Building a Totemist (3.5), assistance required

[Ghost6442]

I was looking to build a melee tank and a friend suggested the Totemist, from what I've heard of it so far, it seems to be exactly what I'm looking for and very interesting.

Though I'm not that good at building characters numbers wise.

What I want is a melee oriented character who can wade into the hoards of the undead like a tyranid genestealer into unarmed imperial guard who have no where to run.

I would also like some stealthiness, but not that necessary.

I like to start with race, It needs to be something that can be a blood relative (sibling) of a human. I'm yet to ask my DM how much LA I can have and then buy off if possible, if so I may just play a human with the Lycanthrope template (thinking cat or wolf)

I understand that my best stat needs to be Con followed by str then dex, though a 12+ int would be good, and will being the weak save, points in Wis might help a little... leaving Cha to be dumped, something I would be very very happy about (is sick of Cha intensive builds)

[Keld Denar]

What level range are you looking at? How much of that stuff you have access to at any given time depends a lot on what level you'll be.

As far as a mostly human character, Azurin from MoI are a great race for any Incarnum character. Give up your normal human skill points for +1 essentia. Trust me, you can NEVER have enough essentia. Heck, a normal human and an Azurin could be full blood brothers, one of which was just born with the "spark" and one wasn't, just like two brothers could be born with one having talents for magic and the other not.

Tanky soulmelds are Wormtail Belt and Displacer Mantle. Wormtail Belt gives a rather rediculous amount of Natural Armor, which would stack with any armor you might be wearing. Displacer Mantle, especially bound to your shoulder, would give you a flat 20% miss chance (and also bonuses to stealthy skillz). Other than that, pick a meld that gives you weapons (Girallon Arms are popular for 4 attacks/round) and go wild.

[Greenish]

How about Silverbrow Human? It's a human with a silver dragon somewhere in her ancestry, from Dragon Magic. It'd net you Dragonblood subtype which opens a couple of soulmelds more.

Another human variant to consider would be Azurin, which is human born with connection to Incarnum (trades the extra skill points for a point of essentia).


Melee prowess isn't terribly difficult, bind a few soulmelds for natural weapons, pump 'em full of essentia, you're done. Pick Multiattack and Double Chakra (Totem) as soon as possible, maybe also invest into Expanded Soulmeld Capacity, Bonus Essentia and perhaps Imp. Natural Attack. Shape Soulmeld (Thunderstep Boots) is pretty sweet with pounce from Sphinx Claws and a host of natural attacks.

Imp. Unarmed Strike is something to consider, too, allowing you to take iterative attacks without interfering with other natural weapons. Superior Unarmed Strike (ToB) can get the base damage into decent levels, there.


Stealth is relatively simple to boost with soulmelds, maybe pick up Darkstalker (LoM) later if you're serious about it.

[Ghost6442]

oh currently level 8, though I find it best to build level by level, stops me from losing where I was up too

*takes notes*

[Keld Denar]

Do you want to stick to straight Totemist? Or would you be up to multiclassing a bit? I'm thinking of a little Barbarian, Bear Warrior, and Fist of the Forest, capping it all off with some Totem Rager. Get mad, be a bear, get Con, apply Con to AC, apply soulmelds on top of everything.

RAWR!

Might be a bit much to build toward, and proably terribly essentia starved, but something that might bear fruit (har har har).

[Z3ro]

And if not the total bear route, just upping totemist to totem rager ramps the damage up from "ridiculous" to "are you kidding?".

[candycorn]

I'm a fan of Dragonborn Totemists. The +2 to con helps a primary stat, and the dragonblooded will open up natural attacks. You miss out on a racial feat, but it's a tradeoff. You'll get some cool wings that make jumping easy too.

Let's look at a reasonable meld set for a good level 8.

Totemist 6 / Warblade 2

Grants: 4 melds, 4 essentia, 2 binds (totem, crown, feet, hands)
Also Grants: Initiator Level 5 (3rd level powers).

