Totemist help

[blakmetalmedik]

Hey guys, need a little bit of help here.

I'm new to the class aswell as the whole Incarnum system.

I'm going to be playing in a game starting at level 6, I've chosen to go with totemist and go into totem rager. Now my biggest question is something I keep seeing conflicting reports on. My goal is to get as many natural attacks per turn as I can, so Im obviously interested in the soulmelds that give me natural attacks. Do soulmelds have to be bound to a chakra for me to use their attacks? for example : Girrilian arms totem bonus is the 4 claw attacks, do I not have access to those at all if its bound to my arms instead? That was my original thought but as I said, Ive seen other posters say things that made me question it.

So what is the best way to get as many natural attacks as possible with soulmelds?

[Big Fau]

From what I understand, the really good attack options for a Totemist are the Girallon Arms, Landshark Boots, Manticore Belt, and the Breath Weapon effects.


Talk to Person_Man or Sinfire Titan, they know Incarnum quite well.

[Manateee]

Do soulmelds have to be bound to a chakra for me to use their attacks?
In most cases, they have to be bound to your Totem chakra, which is a specific bind with no corresponding item slot. The exceptions are printed outside MoI and reek of authors who didn't take the time to familiarize themselves with the system's conventions.


So what is the best way to get as many natural attacks as possible with soulmelds?
At low levels, Warforged can take Jaws of Death and Second Slam for some extra natural weapon attacks.

In the later game, Elan may be a better choice due to [Improved] Rapidstrike.

[Vinyl Scratch]

for example : Girrilian arms totem bonus is the 4 claw attacks, do I not have access to those at all if its bound to my arms instead?
Nope. You get either 4 claws or a rending effect(I think), but not both. But at level eleven you can bind whatever is in you totem bind to an additional bind. So in other words, you can but not now. Note that either way you still get the base effect of the meld.

[MeeposFire]

girallon arms are nice since you can stack other natural attacks on a full attack with them.

Land shark boots are great since it gives you 4 attacks on a standard action (assuming you can make the check) which can be better than girralon arms in certain cases (especially if you desire mobility). However this won't stack with other natural attacks (the special attack that is as it still gives you 2 claw attacks on a full attack).

The manticore can give a large number of raged attacks.

The question becomes ranged or melee and then mobile (land shark) or standard full attack routine usually paired with charge goodies (G arms). The charging will provide greater damage but are easier to screw over such as slow.

[Godskook]

Girallon Arms:
-You get a bonus on climb and grapple checks for shaping it.
-You get a bigger bonus on those checks for investing essentia into it.
-You get a Rend if you bind it to your Arm Chakra
-You get 4 claw attacks if you bind it to your Totem Chakra
-At Totemist 11, you may bind it to both, due to your unique class feature

In general, 90% of soulmelds require binding before you can get a natural attack out of them.

The best Totem Rager builds are Totemist X/Barbarian 1/Totem Rager 10, Totemist 11/Barbarian 1/Totem Rager 8, or Totemist X/Barbarian 1/Fighter 2/Totem Rager 10 The reason for that is cause Barbarian 1 frees up an entire soulmeld shape + bind you'd otherwise use binding Sphynx Claws to get pounce. Totemist 11 is for the unique class feature of being able to bind a meld to both the Totem Chakra and another chakra. Fighter 2 is only good if dispels are rare and you want to get Shock Trooper ASAP.

[T.G. Oskar]

Regardless of your choice (Girallon Arms or Landshark Boots), you may want to consider the following 'melds to enhance your attacks:

Dread Carapace: +2 to bite damage, +1 to claw damage (which affects both Girallon and Landshark), and if bound to arms, the threat range of all natural weapons double (19-20 in nearly all cases).

Urskan Greaves: Bound to feet, you can make a powerful charge. It's 1d4/essentia invested, but if you can mix it with pounce...

Sphinx Claws: ...and speaking of pounce, you get this if you bind this 'meld to your hands.

Totem Avatar: Bonus hit points, increase to Natural Armor, and if bound to shoulders, any of your natural weapons counts as if a size modifier larger. This one is fascinating with Manticore Belt as well.

Ideally, as most people have mentioned (and probably will mention), you should find extra sources of natural attacks, such as a bite, which you can combine with the aforementioned soulmelds. If an Elan, and if Draconomicon is allowed, then Rapidstrike (and its improved version, Improved Rapidstrike) allow other 'melds to be much more useful (such as, say, Kruthik Claws bound to Totem, since you can invest essentia for extra acid damage).

