2 Super Bears for the Price of 1!

[Person_Man]

Shared Fury feat (Races of the Wild) allows your Animal Companion to "gain the same benefits and penalties from Rage as you do" when it's within 5 feet of you.

Bear Warrior (Complete Warrior) turns you into a Bear when you Rage.

The Share Soulmeld feat (Magic of Incarnum) allows your Animal Companion or Familiar to gain the benefits of your soulmelds as long as it is within 5 feet of you. And soulmelds function regardless of what form you're in (Bear, humaniod, or anything else). This opens up dozens of different options with just a few levels of Incarnate or Totemist. 2 breath weapons, 2 Dissolving Spittles, 2 Necrocarnate Zombies, 2 Gorgon Masks, tons of natural attacks, etc.

There's also five great PrC options for multi-class meldshapers which will open up various high level Chakra Binds - Ironsoul Forgemaster, Necrocarnate, Soulcaster, Soul Manifester, and Totem Rager (which also gives you 2 extra Rage uses per day and an Extended Rage ability).

There are a bunch of ways to gain an Animal Companion. If your DM is nice, he'll allow you to use the Urban Companion (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a) alternate class feature, which counts as a Familiar (and thus shares your BAB) but with 3/4 your hit points. But by RAW it's a Familiar and not an Animal Companion, so you'll probably just have to use a normal Animal Companion and just have to deal with the fact that your Animal Companion won't have many hit points.

So, what are the most interesting ways to put these pieces together? I'm giddy over the idea of playing 2 fire breathing angry bears. But the possibilities are endless.

[Eldan]

Well...

Let's see. Barbarian/Totemist/Totem Rager/Bear Warrior is pretty much a given with this. Wild Cohort feat for the companion.

Unless I'm mistaken, taking Shared Fury with Bear Warrior turns your bear into an even bearier bear, right?

Now we just need good applications of melds.

[Quietus]

Well...

Let's see. Barbarian/Totemist/Totem Rager/Bear Warrior is pretty much a given with this. Wild Cohort feat for the companion.

Unless I'm mistaken, taking Shared Fury with Bear Warrior turns your bear into an even bearier bear, right?

Now we just need good applications of melds.

So a dire bear companion could go into a dire bear form and gain dire bear stats on top of his existing ones?

Wow. That's unbearable.

[LordBlades]

So a dire bear companion could go into a dire bear form and gain dire bear stats on top of his existing ones?

Wow. That's unbearable.

That's bearly enough unless you make the char an anthropomorphic bear werebear.

[Keld Denar]

Unless I'm mistaken, taking Shared Fury with Bear Warrior turns your bear into an even bearier bear, right?

Yo dawg...something something bears something something bears...

[grarrrg]

Yo dawg...something something bears something something bears...

This build is clearly desiring an application of more flavorful additions.

*clears throat*

NEEDS MOAR BEAR!!1!!

[Eldan]

Cast Bite of the Werebear and share it with your companion. It now has tripple bear stats.

[faceroll]

Cast Bite of the Werebear and share it with your companion. It now has tripple bear stats.

The Tribear.

[PlzBreakMyCmpAn]

Beastmaster for bearswarm. PersonMan I don't have to remind you how. Yay incarnu

[Zaq]

Mounted Fury (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031125a) lets you do this with anything you ride, not just an animal companion. Admittedly, it doesn't have the "within 5 feet" clause, but still, the ability to jump on a generic warhorse (or hell, a clockwork steed) and turn it into a BEAR TOWER is pretty awesome.

EDIT: Alternatively, take both Mounted Fury and Shared Fury. Have your animal companion be a monkey or something similarly small, and have it ride on your shoulder while you ride on a normal warhorse. Then you rage, and you get THREE STACKED BEARS. Or even better, go Beastmaster, get additional animal companions, and stack the TOWER O' BEARS ever-higher. (A bird riding a cat riding a monkey riding a human riding a horse . . . ZOMG BEARS!) Sure, you'll need the squeezing rules, but you can find a way around that, I'm sure.

[nedz]

Surely what you now need is to take the Leadership feat, and have yourself am anthropomorphic Bear cohort with their own AC.

Could you forebear this ?

[ShneekeyTheLost]

If ever I were punished
for every little pun-I-shed
I'd hie me to a punny-shed
and there I'd hang my punnish-head

Oh well, I suppose I shall have to grin and bear it.

[BallsInABowl]

Have your animal companion be a monkey or something similarly small, and have it ride on your shoulder while you ride on a normal warhorse. Then you rage, and you get THREE STACKED BEARS.

What if you could get a feral pig for your Animal Companion, and you were small size, and could ride him while he rode a horse could you choose not to have your AC turn into a bear? Because then you'd have Bear Boar Bear.

[Elric VIII]

What if you could get a feral pig for your Animal Companion, and you were small size, and could ride him while he rode a horse could you choose not to have your AC turn into a bear? Because then you'd have Bear Boar Bear.

Then you end your rage, but not your AC's mount's rage, then you would have a Man Bear Pig.

[manyslayer]

This is getting grizzly.

[Kyouhen]

Mounted Fury (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031125a) lets you do this with anything you ride, not just an animal companion. Admittedly, it doesn't have the "within 5 feet" clause, but still, the ability to jump on a generic warhorse (or hell, a clockwork steed) and turn it into a BEAR TOWER is pretty awesome.

EDIT: Alternatively, take both Mounted Fury and Shared Fury. Have your animal companion be a monkey or something similarly small, and have it ride on your shoulder while you ride on a normal warhorse. Then you rage, and you get THREE STACKED BEARS. Or even better, go Beastmaster, get additional animal companions, and stack the TOWER O' BEARS ever-higher. (A bird riding a cat riding a monkey riding a human riding a horse . . . ZOMG BEARS!) Sure, you'll need the squeezing rules, but you can find a way around that, I'm sure.

Is there any way to get Swarmfighting on your bears? :smalltongue:

[The Cat Goddess]

If you really want the Familiar Has Your Hitpoints thing, there's a couple classes that give Class Features that combine the abilities of your Familiar with your Animal Companion.

There might even be a Feat for it, but I don't recall... it's been awhile since I've opened the books.

[Kyouhen]

Oh! Oh! Dvati! :smallbiggrin:

[nedz]

Is there any way to get Swarmfighting on your bears? :smalltongue:

They have to be small for swarm fighting.

Black Bears are Medium so some way of getting Permanent Reduce Animal would do it.

Now if they were Were-Bear HobbitsHalflings: that might work.

Alternatively Were-Bear Gnomes could take levels in Blade Bravo.

[Darth Stabber]

If you go barbarian may i recommend BEAR TOTEM.

You need to be careful though, because bridges might not be load BEARing.