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Person_Man
2009-11-19, 11:18 AM
Having seen hundreds of Diplomacy related threads, it occurred to me that a much overlooked game mechanic is Wild Empathy. This is probably because it's a lot harder to optimize. But not impossible. Here's what I've got:



Totemist: Provides Wild Empathy. Also, you get a +4 bonus to effect a magical beast if you have it's the same kind of soulmeld bound.
Beast Tamer Circlet: Totemist soulmeld. Provides an Insight bonus to Handle Animal and Wild Empathy checks. Starts at +2, and can go up to +14 (or higher?) if you max out your essentia investment in it. (Essentia investment is limited by your hit dice, but can be raised by taking certain feats, items, class levels, etc). Also, you don't need to bind this soulmeld in order to get the bonus, and you can shift your essentia investment into other soulmelds as a Swift Action, so you're not wasting much of an investment by binding it.
Beast Heart Adept (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20070209a&page=4): One level gets you the Monstrous Empathy ability. This ability stacks with the Wild Empathy ability of other classes to determine effectiveness, and allows you to effect magical beasts regardless of their Intelligence, and Aberrations (with a penalty).
Marshal (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20030906b): One level gets you the Motive Charisma aura, which lets you add your Charisma bonus (a second time) to all Charisma based Skills and checks.
Handle Animal Skill: 5 ranks gets you a +2 bonus on Wild Empathy.


So, a Marshal 1/Totemist 4/Beast Heart Adept 1 would roll d20 + 5 + (Cha bonus * 2) + 2 + (essentia investment * 2) + 2 = 18ish to 47ish (average 32ish, assuming a decent Cha)

Wild Empathy uses the same DC's as Diplomacy (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/Diplomacy.htm). By default, most creatures you encounter will be Unfriendly, which means you only need to hit a DC 25 to make them Friendly. If they're Hostile, you'll need a far more difficult DC 40. Making creatures Helpful (DC 40 or 50) is probably not something you'll be able to pull off until a much higher level.

As a bonus, Beast Heart Adept and Marshal get Diplomacy as a class Skill, and you get Skill Focus (Diplomacy) from Marshal as well.

Other miscellaneous helpful things:

Dragon Trainer feat: You can use Handle Animal to train dragons. Races of the Dragon pg 98.

Spirit Sense: Let’s you see an interact with spirits of the recently dead. “Sorry that we had to ambush you, but could you tell us your master’s weaknesses?” “Are you kidding me, you just killed me.” “I demand you tell me!” (My Diplomacy check is 52.) “Fine, fine. He’s vulnerable to fire.” Heroes of Horror pg 124.

Vow of Peace: Can provide a lot of bonuses to Cha based checks, AC, plus Continuous Calm Emotions aura. And if a creature strikes you with a manufactured weapon, the weapon must make a Fort Save or shatter. And Vow of Nonviolence (prereq) boosts the Save DC of many abilities. The down side is that you have to vow never to harm any living creature, and your party has some strict roleplaying restrictions as well. Never take this feat unless everyone in the party is on board with it. Assuming they are, this can actually be quite a useful feat for you, since it's assumed that you will use Wild Empathy or Diplomacy on everything living, and will be free to kill anything non-living. Requires Sacred Vow, Vow of Non-Violence. Book of Exalted Deeds pg 48.

Amulet of Aberrant Empathy: You can use a Handle Animal check in place of a Diplomacy check to influence the attitude of aberrations with low Int. Cheap. Comp Adventurer pg 132.

Pendant of Dragon Empathy: You can use a Handle Animal check in place of a Diplomacy check to influence the attitude of dragons with low Int. Cheap. Comp Adventurer pg 134.


So, what have I missed?

Duke of URL
2009-11-19, 12:06 PM
Circlet of Persuasion for +3 competence bonus to all CHA checks.

Zaq
2009-11-19, 10:18 PM
Circlet of Persuasion for +3 competence bonus to all CHA checks.

Nah, go all the way. Admiral's Bicorne (Stormwrack, 51k gp) for a +5 unnamed bonus to all Charisma-based checks, then a Scepter of Obedience (Miniature's Handbook, 12.5k gp) for a +5 competence bonus to all Charisma-based checks.

The only problem is having a magic hat interferes with binding the Beast Tamer Circlet, but that doesn't really need to be bound.

Darrin
2009-11-20, 12:34 AM
Hellborn race gets the Devil's Favor feat for free. +2 untyped bonus on any attack, save, or "check of any sort" (that's RAW, including caster checks, dispel checks, etc.), a number of times per day equal to the number of devil-touched feats you have.

Lucky Dice soulmeld might add +1... not sure if Wild Empathy counts as an ability check. You could either argue that Wild Empathy is a charisma "ability" check, or Wild Empathy, being an (Ex) class ability, is an "ability" check. Not sure of the RAW on that one, though.