Also, Threefold Mask of the Chimera is pretty good. You get up to three attacks (two bites, one gore) as a full action (and all at full Strength bonus), and the main benefit is immunity to flanking, which isn't so bad. It oddly binds even better with Dread Carapace, since both bites will get nearly twice the bonus, which is pretty strong considering you'll deal nearly more damage than if you went with Girallon Arms or Landshark Boots alone.

As for the "breath weapon" effects: Ankheg Breastpalte, Behir Gorget, Gorgon Mask and Winter Mask (when bound to Throat). Lammasu Mantle also offers a breath weapon, but if bound to the totem chakra, which might be a big no-no. Frost Helm bound to head chakra offers a ray of cold damage, which can be pretty useful if done correctly.

[Darth Stabber]

Improved unarmed strike is also a very important consideration. You can make your whole menagerie of natural attacks and add a full iterative of punches/kicks/headbutts.

If you are allowed to take variants, the lion totem of complete champion (not ua) trades the bonus move speed for pounce, which is big for you. Also whirling frenzy from UA can be a good call depending on how you gm rules it's combination with totem rage.

Finally if you can sneak a level of bear warrior (complete warrior) into your build, it's nice. Don't bend over backwards for it, but it's a claw/claw/bite while raging, which opens up your totem chakra for something else. The requirements aren't bad, but if it doesn't fit, or requires too much, skip it. Don't go more than 1 level in either, because at that point you are better off building a kung fu bear and only dipping 2 levels of totemist and giving totem rager a miss. Plus bear warrior has very few features and you really can't afford to take it to lvl5 for the bigger bear form.

[Bloodgruve]

Chaos Roc span gives 2 wing attacks but are 5' reach. Luckily you can take a 5' step during a full attack. No bind needed. This is found in a Dragon Magazine.

I believe there is a Dragon Tail soulmeld that gives a tail attack. No bind needed. I can not recall what resource its from though, think maybe Dragon Magic??

Generally at level 1 with Girallon Arms, Chaos Roc Span and Dragon Tail adds 7 attacks on top of any natural attacks/feats you can have.

I built a kobold totemist at first level with a Bite, Tail, 4x claws, 2x wings and one other. With the right feats some people add unarmed strikes on top of this for 2 or 4 more attacks, I have not looked into this much though.

Warforged with Jaws of Death and Slam can add the soulmelds for 9 attacks as stated earlier.

To supplement this build try to find something that allows swift movement or teleporting like the ToB Sudden Leap or Ardent Freedom Dimension Hop abilities. Or obviously Pounce from Lion Totem Barbarian. IIRC

GL
Blood~

[Person_Man]

You should probably take a look at the melee combo guide (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=7044115) and list of ways to add attacks (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=7066595).

Each soulmeld states what benefits you get from shaping it, investing essentia, and binding it. The benefits from shaping a soulmeld or investing essentia in it are always the same. Each benefit is separate from the others, though you must shape a soulmeld in order to invest essentia into it or bind it. The benefits from binding a soulmeld depend on which slot you choose to bind it to. In general you cannot shape or bind more then one soulmeld in any particular chakra slot (though there are exceptions with a higher level Feat or the 11th level Totemist class ability).

In addition, it is debatable whether or not you can gain the same type of natural weapon multiple times, because exactly where they are located and how they interact with previous natural weapons is sometimes ambiguous. My personal ruling is that you can't gain any specific type of natural weapon more then once, but you should check with your DM.

I suggest some combination of the following.

Feats

Deepspawn: 2 tentacle attacks from your waist. Requires Aberration Blood, one other aberrant feat. For your other feat, I suggest Inhuman Reach, which gives you +5 natural reach. Lords of Madness.

Draconic Tail: Kobold only, 1st level only, gives you a tail attack. Races of the Dragon.

Jaws of Death: Gives a Warforged a bite attack. Races of Eberron.

Karmic Strike: Take a penalty to AC. Whenever an enemy hits you, you get an AoO (resolved after their attack). Requires Dodge (and in effect, Combat Reflexes). Comp Warrior pg 102.

Practiced Binder: Bind Amon to get a Ram attack. Tome of Magic.

Prehensile Tail: You can use your tail attack as an arm. This is the most efficient way to qualify for Multiweapon Fighting, as there are half a dozen easy ways to get a tail attack (Draconic Tail being the easiest). Serpent Kingdoms pg 147.

