Bear Warrior houserule - sanity check

[ILM]

A player of mine is a bear-themed chargebarian, and I prodded him towards the Bear Warrior PrC. He likes the flavour, but regrets that it actually turns you into a bear. In addition, I've made changes to Polymorph that kind of affect how this works.

I'm thinking of allowing him to keep his human form, but get the specified ability bonuses, as well as the size, natural armor bonus, movement, space, reach, natural weapons and (Ex) special attack and qualities of a bear, essentially turning him in a bear that can still swing a greasword. He'd probably temporarily grow a thin layer of fur and his canines would sharpen or something, for fluff.

Too much?

[Myth]

Too much compared to what?

[Morph Bark]

I see nothing wrong with this.

Though from the thread title I presumed you were using the Sanity rules from UA and he needed a Sanity check to turn into a bear each time he wanted to.

[ILM]

Too much compared to what?
Let's just say in absolute terms. He isn't going to overshadow the rest of the group, and if he does he's easy to shut down or hamper. I'm just asking to see if there's some massively powerful synergy somewhere that appears when you allow brown bears to carry greatswords that I'm not seeing. For instance, a basic bear warrior in bear form would have only 3 attacks on a full attack, bear feats, and no two-handed weapon to use his massive strength on. A human with the bonuses of a bear would have all his iteratives and extra attacks from wherever, all his feats, and a two-handed weapon. Big difference, but one I think I can handle (basically, I'm just increasing his strength bonus from rage, increasing his size, giving him a natural armor bonus and LLV and scent, which doesn't seem too bad over 10 levels of a PrC). Not sure if there's anything else I'm missing though.

[supermonkeyjoe]

Equipment, if he changed into a bear all his gear would meld into his bear form and lose the bonuses. Unless of course your polymorph changes alter this.

[sonofzeal]

It's a big upgrade, but a lot depends on the other players. I might just homebrew the whole thing.... or point him towards the Berserker class from Deities & Demigods, which turns into a bear but also has a hybrid form where he gains some minor benefits while still being humanoid.

[ILM]

Equipment, if he changed into a bear all his gear would meld into his bear form and lose the bonuses. Unless of course your polymorph changes alter this.
Hm, hadn't thought about the gear melding into the new form and becoming nonfunctional. Wait - isn't Bear Warrior kind of a sucky PrC at the end of the day?

@sonofzeal: Thanks a bunch for the tip, I'll check that one out. :smallsmile:

[GodGoblin]

Look up the Primevil class from Frostburn, its pretty much being Sabertooth from X-men, choose Bear as your animal and you should be all set! Lets you shift slightly into an animalistic form but without becoming a full bear.

[Elboxo]

Were-bear rage warrior?

"You won't like me when I'm angry" * Grows slightly taller and hairer *

Sounds awesome! But as stated above as long as he doesn't outshine others too much, another cool idea would be to have some implications of this, like the effects of Taint, in the Unearthed Arcana, might be worth giving him some RP capability of someone who turns into a bear when they get angry, possibilities could be obsession with food whenever there is any around, or something less..aggressive like smelling horrible and having NPCs comment on it everywhere.

[TroubleBrewing]

Look up the Primevil class from Frostburn, its pretty much being Sabertooth from X-men, choose Bear as your animal and you should be all set! Lets you shift slightly into an animalistic form but without becoming a full bear.

No, it doesn't. It gives you the equivalent of a single Wildshape form... Much like a Bear Warrior, but you don't have to choose a bear.

[Elric VIII]

Maybe he would be interested in taking levels in the Werebear Savage Proression (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20031114a) reflavored as a bear-warrior type thing, rather than actual lycanthropy. He would have a hybrid form that would be functionally similar to the alterations you were proposing.