You can naturally put 2 essentia into each meld, Totem chakra will enable 3.

So let's look at melds.
Claws of the Wyrm - a pair of claw attacks that you get just for shaping the meld. No chakra bind required!

Dragon Tail - a tail attack that you get just for shaping the meld. No chakra bind required!

Girallon Claws - 4 claw attacks, but you have to bind to totem to get it.

Wormtail belt - boosts natural armor. GREAT with inherent natural armor. If bound to totem, with 3 essentia, you could have as much as +5 nat armor. Even without, you could have up to +4.

For maneuvers/stances, I'd recommend focusing on boosts and counters, and stances that augment what you already do. Punishing stance, etc. You'll also have Uncanny Dodge, which is fairly good, as well.

An example for natural attacks could be:
Claws of the Wyrm
Dragon Tail
Shadow Mantle (bound to Shoulders)
Worg Pelt (bound to totem)

For this, your full attack would be Unarmed Strike/Claw/Claw/Bite/Tail.
You could activate a darkness globe to deny enemies dex to AC, and give them a 50% miss chance vs you (for close in scrapping, or closing with ranged foes, provided you know what direction they're in).

Alternately, you could swap shadow mantle for displacer cloak, and have a flat 20% miss chance on incoming attacks. Worg pelt gives a modest boost to hide/move silent, also.

[HunterOfJello]

A fun template that some people may consider weak for LA +1 (and others may consider completely appropriate) is the Quasi-Lycanthrope template. It's listed at the bottom of this page (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mb/20040721a). In a nutshell, you gain the shapechanger subtype, the ability to turn shaggy or grow some slightly pointier teeth, and DR 10/Silver.

There are other templates like the Mineral Warrior or Feral template that give you more while having their own costs, but the Quasi-Lycanthrope is directly related to the idea behind a Totemist and comes at a low cost (assuming there's LA Buyoff involved).

~

The only other thing I can say that might be helpful for playing a Totemist is to check out the character sheets for MoI (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/20051124a) on the WotC page. The 5th or so sheet has information that you can write your chakras down on along with your current soulmelds for quick reference.

[Z3ro]

Just a couple quick corrections for you:



So let's look at melds.
Claws of the Wyrm - a pair of claw attacks that you get just for shaping the meld. No chakra bind required!

Dragon Tail - a tail attack that you get just for shaping the meld. No chakra bind required!
Both these melds are weird in that they do not function as normal natural attacks; instead, they have a fixed number of attacks you can perform with them. You can use on claw as a standard action or both as a full, or make one tail attack as a standard action.



An example for natural attacks could be:
Claws of the Wyrm
Dragon Tail
Shadow Mantle (bound to Shoulders)
Worg Pelt (bound to totem)

For this, your full attack would be Unarmed Strike/Claw/Claw/Bite/Tail.
You could activate a darkness globe to deny enemies dex to AC, and give them a 50% miss chance vs you (for close in scrapping, or closing with ranged foes, provided you know what direction they're in).

Alternately, you could swap shadow mantle for displacer cloak, and have a flat 20% miss chance on incoming attacks. Worg pelt gives a modest boost to hide/move silent, also.
Claws of the wyrm and dragon tail, as mentioned, can't be used together, and neither can be used with worg pelt. In addition, at level 8 he can't bind to the shoulders yet.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Claws of the Wyrm are nice at level 1 as they are the only souldmeld which grants natural weapons without being bound to a chakra, other than that I don't see use for them at higher levels (unless the bound abilities are really good, which I don't remember)

For Sneakiness I like Kruthic claws, thy give a big bonus to either move silently or hide (Perhaps even both, I can't recall and I am AFB) something like +4/esentia and they give you claws+acid damage.