If that works, then the Improvisation spell should also work as a luck bonus on an "ability" check.

One With the Land (Spell Compendium) gives +2 competence bonus on Wild Empathy checks.

Savage Empathy (Dragon #326) removes the -4 penalty for checks against Magical Beasts. You can also select another creature type you can use Wild Empathy on. You can take this feat multiple times to add more creature types (but not Constructs, Humanoids or Undead). Huh... Wild Empathy on oozes, eh?

Cavestalker 2 (DotU) gets Underdark Affinity, which allows them to use Wild Empathy on Vermin.

Animal Friend (BoED), +4 Exalted bonus for Wild Empathy checks on animals and good-aligned magical beasts.

Combined Empathy (Dragon #325), Ranger and Druid levels stack for Wild Empathy checks.

Charm Domain (Spell Compendium), boost Charisma by 4 for one minute. If you're not a cleric with this domain, Domain Drought (DMGII) will give it to you for a day, or Planar Touchstone -> Catalogues of Enlightenment.

Lust Domain (Spell Compendium), enhancement bonus to Charisma equal to your Cleric level.

Nobility Domain (Spell Compendium), +2 morale bonus on ability checks.

Person_Man
2009-11-20, 02:59 PM
OK, so putting this all together in a build that's not a Wild Empathy one trick pony:

Hellborn Marshal 1/Totemist 4/Beast Heart Adept 1 with a Admiral's Bicorne, Scepter of Obedience, and Beast Tamer Circlet (shaped but unbound) with a reasonable amount of essentia invested into it should easily be able to move any animal, magical beast, or aberration from Hostile to Friendly. And with a Pendant of Dragon Empathy, you can effect effect unintelligent dragons as well. Your Diplomacy and Intimidate will be quite high as well, and can effect anyone you can communicate with normally (humanoids, fey, giants, intelligent dragons, etc). Which means you should only have to fight undead, constructs, ooze, elementals, outsiders, plants, vermin (I don't think 2 levels of Cavestalker is worth the investment) and maybe unintelligent giants and fey. If you invest a few ranks in UMD (which you should, given your Motive Charisma ability) you can pump it even higher with Improvisation and One With the Land if your DM counts Wild Empathy as an ability check, moving creatures into Helpful territory when you need it.

I also noticed that Warlock can get Wild Empathy from the Call of the Beast least Invocation (Complete Mage pg 123), and unlike Totemists, Warlocks are a Cha based class. So Marshal 1/Warlock 4/Beast Heart Adept 1/Invocation Progressing PrC Y with Improvisation and One With the Land should be able to pull it off quite well also.

Or if you're playing a higher level campaign, you can just drop Marshal and use Totemist X/Beast Heart Adept 1.

John Campbell
2009-11-20, 03:12 PM
The Uncivilized trait gives +1 untyped bonus on Wild Empathy and Handle Animal in exchange for a -1 penalty on Diplomacy, Bluff, and Gather Information.

Nate the Snake
2009-11-20, 05:46 PM
Lucky Dice soulmeld might add +1... not sure if Wild Empathy counts as an ability check. You could either argue that Wild Empathy is a charisma "ability" check, or Wild Empathy, being an (Ex) class ability, is an "ability" check. Not sure of the RAW on that one, though.

Wild empathy is an ability check because you add your Charisma modifier to a d20 roll. The Dice will work on it.


One With the Land (Spell Compendium) gives +2 competence bonus on Wild Empathy checks.

This wouldn't stack with the Scepter of Obedience, would it?


Huh... Wild Empathy on oozes, eh?

Oozemaster? :smallbiggrin:


Cavestalker 2 (DotU) gets Underdark Affinity, which allows them to use Wild Empathy on Vermin.

The Child of Winter feat (ECS) lets wild empathy apply to vermin. Vermin Keeper (Und) gets vermin empathy at 1st level, but requires wild shape.


Combined Empathy (Dragon #325), Ranger and Druid levels stack for Wild Empathy checks.

This feat shouldn't even be necessary. Wild empathy from PrCs stacks with wild empathy from base classes. :smallconfused:


I also noticed that Warlock can get Wild Empathy from the Call of the Beast least Invocation (Complete Mage pg 123), and unlike Totemists, Warlocks are a Cha based class. So Marshal 1/Warlock 4/Beast Heart Adept 1/Invocation Progressing PrC Y with Improvisation and One With the Land should be able to pull it off quite well also.

Call of the Beast is technically based on class level, not caster level, so progressing warlock casting with a PrC won't advance the wild empathy. You can still speak with animals, though; would that let you use normal Diplomacy on animals?

Also, there's a bard variant (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#) that gets wild empathy, as another alternative to totemist.