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View Full Version : [3.5] Awakened Dire Badger. Seriously.



skeeter_dan
2009-11-13, 04:57 PM
My gaming group is considering a little bit of goofiness after our current grim, dark, and mysterious campaign wraps up. What's goofier than an adventuring party of awakened animals?

I've been wanting to try this build our for quite a while, so I'm very excited for this campaign, but I wanted to get some help tweaking it. Essentially, the build I have in mind uses the Dire Badger's natural rage in combination with Intimidating Rage (CW) and the Never Outnumbered skill trick (CSc) to make a tasty little intimidation build that makes everyone within 10 ft and one foe within 30 ft save or be shaken for the duration of my rage (which is the entire combat). Of added value, a dire badger can rage as many times per day as it wants and there's no fatigue mentioned in the writeup. Of course, I would also want to add Imperious Command (DoU) to make it even more effective as well as using the Zhentarim Fighter substitution levels for added goodness.

I rolled ridiculous stats and have a nice 20 Charisma for all those Intimidation checks. I even had a lucky roll on my 3d6 for my Intelligence from Awaken and ended up with a 15 Intelligence. We'll likely be starting at or near 10th level.

Here's the basics:

1-5: Dire Badger HD - Intimidating Rage, Track (B), Persuasive
6: Zhentarim Fighter - Endurance, Imperious Command, Never Outnumbered
7: Zhentarim Fighter - Power Attack
8: Zhentarim Fighter - Skill Focus (Intimidate)
9: Marshal - Motivate Charisma, Frightful Presence (Dcn)
10: Zhentarim Fighter - Intimidating Strike

At 10th "level" I'll have the following for Intimidate:
Ranks 13
+2 Persuasive
+3 Skill Focus
+5 Charisma
+5 Motivate Charisma (Marshal minor aura)
= +28

Any time I'm damaged, I rage on my next turn, intimidating a single foe within 30 ft as a free action and all enemies within 10 ft. In addition, with Fearsome armor, I would have an additional +5 boost to my Intimidate check and can make Demoralize as a move action rather than a standard. Frightful Presence and Intimidating Strike give me more opportunities for fear effects to stack on top of the results of my Intimidate checks.

Question is, what can I do to make this better? Are there options that I'm failing to see? Are there obvious improvements that could be made?

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-11-13, 05:00 PM
Frenzied Berserker works well, and if you can find a way to get Large, War Hulk is always awesome.

Also, Bear Warrior. You know you want to...

Starbuck_II
2009-11-13, 05:05 PM
Any time I'm damaged, I rage on my next turn, intimidating a single foe within 30 ft as a free action and all enemies within 10 ft. In addition, with Fearsome armor, I would have an additional +5 boost to my Intimidate check and can make Demoralize as a move action rather than a standard. Frightful Presence and Intimidating Strike give me more opportunities for fear effects to stack on top of the results of my Intimidate checks.


Drawback, you can't activate/end rage voluntarily.

skeeter_dan
2009-11-13, 05:06 PM
Drawback, you can't activate/end rage voluntarily.
Definite drawback. I'd love to fit in Second Wind from the Miniatures Handbook for some extra HP just in case, but I can't see where I'd put it in the build or even if it's worth it.

Thurbane
2009-11-13, 08:17 PM
Mushroom mushroom!

skeeter_dan
2009-11-14, 09:54 PM
Ack. I just realized that this guy won't qualify for Awaken Frightful Presence, unless I'm missing something. No dragon-type for the dire badger. I'll probably switch it out for Kiai Shout from Complete Warrior.

Darrin
2009-11-15, 08:44 AM
Ack. I just realized that this guy won't qualify for Awaken Frightful Presence, unless I'm missing something. No dragon-type for the dire badger. I'll probably switch it out for Kiai Shout from Complete Warrior.

Dragonborn of Bahumat? There's, like, a dozen different ways to get Frightful Presence or something like it.

BobVosh
2009-11-15, 08:51 AM
Awakened halfdragon dire badger?

Oh my, we just slipped into the silly template mode.

Flickerdart
2009-11-15, 10:58 AM
Contract lycanthropy and become a were-human.

Mercenary Pen
2009-11-15, 11:19 AM
Contract lycanthropy and become a were-human.

Technically, each of us would be a were-human, because were merely comes from the saxon word meaning man (or at least human)- though by that understanding you could call half-elves were-elves and same with half orcs.

Hadrian_Emrys
2009-11-15, 02:15 PM
A... badger-were then? :smalltongue:

Anywho, just to put it out there: If you advance the dire badger the two steps from 3 to 5 racial HD, then awaken (to add another two for 7 HD), before tagging the critter with half-dragon... two more advancements would make it large and give it wings. Not exactly milking the fear angle of it all, but it's a funny idea anyway.

Edit: Some potentially attractive feats:
Reckless Rage: additional +2 Str, +2 Con, and -2 AC while raging
Righteous Wrath: The first time you hit a foe while raging, your foe is shaken until you leave the combat (or are defeated). WillNeg (DC = 10 + 1/2 rage ability class levels + Cha mod).

gorfnab
2009-11-15, 03:55 PM
What an awakened dire badger may look like
http://cooldawg2009.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/badgerfootball.jpg?w=200&h=300

skeeter_dan
2009-11-16, 12:49 PM
Dragonborn of Bahumat? There's, like, a dozen different ways to get Frightful Presence or something like it.

But how many ways are there for an Awakened Dire Badger to get Frightful Presence (without getting into the silliness of the half-dragon template, as tempting as it would be to advance to Large and get wings)?

In any case, Kiai Shout gets a similar result and doesn't have the dragon type requirement.

And gorfnab, that is extremely frightening. I think I am shaken.