Rapidstrike and Improved Rapidstrike: Allows extra natural attacks. Very poorly worded and limited to certain creature types, so check with your DM. Draconomicon.



Items and Grafts

Fanged Mask: Adds an all day magic bite attack, plus a limited use Stun attack. Magic Item Compendium pg 99.

Fanged Ring: Grants Improved Unarmed Strike and Improved Natural Attack (Unarmed Strike). Since you can use any part of your body to make an Unarmed Strike. Dragon Magic p. 101.

Horned Helm: Grants a magical Gore attack. Magic Item Compendium pg 112, 8,000 gp.

Speed weapon enhancement: 1 extra attack when you make a full attack. Can be put onto any weapon. Doesn’t stack with other Speed/Haste effects. DMG.


Soulmelds:

Ankheg Breastplate (bound to Totem chakra): Gain a Bite attack. Each point of essentia invested in it adds 1d4 Acid damage. Note that binding a soulmeld to your Totem chakra requires 2 levels of Totemist. Most other chakra slots can be accessed through feats. Magic of Incarnum pg 57.

Behir Gorget (bound to Totem chakra): Gain a Bite attack. Each point of essentia invested in it adds 1d4 Electricity damage. Magic of Incarnum pg 60.

Blood Talons (bound to Totem chakra): Gain 2 claw attacks. Each point of essentia invested in it adds a +1 enhancement bonus to hit with the claws. Magic of Incarnum pg 61.

Brass Mane (bound to Totem chakra): Gain a bite attack. Each point of essentia invested in it adds a +1 enhancement bonus to hit and damage with your bite. Magic of Incarnum pg 62.

Claws of the Wyrm: Gain 2 claw attacks. Noteworthy in that it doesn’t need to be bound to a chakra slot in order to gain the extra attacks. Each point of essentia invested in it adds a +1 enhancement bonus to hit and damage with the claws. Dragon Magic (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20060912a&page=4).

Chaos Roc's Span: Gain 2 wing buffet attacks. Noteworthy in that it doesn’t need to be bound to a chakra slot in order to gain the extra attacks, and that wing attacks are rare. They deal non-lethal damage unless bound to your Shoulders, which also adds a Save or Daze effect. Each point of essentia invested in it adds a +1 enhancement bonus to hit and damage with your wings. Dragon Magazine 350 pg 87.

Dragon Tail: Gain a tail attack. Noteworthy in that it doesn’t need to be bound to a chakra slot in order to gain the extra attack. Each point of essentia invested in it adds a +1 enhancement bonus to hit and damage with the tail. Dragon Magic (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20060912a&page=4).

Girallon Arms (bound to Totem chakra): Gain 4 (!) claw attacks. Each point of essentia invested in it adds a +1 enhancement bonus to hit and damage with the claws. Magic of Incarnum pg 68.

Gorgon Mask (bound to Totem chakra): Gain a Trample attack. Extremely useful if you're fighting enemies with very low hit points, especially when combined with Karmic Strike and some form of damage reduction and other karmic damage. (Attempting to Trample enemies provokes and attack of Opportunity). Magic of Incarnum pg 69.

Kruthik Claws (bound to Totem chakra): Gain 2 claw attacks. Each point of essentia invested in it adds 1d4 Acid damage. Magic of Incarnum pg 74.

Lamia Belt (bound to Totem chakra): Gain 2 claw attacks. Unlike most other claw attacks, the Lamia belt does not require you to give up holding a manufactured weapon in order to use it. Magic of Incarnum pg 74.

Landshark Boots (bound to Totem chakra): Claws grow out of your hands and feat. Each point of essentia invested in it adds a +1 enhancement bonus to hit and damage with the claws. You can attack with the claws in your hands like normal claws. You also gain a limited (and oddly worded Standard Action) Pounce ability which lets you attack with all four claws. Magic of Incarnum pg 76.

Phase Cloak (bound to Totem chakra): Gain a bite attack that also deals Poison damage. Each point of essentia invested in it adds a +1 enhancement bonus to hit with the bite. Magic of Incarnum pg 82.

Rage Claws (bound to Totem Chakra): Gain 2 claw attacks. Each point of essentia invested in it adds a +1 enhancement bonus to hit and damage with the claws. Also, you don't take the standard -4 penalty to hit while Grappled when attacking with Rage Claws. Magic of Incarnum pg 84.

Shedu Crown (bound to Totem Chakra): Gain a Trample attack. Magic of Incarnum pg 85.

