The Winged Bear

[Murmaider]

hey there!

For an upcoming campaign, I came up with this concept for a Werebear character, who also has wings!(w00t?) Ye, I know, the wingthing seems pretty random, but it made sense if you read the characters background story(well, not really)

The build I was going for is the following:

Swiftwing Shifter

Lion Totem Barbarian 1/Fighter 2/Ranger 1/Fist of the Forest 1/Weretouched Master 5/Bear Warrior 5/ Warshaper 5

The goal is to turn into a really angry bear over the course of the characters carreer and give free bear hugs to everyone, thanks to Weretouched Masters' improved grab class feature(and also: fly!).

Now my questions that seem relevant in order to flesh the character out.



1) Does any of this work? Can I shift into a werebear and the rage into a real bear at the same time? If yes, what abillities do I retain? Can I still fly, if I rage into a bear?

2) Grappling Question: Can I, as a part of a fullattack action, grapple someone with improved grab and then, if I hit him again, pin him?

3) How is the Warshapers class feature 'Morphic Weapons' supposed to work? Create or improve one natural weapon at a time seems reasonable to me.

4) My DM thinks flying bears are silly, what should I stab him with?



Thanks in advance, any advice is appreciated, no matter how (un)useful.

[Namfuak]

1. If you shift into a bear, you would lose your wings, unless they are attached with a Wildling Clasp or are part of armor enchanted with the "wild" enchantment. Also, being a werebear (and for the most part a lycanthrope in general) gives you a level adjustment of +3, so the character build you described is actually ECL 23.

2. Unless I'm mistaken, you should be able to do this as long as you have improved grab. The text specifically says that you have to hit with a claw attack to start a grapple, so if you hit with one of your two claw attacks you still have a bite that you can substitute as an opposed grapple to pin the opponent. I'm just quickly looking at SRD though, I could be missing something.

3. AFBs

4. Shave him in the belly with a rusty razor.

[Murmaider]

Yeah, I think I wasn't 100% clear about that. I'm not actually acquiring the werebear template. The Weretouched Master gives a shifter the ability to gain more power(+16 str and some con and dex boni) and look just like a were-creature via shifting.
So, at level 10 while shifting I'd get these nice abillity boni + a flight speed of 30(?) with good(via swiftwing elite) maneuverability.
My actual question is, do I retain all of these when I reach level 11 and turn into a bear while raging?


2. Unless I'm mistaken, you should be able to do this as long as you have improved grab. The text specifically says that you have to hit with a claw attack to start a grapple, so if you hit with one of your two claw attacks you still have a bite that you can substitute as an opposed grapple to pin the opponent. I'm just quickly looking at SRD though, I could be missing something.

I'm pretty sure that it works this way. But what about the following scenario: Claw attack hits -> triggers grapple check via improved grab-> check succeeds -> next claw attack hits during grapple -> triggers grapple check? -> check succeeds -> pin ennemy?

Also: what book is Wildling Clasp in? I'm pretty sure 'wild' is in MiC which I don't have acces to atm.

[Namfuak]

Yeah, I think I wasn't 100% clear about that. I'm not actually acquiring the werebear template. The Weretouched Master gives a shifter the ability to gain more power(+16 str and some con and dex boni) and look just like a were-creature via shifting.
So, at level 10 while shifting I'd get these nice abillity boni + a flight speed of 30(?) with good(via swiftwing elite) maneuverability.
My actual question is, do I retain all of these when I reach level 11 and turn into a bear while raging?



I'm pretty sure that it works this way. But what about the following scenario: Claw attack hits -> triggers grapple check via improved grab-> check succeeds -> next claw attack hits during grapple -> triggers grapple check? -> check succeeds -> pin ennemy?

Also: what book is Wildling Clasp in? I'm pretty sure 'wild' is in MiC which I don't have acces to atm.

Unless there is some special circumstance with one of those prestige class abilities, if the wings are part of your body (grafts or something like that), they are not retained when you change forms. Wildling clasps are from MIC iirc, and wild is in the srd, although it does not say that you retain special abilities from armor, only the enhancement and armor bonuses, so it probably wouldn't work anyway.

As for the grapple, yes, that's how I'm assuming it would work, and you could substitute the bite as well at a -5 penalty to Attack.

[Murmaider]

Okay, after rereading the Bear Warrior's Bear Form ability and Weretouched Master's Alternate Form, I'm pretty sure that combining those is indeed not possible as both are based of the Polymorph spell. So shifting and then raging would do next to nothing:smallsigh:

The swiftwing trait does not seem to work with the Alternate Form ability anyway, because it is replaced by the later.

What could work though, is raging into bear form and then use shifting to gain the swiftwing trait's boon.