[Godskook]

@Z3ro, I would suggest that the OP takes it up with his DM, as the wording on both Claws and Tail allow for the interpretation that they're natural attacks and the text simply doesn't include the larger rule set(or identify them properly).

@OP, a lycanthrope would be incredibly useful as a Totemist, and if your DM allows this option, I highly suggest you take it. You'll also want a dip into Barbarian, which is even more flavorful as a D&D lycan totemist than it is otherwise.

[candycorn]

Claws of the Wyrm are nice at level 1 as they are the only souldmeld which grants natural weapons without being bound to a chakra, other than that I don't see use for them at higher levels (unless the bound abilities are really good, which I don't remember)

For Sneakiness I like Kruthic claws, thy give a big bonus to either move silently or hide (Perhaps even both, I can't recall and I am AFB) something like +4/esentia and they give you claws+acid damage.

Even at higher levels, the claws save you a bind. At lowish levels (2-5), you can bind something else as well. When you get double bind, you can still do make use of them without binding.

That said, an arm bind doubles your threat range, while hands increase the damage by a die step. Totem gives you a climb speed.

However, melds can and do grant natural weapons (MoI, p.54). Nothing listed in the descriptors of these melds contradicts the standard rules for natural weapons, though the claws meld description does establish that the two claws are both primary (as is the case with most creatures that have a claw/claw/X routine). Each merely assumes that it will be the only natural weapon you have.

[Coidzor]

It's a bit slow on land without enhancement, but the darfellan's bite attack is apparently fairly competitive with the bites granted by soulmelds, as a potential source of of stretching out your binds further.

[Ghost6442]

Well I got permission to build a Lycanthrope (or any LA 3 or lower) Azurin Totemist, who's going for Totem rager, read up on it and it looks very much like what I'm looking for.

He said I should take the LA into account... just to be fair... though his answer was rather void of any certainty, i'm going to have to build both and see how it turns out...

anyway I was thinking of some sort of cat Lycanthrope, like a were-panther or puma... Suggestions?

and should I take a 1 lvl or 2 lvl dip into Barbarian?

[Keld Denar]

All I can say about that is the fewer RHD you have, the better off you'll be. Find an animal with the lowest possible number of RHD you can. A were-housecat would be best, or maybe one of those elven kitties...

[Coidzor]

Elven kitties? :smallconfused:

[BlueInc]

Someone please link the aberration demigod kitty thread.

One eye shoots disintegrates. The other is a brooch of shielding. HE SMELLS YOUR FEAR!

[Ghost6442]

... I'm sorry what does RHD have to do with it?


32 point buy

Str 16
Dex 12
Con 16
Int 14
Wis 10
Cha 8

that's before any template or such, look good?

[Volthawk]

... I'm sorry what does RHD have to do with it?


Since Lycanthrope adds the RHD of the creature as well as the LA, increasing your ECL before you can add class levels, resulting in less Totemist levels?

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Totem rager really isn't all that spiffy. The binds it gets access to suck, and if you go back to totemist, you're wasting a lot of duplicated effort to unlock binds you already have.

Here's a couple of ideas:

1) The Melee Brawler (or: Natural Attacks are your friend). Totemist10/Barbarian1/Bear Warrior 5/Warshaper4

What you get:

Totemist 10 is a natural springboard. You get your third bind, unlocked most of the ones you plan on using, and in general, is a lot of fun. You may replace this with Totemis11 by only going Warshaper3, if you like.

You already get reach as a brown bear. Warshaper gives you more, plus some handy immunities, extra damage on your natural attacks, untyped bonus to STR and CON that stacks with the bonuses from being a Brown Bear, and Fast Healing (plus rapid out of combat self-healing).

Now let's add to that mix: Gorillion Arms to Totem Bind, Sphinx claws are unnecessary, since you've got your pouncebarian dip already, Dread Carapace for additional damage output with all natural attacks (double damage bonus to your bite) but don't bother binding it, Totem Avatar gives temp hit points, and binding it to Shoulders nets you more damage dice with your natural attacks, and binding your Warg Pelt to your hands gives you a free trip with your bite that you get from being a Brown Bear, which makes iterative attacks much easier to land. Uskun Greaves to Feet slot is also of use for extra charge damage.