Sphinx Claws (bound to Totem Chakra): Gain 2 claw attacks. Each point of essentia invested in it adds a +1 enhancement bonus to hit and damage with the claws, plus a +1 bonus to Strength checks (such as Trip or Bull Rush). Magic of Incarnum pg 38.

Threefold Mask of the Chimera (bound to Totem Chakra): Gain 3 bite attacks. But there's an odd mechanic for how you use them, so on a normal full attack action, you're only gaining 1 bite. Magic of Incarnum pg 90.

Unicorn Horn (bound to Totem chakra): Gain a Gore attack. Unicorn Power (http://www.pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF103-Nice_Shirt.gif)! Each point of essentia invested in it adds a +1 enhancement bonus to hit and damage with the horn. Also, this soulmeld increases your Wild Empathy ability, which is an extremely useful and underused ability (as it can be used on magial beasts). Magic of Incarnum pg 91.

Winter Mask (bound to Totem chakra): Gain a bite attack. Each point of essentia invested in it adds 1d4 Cold damage. Magic of Incarnum pg 93.


Races/Templates

Darfellan (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20050805a&page=2): Natural bite. +0 LA. Stormwrack.

Kobold variant (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060420a): 2 primary claws and 1 secondary bite. Online only.

Skarn: Adds 1 Spine attack (bones that grow out of your arms) as a natural weapon. You can't attack with a Spine attack and a weapon in the arm your Spine attack is coming from in the same round, so it's a nice way to add an extra attack if that arm is already being used for a Claw attack anyway. Magic of Incarnum.

Warforged: Slam attack. Races of Eberron.


You'll also want to pick up Pounce or Free Movement (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=103358) as soon as possible. For a Totem Rager build, that can most easily be accomplished by taking the Lion Totem Barbarian variant from Complete Champion. And in general, for a Totem Rager build I suggest Lion Totem Barbarian 1/Totemist 2/Whatever 2/Totem Rager X. The Whatever depends heavily on your attributes, but any front loaded melee class (Crusader, Warblade, Swordsage, Fighter, Paladin, etc) will work fine.

[Darrin]

[LIST]
Draconic Tail: Kobold only, 1st level only, gives you a tail attack. Races of the Dragon.


Actually, that's Dragonblood only, although it probably works best on Kobold Totemists because they already have a bite attack per the Web Enhancement. A 2nd level Kobold Totemist can have six natural attacks:

1 bite attack
4 claw attacks from Girallon Arms
1 tail attack from Draconic Tail

Add a little Improved Unarmed Strike for iteratives + secondary natural attack and you're cooking with awesomesauce. Consider dipping Battledancer (Dragon Compendium) or Fist of the Forest (Complete Champion), then add Superior Unarmed Strike so your unarmed damage scales by character level.

Note that you can swap one of your existing feats for Dragonwrought or Draconic Tail *after* 1st level if you go through the Rite of Rebirth (Dragonborn of Bahumat, RotD), and thus get them both on the same chassis, which is handy if you're going the Rapidstrike route (Dragonwrought Kobolds = dragon type).

Check with your DM if a creature going through the Rite of Rebirth loses his existing natural weapons. If not, then consider Darfellen (bite attack) or Warforged (slam attack) + Dragonborn.



Soulmelds:
[list]
Dragon Tail: Gain a tail attack. Noteworthy in that it doesn’t need to be bound to a chakra slot in order to gain the extra attack. Each point of essentia invested in it adds a +1 enhancement bonus to hit and damage with the tail. Dragon Magic (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20060912a&page=4).


Be careful with this one... you may want to check with your DM, because I'm not sure it's actually a natural attack. If it were, then it would threaten, make AoOs, and could be used in a grapple.



Girallon Arms (bound to Totem chakra): Gain 4 (!) claw attacks. Each point of essentia invested in it adds a +1 enhancement bonus to hit and damage with the claws. Magic of Incarnum pg 68.

Lamia Belt (bound to Totem chakra): Gain 2 claw attacks. Unlike most other claw attacks, the Lamia belt does not require you to give up holding a manufactured weapon in order to use it. Magic of Incarnum pg 74.


Note: At ECL 9, you can pick up the Double Chakra feat and stack Girallon Arms + Lamia Belt for six claw attacks.



[LIST]
Sphinx Claws (bound to Totem Chakra): Gain 2 claw attacks. Each point of essentia invested in it adds a +1 enhancement bonus to hit and damage with the claws, plus a +1 bonus to Strength checks (such as Trip or Bull Rush). Magic of Incarnum pg 38.


