Monsterous Pc's

[Inferno]

I've been wondering what sorts of non-humanoid races everyones seen in action and how it worked out.
I've always wanted to play a Treant or Griffon or some-such. Any cool stories/interesting class choices etc?

[Zanthy1]

I like playing as a Hound Archon Paladin. Teleporting self at will, and a few other super cool abilities, like being able to turn into dogs? So cool!

[Inferno]

Sounds like a good time, most interesting I've actually played was a thri-kreen Barbarian. Not super original or anything, but a ton of fun.

[TuggyNE]

Pixie with stealthy classes works pretty well and is quite fun.

[Zanthy1]

I have a friend who played a Troll fighter named "Snuggles T Fluff n' Stuff." He was a grapple build lol

[docnessuno]

A Petal warlock has seen a fair share of action in some of my groups, and has been quite effective.

[Vaz]

I've seen a Thrikeen Totemist with Girallon Arms and Spirit Lion totem Barbarian. That was fairly hilarious.

I'd love to play as a Cornugon but they are just a wee bit Overly strong. If there was a Monstrous Class, then maybe I'd consider it.

[Runestar]

Monster PCs tend to be fairly weak for their ECL because the designers like to inflate their LAs, thus making them weaker than a classed PC of an equivalent level.

I think the main viable ones are those with a fairly low ECL, and generous physical stat boosts, which lets them make decent fighters (high str can make up for loss in bab).

I do recall reading a play-by-post thread about a group of ECL20 celestial party (trumpet archon, astral deva, ghaele, gold dragon, sword archon, stone giant elder and one other). Seemed like fun, though they were getting whooped left and right by encounters far lower than their EL. It mainly served as a testbed for Tome of Battle-modified npcs, and you had cr16 foes like elder elemental warblades completely decimating the party. :smalltongue:

[The Dark Fiddler]

One of my favorite characters ever, even though he only lasted for a session or two, was an awakened cat sorcerer/initiate of the sevenfold veil.

It was good fun to mess with people who lacked the ranks in spellcraft needed to realize that the cat was the one casting.

[Tylorious]

whatever you do, don't play half-giant...they are too overpowered and only have a LA of 1

[docnessuno]

whatever you do, don't play half-giant...they are too overpowered and only have a LA of 1

LOL, Seriously?

I guess you also consider Mystic theurge an overpowered PRC.


One of my favorite characters ever, even though he only lasted for a session or two, was an awakened cat sorcerer/initiate of the sevenfold veil.

It was good fun to mess with people who lacked the ranks in spellcraft needed to realize that the cat was the one casting.

Bonus points if you take leadership and pretend to be your cohort's familiar.

[Crake]

One of my favorite characters ever, even though he only lasted for a session or two, was an awakened cat sorcerer/initiate of the sevenfold veil.

It was good fun to mess with people who lacked the ranks in spellcraft needed to realize that the cat was the one casting.

To be fair, how were you providing the somatic, verbal and material components of your spells. You don't have hands, you can't speak and you can't hold your material components in hand. So the only way you'd be able to cast a spell would be to silent and still it, while using eschew materials, in which case even people with spellcraft wouldn't know it's the cat. For all intents and purposes though, this is amazing. Would work just as well with a psion, since they don't have V, S or M components.

[GreenSerpent]

Bonus points if you take leadership and pretend to be your cohort's familiar.

Or if you ARE your cohort's familiar...

[The Dark Fiddler]

To be fair, how were you providing the somatic, verbal and material components of your spells.

Awakened animals can talk, my GM ruled that a cat who had spent their whole life as a cat would have figured out somatic components, and Eschew Materials.

[TopCheese]

In Pathfinder the Goblin favored class bonus is fire resistance... Alchemist I think.

Thus at the correct level is there ever a reason to NOT be on fire?

In a fun game I was a "Fire" Goblin running around chucking bombs at everyone...

[Amnestic]

Awakened animals can talk, my GM ruled that a cat who had spent their whole life as a cat would have figured out somatic components, and Eschew Materials.