2) Ranged Damage Output:

This build focuses on being primarily a Totemist, because everything you need, you have in-house.

Basically, it combines Manticore Belt being bound to Totem chakra to generate tons of ranged natural attacks with Dread Carapace for more damage per shot, and totem avatar to shoulder for even more damage per shot. Then find as many ways to get damage multipliers on your natural attacks (necklace of natural attacks, for example).

[Keld Denar]

Dang it...what is that elven kitty thing I'm thinking of...where is my copy of Races of the Wild, I think its in there. Started with a T, IIRC.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Dang it...what is that elven kitty thing I'm thinking of...where is my copy of Races of the Wild, I think its in there. Started with a T, IIRC.

There's no elven kitty in RotW. :smallconfused: I know because I have the book beside me, since I was checking Telekinetic Boomerang earlier.

[Volthawk]

Are you thinking of Tibbit, from the Dragon Magazine Compendium?

[Keld Denar]

No...there is a special elven kitty. Its smarter than a normal kitty, but still only 1 HD, I think. Gah, I can even see the picture in my mind. It would make an awesome were-creature, IMO. Elven wizards sometimes take them as familiars. T-something...gah.

[Coidzor]

Well, now I'm intrigued. The only thing I'm familiar with are the elven hounds from that one racial substitution level.

[TehLivingDeath]

I'm not really familiar with Totemist builds, so out of curiosity: are Warforged (with Jaws of Death and the whole shebang) suited for it? Seems like there could be a few redundancies such as the bite attack and I'm not a fan of multiple natural attacks with one limb (punch, then claw), but there might be something to it.

[Tvtyrant]

I'm not really familiar with Totemist builds, so out of curiosity: are Warforged (with Jaws of Death and the whole shebang) suited for it? Seems like there could be a few redundancies such as the bite attack and I'm not a fan of multiple natural attacks with one limb (punch, then claw), but there might be something to it.

Yes. The bites tend to be totem chakra binds, so your better off with the Warforged's bite and using the totem chakras first. As for slam and claws, there are a couple of stacking melds that add bonuses to natural attacks. Urskan Greaves and the Phoenix thing give you 10d4 extra damage on each natural attack.

[Ghost6442]

Since Lycanthrope adds the RHD of the creature as well as the LA, increasing your ECL before you can add class levels, resulting in less Totemist levels?

Oh... I was not aware of this... the PDF of 3.5 templates I have fails to mention it and my brief skim of the Monster manual didn't pick that up either... oh well, I will see if I can take the RHD instead of The LA, from memory most RHD ain't that useful granting only HP, a few sparse skill points and a little BAB.

hmm... first things first build is without any template, lets see what I can do, before adding wild and wacky to it

I'm going barbarian at first lvl, for rage and medium armour and +10 to movement speed.


Totem rager really isn't all that spiffy. The binds it gets access to suck, and if you go back to totemist, you're wasting a lot of duplicated effort to unlock binds you already have.

... oh, I was blinded by the free extra essentia while raging

hmm... I like the idea behind bear warrior, just not the animal... maybe I could re-flavour it into something else, or just get Lycanthrope which will do pretty much the same thing with the same amount of lvls, less if I can be convincing enough.

But I see what your suggesting, and pretty much that's what I want.


Dang it...what is that elven kitty thing I'm thinking of...where is my copy of Races of the Wild, I think its in there. Started with a T, IIRC.

Tressym? I believe those are a forgotten realm creature, um... Lost Empires Of Faerun? page 191?

[Greenish]

There was a 1 HD feline in Sandstorm with Pounce. The regular housecat unfortunately lacks that.