If you're going pure Totemist or your DM doesn't allow Spirit Lion Totem/Whirling Frenzy Barb, you can get Pounce (natural weapons only) by binding Sphinx Claws to your Hand Chakra.

Then add Shape Soulmeld: Thunderstep Boots, which adds +1d4 sonic damage/essentia and a save vs. stun to all your pounce attacks. Add Travel Devotion and you now have 10 straight rounds of: swift action move + pounce (iterative IUS + secondary natural attacks).

[Coidzor]

If your head slot is free or you take the feat that lets you use an item and a bind at the same time, the horned helm from the Magic Item Compendium gives you a gore attack that should be usable as a natural weapon and benefit from being enchanted with weapon properties as well.

Aberration blood + aberrant feat(I recommend Inhuman Reach) + deepspawn gets you two tentacles, IIRC. These are from Lords of Madness. Play your cards right and you can get the aberrant feat that gives you +5 feet of reach as part of the cost of getting the tentacles, meaning you now threaten a much larger area, especially if you get enlarged and become a literal blender of death.

If you don't like any of the options for the Aberration Blood feat, and dragon magazine is on the table and it's an Eberron friendlhy table, then Mourning Mutate is an alternate feat that counts as Aberration Blood for prerequisite purposes, IIRC.

If homebrew is also a potential option, there's a fairly good bit of homebrew (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=155474) on these boards on the subject of expanding aberration feats.

Also from Lords of Madness is the Mouthpick weapon property, which allows you to give up a bite attack in exchange for proficiently wielding an exotic, two-handed weapon in your mouth as if it were in two hands instead of having to give up two claw attacks in order to wield a two-handed weapon that you'd need to be proficient with, get master's touch cast upon you, or put the skillful property on (which is more expensive than mouthpick)

[Demon of Death]

Karmic Strike: Take a penalty to AC. Whenever an enemy hits you, you get an AoO (resolved after their attack). Requires Dodge (and in effect, Combat Reflexes). Comp Warrior pg 102.

Note, I would recommend Midnight Dodge in the Feats Section of MoI, in case you are not of aware of it, as it is Doge with an extra point of Essentia.

[Darth Stabber]

Mouthpick weapons are a little screwy, and have been called cheesy (I don't necessarily agree, but the fact that the opinion is held by some is a cause for caution), and the mental image their use conjures up is rather comical.

Kobold related shenanigans are very frequently considered cheese, very stinky cheese. I ban kobolds straight up (they don't exist in my current campaign world, so it's not a concern). In this instance it's not so bad, but be aware of their rather deserved reputation as bearers of curdled dairy.

Warforged continue to demonstrate their awesomeness. Jaws of death is an awesome option for the aspiring mechanical beastman.

Skarn's spine attack is fairly unique, and will not be overridden by any soulmeld, there is great justice here.

Azurin has yet to be mentioned ITT, but is a worthwhile consideration. No natural weapons, but the bonus essentia and bonus feat are really nice.

The abberant feats are a very cool option, but there aren't a lot of feats up for grabs, and this is a deep commitment. The payoff is nice, but price of admission is high enough that it should give you pause. And remember the +3 to intimidate, it's like skillfocus but better.

Speaking of feat intensiveness: FoF is a great 3lvl prc, but the reqs can be rather noisome. Consider it carefully.

If your GM allows 3.0 content you should consider the amulet that gives your natural weapons bonuses and abilities of magic weapons (expensive, but really useful if you set it up right). It's in savage species.

Ioun stones are slotless, remember this well.

Totemist is one of the few non-casters that can actually rock the vow of poverty hard enough to not suck completely, and touch of golden ice becomes somewhat useful when you have a very high number of attacks per round (just note that the DC does not scale, AT ALL, at mid to high levels you are relying on nat1 autofails) and you have more exalted feat slots than their are exalted feats you qualify for.

[Godskook]

Actually, that's Dragonblood only

That's a laughably easy subtype to get, available via a +0 template -or- a feat with easy pre-reqs.

-----------

On Landshark Boots, these are only good when A)You don't have pounce and/or B)Your only source of natural attacks is your Totem Chakra. Once you have both pounce and other natural attacks, Landshark boots become obsolete.

-----------

On Chaos Roc Span(the Dragon Mag soulmeld), the main reason these are bad is cause they're not compatible with non-reach natural attacks. During stationary full attacks, not a big deal, but this effectively ruins your ability to charge properly, since you stop when you're first able to attack the opponent, preventing you from getting into range to attack with your other attacks.