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View Full Version : Chaupiti: to Shadowpounce, or not to Shadowpounce?



Urpriest
2010-10-29, 07:53 AM
I've been rolling a character concept around in my mind recently. Here's how the thought process went:

1. Kung fu bears are always fun. I once had an OA Shaman with a polar bear animal companion named Chaupiti. We'll call her that.

2. But what does a kung fu bear want in life...Con synergy and extra arms! Definitely grabbing totemist. Our kung fu bear now has a more Indian theme. We'll make her a dwarf from the Himalayas.

3. Hmm...blink shirt is pretty damn cool. But even if it's bound to my totem I'll still only get one attack on rounds when I blink up to people. This is kinda weak. What if the path isn't clear and I can't charge? Kung fu bears love full attacks, after all.

4. Teflammar Shadowlord!

So here's the problem: getting the absurd number of feats (not to mention sneak attack dice) for Teflammar Shadowlord means making a horrendous mess of a build that seems like it's trying to do too many things at once:

Cobra Strike Monk 2/Totemist 2/Barbarian 1/Fist of the Forest 1/Deepwarden 2/Bear Warrior 1/Swordsage 1/Teflammar Shadowlord 4/X 6

Where X can be more Swordsage for 3/round full attacks, Warshaper/Bear Warrior for more Con and Str, or Totemist for more melds. On the other hand if I didn't go shadowpouncing I'd end up with something like this:

Totemist 2/Barbarian 1/Totemist +1/Barbarian +1/Fist of the Forest 1/Deepwarden 2/Bear Warrior 1/Warshaper 2/Totem Rager 9

Both builds pretty much require two flaws to function. This depresses me a little, since I try to avoid things that piss off DMs. Anyway, the second build feels a lot less cluttered. The question is, how important is shadowpouncing to a kung fu bear? How much versatility does the extra meldshaping in the second build get me, and does it counteract the problem of full attacking people who refuse to stand in a straight line from me? Should I get rid of Deepwarden and put in something like Fighter to make up for being horribly horribly feat starved? Help!

Cyclocone
2010-10-29, 08:12 AM
If you aren't set on Telflammar Shadowlord, you could try looking at the Crinti Shadow Marauder (Shining South); it gets shadow pounce with much less onerous requirements.

Greenish
2010-10-29, 09:02 AM
3. Hmm...blink shirt is pretty damn cool. But even if it's bound to my totem I'll still only get one attack on rounds when I blink up to people. This is kinda weak. What if the path isn't clear and I can't charge? Kung fu bears love full attacks, after all.The totem bind doesn't say anything about removing the "you can take no other actions after the teleport" the blink shirt is saddled with.

[Edit]: Battle Jump & Pounce is a nice alternative to Shadow Pounce. Just teleport above the enemy instead of next to it. :smalltongue:

Urpriest
2010-10-29, 12:27 PM
The totem bind doesn't say anything about removing the "you can take no other actions after the teleport" the blink shirt is saddled with.

[Edit]: Battle Jump & Pounce is a nice alternative to Shadow Pounce. Just teleport above the enemy instead of next to it. :smalltongue:

Ah yes, I had noticed the issue with blink shirt, which was another reason I wanted to go for shadowpouncing. Indeed, it would be an issue of teleporting next to an enemy and then attacking them next turn, if they stuck around, which they would be increasingly unlikely to. Incidentally, I assume things like shadowpounce and battle jump still work with blink shirt, since you're not actually taking any more actions beyond the teleport itself?

Battle Jump is pretty brilliant...it's another feat to fit into an endless vortex of them, but it's a damn good one...since Taer come from snowy eastern mountains anyway, it's at the very least no more farfetched than Teflammar Shadowlord. Plus I love the image of an enemy sitting there feeling safe only to have a panda teleport on top of them.

@Cyclocone: Crinti Shadow Marauder takes one more level to get the ability, but it is easier to get into. The feats are harder to get as bonus feats, though, so I'm not sure it solves all that much. Plus, it feels very weird for this character to have mount-related abilities, though I could probably come up with some fluff for it.

Keld Denar
2010-10-29, 12:37 PM
If you go with one of the monk bases so you have Flurry of Blows, you can pick up Sun School (CWarrior). It has the ability to make a single attack after you move dimensionally. Combine with Snap Kick gives you 2 attacks when you move dimensionally.

If you bind Blink Shirt to your Totem, you could blink as both a move and a standard. That gives you 4 attacks.

An idea, if you are open to it, would be something like:

Monk2/Ardent1/Totemist2/SoulManifester10 with Tash set to Soul Manifester. For Ardent, pick up the Freedom mantle to get access to the Dim Hop power, a 10' augementable SWIFT ACTION TELEPORT. Then you could hop, pseudopounce, blink, pseudopounce, blink pseudopounce for 6 attacks from different angles in a true Nightcrawler style attack.

Loses the Kung-Fu Bear theme, though unless you build it on an Anthropomorphic Bear chassis.

Good? Yes. Amazing? Not really.

Urpriest
2010-10-29, 12:42 PM
Unfortunately as mentioned earlier you can't take additional actions after using Blink Shirt, so that character is only getting four attacks. Near-full manifesting may outweigh this, but I do like my kung fu bear.

Keld Denar
2010-10-29, 12:47 PM
You could add Inconsistant Location as well (its a 6th level power).

That way you get your free action IL, your swift action Dim Hop, a standard action to manifest another power, and your move action Blink Shirt. That's 6 attacks and a power per turn. Alternatively, you could full attack instead of the standard + move, which might be more effective. Hmmmmm...

Darrin
2010-10-29, 04:54 PM
So here's the problem: getting the absurd number of feats (not to mention sneak attack dice) for Teflammar Shadowlord means making a horrendous mess of a build that seems like it's trying to do too many things at once:


Which is why most shadow-pouncers pick it up through Crinti Shadow Marauder (Shining South).