyond that, I suppose you could start Awakening them and giving them class levels. Or you could probably take Leadership and convince your DM that they're all chickens. Or do some template-ing.

sofawall
2009-10-23, 10:16 PM
So he does. Back to Beavis and Butthead jokes for me, then.

If you wanted to use them as minions, though, I'd recommend killing them, reanimating them, and getting that feat that makes your undead explode. Now get an airship, and start dropping undead-chicken bombs.

Hmm...


Not quite what I had in mind (I was aiming more for "Chickens pecking and clawing foes to death").

As for:

Beyond that, I suppose you could start Awakening them and giving them class levels. Or you could probably take Leadership and convince your DM that they're all chickens. Or do some template-ing.

That could be amusing.

Mr.Bookworm
2009-10-23, 10:18 PM
You could also try to make a chicken swarm a couple of miles across. Just get that Handle Animal bonus high enough, and you're in business.

Glimbur
2009-10-23, 10:25 PM
AoE?

No one said killing everyone, just mean "heroes" who go around attacking chickens (surprised that didn't come up yet...)

Sorry. But it's a natural instinct... once you build an army, you naturally want to use it to scour the earth clean so you can begin anew, right?

sofawall
2009-10-23, 10:27 PM
No one said killing everyone, just mean "heroes" who go around attacking chickens (surprised that didn't come up yet...)

Chicken Kickin'?

SurlySeraph
2009-10-23, 11:16 PM
A character with negative levels at least equal to her current level, or drained below 1st level, is instantly slain. Depending on the creature that killed her, she may rise the next night as a monster of that kind. If not, she rises as a wight.

Phase 1: Make an arbitrarily high number of chickens.
Phase 2: Kill them with Energy Drain. A Fireball with the Fell Drain metamagic is the perfect way to do this.
Phase 3: Wait until nightfall.
Phase 4: Wightpocalypse.

Now, controlling the wights is a different matter. If you have enough cleric levels and good bonuses to rebuke undead, though, things will work out.

The Gilded Duke
2009-10-24, 12:15 AM
Get one bard with Dragonfire Inspiration.
Get a Warchanter.

Get all of your chickens doing lots of bonus d6s of damage, and using the highest BAB of the group.

Decoy Lockbox
2009-10-24, 12:45 AM
You could always use the chickens as substitutes in the classic "rat bagging" idea. Its a combo of Animate Dead + destructive retribution (I think that was the feat's name, from Libris Mortis) + scads of dead 1/4 HD creatures. Essentially you animate the dead creatures with the spell and you get a large amount of low HP undead creatures who deal 1d6 dmg (sv for half) when they die to everything next to them (due to destructive retribution). You get a giant burlap sack filled with hundreds of these things, mix in a few alchemist fires to kill them, then throw the sack at somebody. All the fires go off, killing the chickens, who then explode and kill the thing at which you threw the sack. Or you could use Tippy's "magic missile" idea, but use a chicken/rat sack as the warhead at the end.

ondonaflash
2009-10-24, 01:06 AM
Well, I had the Chicken of War, but it wasn't a build so much as me stacking a whole bunch of weird powers into a chicken, and using it as an Arena champion.

deuxhero
2009-10-24, 04:58 AM
You could always use the chickens as substitutes in the classic "rat bagging" idea. Its a combo of Animate Dead + destructive retribution (I think that was the feat's name, from Libris Mortis) + scads of dead 1/4 HD creatures. Essentially you animate the dead creatures with the spell and you get a large amount of low HP undead creatures who deal 1d6 dmg (sv for half) when they die to everything next to them (due to destructive retribution). You get a giant burlap sack filled with hundreds of these things, mix in a few alchemist fires to kill them, then throw the sack at somebody. All the fires go off, killing the chickens, who then explode and kill the thing at which you threw the sack. Or you could use Tippy's "magic missile" idea, but use a chicken/rat sack as the warhead at the end.

Alreddy said I want scratching and biteing chickens, not expolding chickens.

Adumbration
2009-10-24, 05:08 AM
Well, if you get enough chicken, you'll get an evil hivemind that can cast as an arbitrarily high level sorcerer.

sofawall
2009-10-24, 05:15 AM
Well, if you get enough chicken, you'll get an evil hivemind that can cast as an arbitrarily high level sorcerer.

But these chickens are also not pecking and clawing.

subject42
2009-10-24, 07:43 AM
destructive retribution (I think that was the feat's name, from Libris Mortis)

That's what it's called. I knew "Fel Explosion" didn't sound right.

deuxhero
2009-10-24, 10:52 AM
But these chickens are also not pecking and clawing.

Eh, if the chickens are attacking, it's fine. However, does any animal in great numbers functuion like a cranium rat? Where is this?

Adumbration
2009-10-24, 10:58 AM
Eh, if the chickens are attacking, it's fine. However, does any animal in great numbers functuion like a cranium rat? Where is this?

Book of Vile Darkness, page 34.

FMArthur
2009-10-24, 10:59 AM
Bard is almost always the way to go for making useless allies useful.

Adumbration
2009-10-24, 11:13 AM
If you want a base for a swarm of chicken, check out the Murder of Crows in Tome of Magic, sans the flight.

Paulus
2009-10-24, 11:14 AM
You see a figure crest the hill, the sun is just rising. Before him, the lands covered in darkness, swaths of storm clouds rolls across the suffering masses. Slowly you hear a few plucks of strings, a simple tune, and the figure begins to sing. "Old McDonald had a farm, E, I, E, I, O." The Tune builds slightly, and behind him, the sound of thunder as the sun shows it's face. "And on this farm he had some chickens...." Suddenly the air is split with the fury of a thousand fold '****-a-doodle-dos', and finally we see behind him, thousands, no, fields of brown, white, black, red, feathers! Untold numbers of feathers! THEY ARE LEGION!