[Darrin]

There was a 1 HD feline in Sandstorm with Pounce. The regular housecat unfortunately lacks that.

Phynxkin (Dragon Magic) is the only medium-sized 1HD animal with pounce. Makes an interesting chassis for Tauric template abuse. I haven't mucked around with lycanthropes, but that would be interesting, too.

[Greenish]

Phynxkin (Dragon Magic) is the only medium-sized 1HD animal with pounce.If you say so.

Serval (that's the one I was thinking of) comes with Pounce, Imp. Grab and Rake, as well as rather hefty racial skill bonuses to many things. They're small, though.

[Keld Denar]

Tressym? I believe those are a forgotten realm creature, um... Lost Empires Of Faerun? page 191?

Yes, that's it. Can you make a were-tressym?

[Ghost6442]

Lycanthrope is an Acquired or Inherited Template that is applied a Humanoid or Giant (base creature) and an Animal (base animal). The base creature and base animal must be within one size category (larger or smaller) of each other.

No as it is a magical beast, it needs to be the animal type according to the above. Correct me if it's wrong.

[BlueInc]

This (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=5056639)is the cat you want to base your lycanthrope on.

[Tvtyrant]

This (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=5056639)is the cat you want to base your lycanthrope on.

[thread] Snuggles the Doom Cat/[thread]

[Ghost6442]

Unfortunately "Snuggles" isn't classified as an animal any more and thus can't be use for the template and I'm pretty sure it would be rather hard if not impossible to get bitten (and survive, or even get close enough to get bitten) and receive the template. Also snuggles needs to be a Natural Lycanthrope to be able to pass Lycanthropy (FortNeg DC15) to a victim who needs to be one size category adjacent to or same as the size category of its Animal Form.

I require those with the animal type, with HD less then 3 and within one step of medium (I believe a house cat is tiny sized thus can't be used, same went for tressym.) I would prefer cats, foxes or dog species of animal.

[Coidzor]

I require those with the animal type, with HD less then 3 and within one step of medium (I believe a house cat is tiny sized thus can't be used, same went for tressym.) I would prefer cats, foxes or dog species of animal.

Then you want phynxkin, as they're cats with draconic ancestry, and despite being 1 HD, have stats that compare favorably with the 3 HD leopard, IIRC.


Phynxkin (Dragon Magic) is the only medium-sized 1HD animal with pounce. Makes an interesting chassis for Tauric template abuse. I haven't mucked around with lycanthropes, but that would be interesting, too.

Hmm. I wonder if being a were-phynxkin would count as having dragonblood...

[Ghost6442]

Yessss... yessss... that is exactly what I want. *Runs off to capture a few and some humans for experimentation*

[Ghost6442]

ok stepping away from being a lycanthrope for now

I have written up mostly everything here (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=329516)

I just need to work out the most common arrangement of soulmelds I want and to write up my attacks

I currently have 9 essentia to move about (5 from Totemist level, 2 form bonus essentia 1 from race and 1 from cobalt charge)

so far I have:

For charging
{table]SoulMeld|Bound|Slot|Essentia
FEAT: Cobalt Charge|N/A|N/A|2
Urkan Greaves|feet|feet|2
Girallon Arms|totem|arm|3
Threefold Mask of the Chimera|-|Crown|0
Wormtail Belt|-|Waist|2
Lammasu Mantle|-|shoulders|0[/table]

[ShneekeyTheLost]

ok stepping away from being a lycanthrope for now

I have written up mostly everything here (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=329516)

I just need to work out the most common arrangement of soulmelds I want and to write up my attacks

I currently have 9 essentia to move about (5 from Totemist level, 2 form bonus essentia 1 from race and 1 from cobalt charge)

so far I have:

For charging
{table]SoulMeld|Bound|Slot|Essentia
FEAT: Cobalt Charge|N/A|N/A|2
Urkan Greaves|feet|feet|2
Girallon Arms|totem|arm|3
Threefold Mask of the Chimera|-|Crown|0
Wormtail Belt|-|Waist|2
Lammasu Mantle|-|shoulders|0[/table]

Wormtail Belt is natural armor, and not bad. Binding it to waist is a huge honkin' TRAP. Read the details carefully... the DC is based as normal for a Soulmeld, NOT based on damage.

