Weak character to add to a stong animal

[MicHag]

I was thinking of playing a character next campaign that rides a strong animal, such as a Warbeast Dire Tiger or so.
At level 8 or so that creature is already as strong as a good fighter would be and only costs 1k or so.
I want to add to that a "weak" but fun character to play, i am open to any kind of suggestion, as long as it's something out of the ordinary and not powerful. He does need ride skills, and possible handle animal, not sure how that works.

[Medic!]

Tibbit Marshal riding a Polar Bear - GO!

http://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery-01/art/ff7-caitsith.jpg

[00dlez]

Something akin to a Spanish Fighting Bull? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_fighting_bull)

Nothing too crazy to stir up a small village into fear, and possibly anger, but also spooky enough that I'd not want to face one alone either... especially one trained for war instead of slaughter.

[MicHag]

I am not looking for the strong animal, i need help with the "weak" character.
A commoner is easy, but i wanted something fun to do, yet not very powerful. I could always play a wizard and pick pretty useless spells.

The power should come from controlling the "powerful" animal.

[00dlez]

Oh... A bard, then. Someone who typically relies on the strengths of others (like his pet) to be successful.

[ThiagoMartell]

Fun but not too powerful?
Plenty of options. You could grab mostly any class and make usually non-optimal choices (say, focusing on disarm). Or you could just play weaker classes. If you have balls of steel, go for a truenamer with nothing but skill ranks and Int on your Truename check :smallwink:

[Coidzor]

Well, you could just make a supermount character scaled down to 8th level or so. Though I suppose you could also put a do-nothing bard with dragonfire inspiration and only a minor inspire courage bonus so that the beast is all bedazzling with elemental energies all over its natural weapons.

A less do-nothing bard and his wild cohort (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a) might not be amiss, depending upon what you're really wanting.

[Psyren]

Are you tied to the strong creature being an animal? Because a PF Summoner could model this pretty well via the Eidolon, especially if you start out Small.

[Mithril Leaf]

I second bard. Boost your mount's damage a bit, without being anything crucial.

[Lonely Tylenol]

Remember that a Marshal's auras are language-dependent, so they won't affect even a war-trained animal, but will affect a magical beast which understands Common, such as a celestial charger (unicorn).

Personally, I would go with an aristocratic Ranger (whether or not you use the actual Aristocrat NPC class), who practices falconry (your actual animal companion is a falcon) and archery recreationally (you don't even have to be exceptional at it; just go with the standard Mounted Archery feat loadout). Or, an Expert who has chosen Ride, Handle Animal, Knowledge (nobility and royalty), Diplomacy, Appraise, Iaijutsu Focus, etc. basically, the standard "nobility" loadout. (OA Samurai might work too. I'm not sure.)

[Randomguy]

Third-ed Bard. They've even got an ACF that trades out some of their music for a druid's Animal Companion (and some other druid features).

[Coidzor]

Such a "fey" Bard (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#bard)would still be able to fascinate but wouldn't be making the beast more deadly with inspire courage. With Natural Bond he can mitigate the cost in bonus HD from taking a higher level animal companion. If you wanted to still make it special you could even bend the rules and let it be a Warbeast/Magebred critter.

[Inferno]

4th-ing bard. Heck they get whip proficiency so you could have decent range and a lot of fun if you feel like disarming on the back of your Animal.
A disarm bard might call for a fighter/psywar dip for feats though...and will never be optimal, but that's the point.

[Invader]

Are there prices for creatures as mounts like that somewhere? A heavy war horse is 400g, would something like warbeast dire tiger really that cheap?

[Metahuman1]

5thing Bard.

Couple of other options.

Beguiler, get the Ritual of blood for one of the Eberron books, and don't invest Con up past a 10, 12 tops, and dump the crap out of strength.

Sorcerer as above and focus on buffs and Debuffs or problem solving spells.

A cleric who focus's on healing might also be good, or an artificer who's big thing is really just making neat toy's to heal his party and keeping his pet and his party super tricked out on gear. All of these options can with either the Ritual of blood or Faerie Mysteries Initiate dump Str and Con whole sale, and if you juice up other defenses like a flat miss chance and pick up a few miscellaneous boosts to saves and Initiative, you won't even need Dex to make a character who just flat gets around his physical stats with his magic and his gear and his pet most of all.

You don't need to be bouncing off the walls and ceiling during a fight, or standing there letting maces hit you in the face only for the maces to break while you smile, or picking the floor of the room up and using it to smash your enemies against the ceiling with your bear hands. You have helpful spells and a big, dangerous, and totally loyal, pet. Be afraid, be very afraid!

[Coidzor]

Are there prices for creatures as mounts like that somewhere? A heavy war horse is 400g, would something like warbeast dire tiger really that cheap?

Warbeast is a template from MM2(IIRC) that assigns a cost to creatures based upon their HD.

[nedz]

Something like a Petal or Half-Fey Halfling ?
Lots of subtle SLAa, with the second option at least.

This would work well with Bard, or possibly Warlock ?

Alternatively take levels of Mystic Ranger (DMag - if that's allowed?)