"E, I, E, I, O..."

Another_Poet
2009-10-24, 01:00 PM
On a smaller scale, the Wild Cohort feat will turn one of them into an animal companion. Commoner with chicken companion sounds awesome.

Handle Animal will let you train them for battle. Train your companion, and two others.

Now you can Handle three chickens per round (free action for animal companion, move action x2 for the other two). With three crappy attacks per round, plus being able to provide your own flank, your commoner is now better than most warrior classes for levels 1-5. Assuming you earn Wealth by Level and put it to good use, of course.

Aron Times
2009-10-24, 01:08 PM
In before Code Chicken: Lelouch of the Rebellion, with Emperor Harland Sanders as the BBEG.

Deth Muncher
2009-10-24, 01:34 PM
In before Code Chicken: Lelouch of the Rebellion, with Emperor Harland Sanders as the BBEG.

I lol'd irl.

Oslecamo
2009-10-24, 01:40 PM
In before Code Chicken: Lelouch of the Rebellion, with Emperor Harland Sanders as the BBEG.

If we find a way on turning those chickens bigger, then turn them into constructs, we can have an army of giant robot chickens!

Oh, wait, that was the version whitout mechas...

Mr.Bookworm
2009-10-24, 03:28 PM
If we find a way on turning those chickens bigger, then turn them into constructs, we can have an army of giant robot chickens!

Oh, wait, that was the version whitout mechas...

Hm, wait, that's not actually a bad idea.

Figure out a way of making (magic) mechs that can be chicken-controlled. Make them about the size of a person..

Probably work best in Eberron, where you can get funding from the Crazy Schemes budget and get a assembly line going. Use a warforged as a base template, and put armblades and armbows on them. They won't exactly be Sun Tzu, but they'll work great as shock troops. You also might as well enchant the shell so that the chickens automatically obey your spoken commands while you're at it, too.

You'll have to train the chickens, but again, you can probably get some help.

The armblades can be controlled by the clawing motions. The "arm"bow can be mounted on top of the head, and be designed to follow the motion of the chicken's head and fire when it pecks.

Now, get a few intelligent chickens (cohorts, animal companions, etc.), and do the same with a Warforged Titan as a base, and outfit it with cutting-edge armament.

Oh, and hook up a magic megaphone to all of the mechs so the chicken squawks come out like the shrieks of the damned.

Moriato
2009-10-24, 03:41 PM
Use Animal Growth? It couldn't hurt for some of your chickens to be giant chickens with DR 10/magic.

ShakeHandsMan
2009-10-26, 04:44 PM
I'm Surprised that no one has mentioned Frenzied Berzerker + Inspire Deathless Frenzy. It's more along the lines of what OP wanted in the ways of pecking and clawing.

KitsuneKionchi
2009-10-26, 04:50 PM
Awaken the chickens (obvious start) and have them take levels in Soul Knife to get mind beaks/mind claws. Then they can throw them too...

Tiki Snakes
2009-10-26, 04:56 PM
Awaken the chickens (obvious start) and have them take levels in Soul Knife to get mind beaks/mind claws. Then they can throw them too...

Or combine this with the previous post, and have the chickens shoot for frenzied berserker awesomeness.

It's clearly the only explanation of the ones in Hyrule...

mostlyharmful
2009-10-26, 04:59 PM
with just a bit of DR, chickens cannot harm you... unless they are made into a swarm, the swarm as a whole might have a powerful enough attack to overcome DR.

Hey if it did for Link it'll do for 3.5!!!:smallbiggrin::smalltongue::smallcool:

KitsuneKionchi
2009-10-26, 05:02 PM
Matters not. Best use for this "flaw" is to upset the natural order by creating one too many chicken souls for the chicken diety, Mr. Cluckers, to keep track of. He will descend in all his feathery goodness and request, neigh, demand you cease your disruption of his delicate balance. Once you have audience with a diety (as well as his job security on the line), its relatively simple to negotiate becoming a temporary vassal for a divinity point or two which, thanks to the poorly worded mechanic, lets you become an overgod by handing out and taking back your own points from some kind of insignificant creature like a squirrel...

Only problem is, where are you going to find some nearly mindless creature to temporarily grant your divinity points to?

jiriku
2009-10-26, 05:08 PM
I once persuaded my DM to let me acquire some alternative figurines of wondrous power: chickens of mystic might. They turned into a dire chicken (usable as a mount), a war chicken (attack beast), and a three-headed lernean firebreathing chicken. Mmm, also I had one that turned into a regular chicken, and another that turned into a rubber chicken.

Cieyrin
2009-10-26, 06:13 PM
Matters not. Best use for this "flaw" is to upset the natural order by creating one too many chicken souls for the chicken diety, Mr. Cluckers, to keep track of. He will descend in all his feathery goodness and request, neigh, demand you cease your disruption of his delicate balance. Once you have audience with a diety (as well as his job security on the line), its relatively simple to negotiate becoming a temporary vassal for a divinity point or two which, thanks to the poorly worded mechanic, lets you become an overgod by handing out and taking back your own points from some kind of insignificant creature like a squirrel...

Only problem is, where are you going to find some nearly mindless creature to temporarily grant your divinity points to?

So Clucky the Dark Rook finally ascended, huh? Good for him, he's faced down enough kobolds to warrant divine attention.