Threefold Mask of the Chimera is only good if you are worried about being flanked. Otherwise, another trap. Very situational at best.

Dread Carapace. You don't need to Bind it, just use it. Bonus on natural attack damage is fun, since that's what you are using.

Also, at 7th Totemist level, you only have two binds. So make that Gorrilion Arms to Totem, and Urkan Greaves to feet.

[Godskook]

Wormtail Belt is natural armor, and not bad. Binding it to waist is a huge honkin' TRAP. Read the details carefully... the DC is based as normal for a Soulmeld, NOT based on damage.

Threefold Mask of the Chimera is only good if you are worried about being flanked. Otherwise, another trap. Very situational at best.

Dread Carapace. You don't need to Bind it, just use it. Bonus on natural attack damage is fun, since that's what you are using.

Also, at 7th Totemist level, you only have two binds. So make that Gorrilion Arms to Totem, and Urkan Greaves to feet.

Shneekey, you might want to actually read what she wrote, cause you're advising her to do what she already did, at least on a lot of it.

----------

@OP, that list looks decent.

Lammasu isn't great though, unless you know your DM is going to throw [Evil] things at you.

Threefold is ok, and would make for a great way to ensure you're not snuck up on(spot bonus!), but the combat utility is, like Lammasu, wholly dependent on your DM.

You could sub out Lammasu to be able to add additional functionality. Kruthik Claws would give you the ability to sneak, Rage Claws and Dread Carapace would both make you a stronger combatant, and Blink Shirt is always interesting to have.

[Ghost6442]

Hordes and hordes of undead... until we get out of the city and work out how to unblock the power of the gods and halt the zombie Apocalypse and Orcus's happy dance

[MeeposFire]

No...there is a special elven kitty. Its smarter than a normal kitty, but still only 1 HD, I think. Gah, I can even see the picture in my mind. It would make an awesome were-creature, IMO. Elven wizards sometimes take them as familiars. T-something...gah.

I have seen an elven cat in my old monstrous manual.

[Ghost6442]

yes we worked that out to be the Tressym

[Essence_of_War]

OP,

Have you considered an incarnate dip at some point?

If you fit the alignment fluff reqs, an incarnate dip can nab you 2 incarnate soulmelds. Bluesteel Bracers can pump your melee damage, (Lawful) Incarnate Avatar can improve your melee to-hits, Crystal helm can tighten up your poor will save and allow you to take down incorporeal stuff with ease.

There are lots of possible options.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Hoards and hoards of undead... until we get out of the city and work out how to unblock the power of the gods and halt the zombie Apocalypse and Orcus's happy dance

I thought hoards were made of treasure.

[Godskook]

Hoards and hoards of undead... until we get out of the city and work out how to unblock the power of the gods and halt the zombie Apocalypse and Orcus's happy dance

Well then, that'll bump Lammasu up considerably.

(Glad I prefaced that with "DM-dependent")

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Well then, that'll bump Lammasu up considerably.

(Glad I prefaced that with "DM-dependent")

Still not a whole lot of ambush tactics involved, unless there's a whole pile of incorporeal you have to worry about, so the threefold mask is rather... meh.

[MeeposFire]

threefold mask is nice in a biting shifter con damage build but that is a very specific build.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

threefold mask is nice in a biting shifter con damage build but that is a very specific build.

Not unless you bind it to Totem. Unbound, it just makes you immune to flanking.

[MeeposFire]

Not unless you bind it to Totem. Unbound, it just makes you immune to flanking.

Well of course I think that goes without saying.

[Ghost6442]

I thought hoards were made of treasure.

Not all treasure is silver and gold, mate. For Orcus he's hit the jackpot (it’s his treasure not ours), hoards usually have dragons too... :smalleek:

@ Essence_of_War, I'm going to be CN

Some things that likely should be taken into account:

on the party we have a Psion who makes magic items, a cleric who switches from LG to LE pretty much daily (split personality?), a elf ranger guy, a drive-blade knight (some sort of homebrew) and a crusader who has this thing were if we stand in a line in front of him we get bonuses to our AC, not sure what typed bonus. But it is handy.

I do need ideas for what equipment I should have, currently all I have is an item that grants a +2 to STR and +2 to saves, which was made by the Psion, I was thinking a Mithril breastplate for armour, and I don't know what weapons to carry for my normal hands, though I could just pick up improved unarmed strike later, or if I don’t expect to be much charging, (I really don’t know, have to wait for my old character to die [again] before I can switch to this new one) I could drop Cobalt charge and grab Improved unarmed strike.

Hmm… will Girallon arms still function normally if I wield a two-handed weapon?

Dread Carapace is nice (though it’s more or less power attack for Totemists) I could replace Threefold, drop cobalt charge, and put 2 (or 1 if I drop cobalt charge as a feat I lose 1 essentia point) essentia in Lammasu

[Godskook]

Girallon Arms Totem Bind specifically adds claws to your normal hands, as well as two additional arms who's only granted ability is to make claw attacks. Can't find any rules on it, but accepted practice is that you can't make claw attacks and weapon attacks with hand-held weaponry using the same hand in the same round.

[Greenish]

As written, Girallon Arms allow you to make three secondary claw attacks in addition to attacking with a manufactured weapon. It's probably fair to say the designers just weren't thinking about two-handed weapons when they wrote it, but since wearing a shield stops you from getting any secondary claw attacks, who knows.

[Ghost6442]

ah I see... I was thinking I ended up with 4 extra arms not 2 with claws on the first, that being the case I don't need a manufactured weapon or Improved unarmed strike as I presume I'm automatically proficient with natural attacks?

So I currently do +17 with 3d4+10 damage (first claw then 3d4+7 for each additional Claw) (13 AC before armour) but on a charge only

if I drop cobalt charge and swap out threefold for dread and give dread the two essentia that was in Cobalt charge, I get +10 with 1d4+11 damage (first claw then 1d4+8 for each additional Claw) (15 AC before armour)

or

I get +12 with 3d4+11 damage (first claw then 3d4+8 for each additional Claw) (13 AC before armour) on a charge

I get an additional attack due to having 6/1 BAB right? Where does it fit in...

Is a Mithril Brest-plate going to be ok? as nothing is able to be bound to the torso, I think that does mean I can still wear armour (Stats: Light armour 4200gp +5 AC +5 dex -1 ACP 15% ASF 30 ft move 15lbs)

If I was to drop Cobalt charge all together what feat should I get to replace it?

[Hiro Protagonest]

I get an additional attack due to having 6/1 BAB right? Where does it fit in...

Nowhere. Natural attacks follow different rules.

[Greenish]

ah I see... I was thinking I ended up with 4 extra arms not 2 with claws on the first, that being the case I don't need a manufactured weapon or Improved unarmed strike as I presume I'm automatically proficient with natural attacks?By RAW, you're not proficient with your natural attacks if you're humanoid. That's why nobody plays by RAW.


I get an additional attack due to having 6/1 BAB right?Not with natural attacks.


If I was to drop Cobalt charge all together what feat should I get to replace it?How about Extra Rage?

[MeeposFire]

By RAW, you're not proficient with your natural attacks if you're humanoid. That's why nobody plays by RAW.

Not with natural attacks.

How about Extra Rage?

So true the totemist has the same RAW problem as the monk.