There's actually a feat for this - Surrogate Spellcasting - in Savage Species. It's hardly overpowered to make it a 'baseline' thing, but there is a RAW way to have your animals cast spells without DM rules.

[RaefgarRockfist]

I had a centaur Monster of Legend that I played for awhile in 3.0. twas fun if a bit underpowered. :) :smallbiggrin:

[gorfnab]

I've played a Beguiler (Shining South) Beguiler (PHBII) before. Worked out quite nicely.

[Unusual Muse]

Aboleths are LA 0. Granted, you still have to factor in their 8 levels of racial HD before you start adding class levels to them, but still... LA 0. Just sayin'. :smallsmile:

[VGLordR2]

Aboleths are LA 0. Granted, you still have to factor in their 8 levels of racial HD before you start adding class levels to them, but still... LA 0. Just sayin'. :smallsmile:

Aboleths have LA:-, which is different from LA 0. LA:- means that the race cannot be used by a PC.

[AuraTwilight]

Of course, you can still play them if you're willing to calculate the LA your own damn self. Aboleths would be fairly high.

[docnessuno]

Of course, you can still play them if you're willing to calculate the LA your own damn self. Aboleths would be fairly high.

If rule 0 comes into play i can also play a solar and say it has LA -21, so it's a valid ECL1 character.

[TuggyNE]

whatever you do, don't play half-giant...they are too overpowered and only have a LA of 1

Someone forgot their blue text. (Half-giants are decent, but not especially amazing for LA +1, though almost certainly too strong for LA +0. Powerful Build and their ability score adjustments are the main factors, but they get various other minor goodies that are handy.)

[Runestar]

Someone forgot their blue text. (Half-giants are decent, but not especially amazing for LA +1, though almost certainly too strong for LA +0. Powerful Build and their ability score adjustments are the main factors, but they get various other minor goodies that are handy.)

A goliath offers better bonuses for the same LA (extra +2str, bonus if you go barb); the only reason for going half-giant would be for the psionic subtype.

[Hunter Killer]

I generally allow low Level Adjustment humanoids to be played without increasing ECL in my games. It's abusable, sure, but never has been abused because most of my players still play Humans for some reason. :smallconfused:

Myself, I have played several things. Best one was an Orge without the Racial HD or the LA. His name was Ale Coholic, and he had an INT of 6 but a STR of 28. He used a weapon called a Thundermaul that did 4d8. He would rush out into battle, smack a half-dozen enemies dead with Great Cleave, then sit down an make a meal of the gore on his weapon. He was very fun to RP, and really not that overpowered without the HD/LA once the party hit ECL8-ish. :smallbiggrin:

[Annos]

To be fair, how were you providing the somatic, verbal and material components of your spells. You don't have hands, you can't speak and you can't hold your material components in hand. So the only way you'd be able to cast a spell would be to silent and still it, while using eschew materials, in which case even people with spellcraft wouldn't know it's the cat. For all intents and purposes though, this is amazing. Would work just as well with a psion, since they don't have V, S or M components.

It's called a little feat from Savage Speicies called Surrogate Spellcasting

[AuraTwilight]

If rule 0 comes into play i can also play a solar and say it has LA -21, so it's a valid ECL1 character.

Er...no, that's retarded. For one thing, I'm not even invoking Rule 0. Savage Species has guidelines and rules for calculating LA when not otherwise provided.

Also, as far as I know, negative LA isn't even a thing.

[Annos]

Er...no, that's retarded. For one thing, I'm not even invoking Rule 0. Savage Species has guidelines and rules for calculating LA when not otherwise provided.

Also, as far as I know, negative LA isn't even a thing.

Actually, it is. templates only.

[AuraTwilight]

Nice to know, thank you.

But that would be a template, not an LA for an actual race, so the sentiment of my idea remains. :D

[TuggyNE]

A goliath offers better bonuses for the same LA (extra +2str, bonus if you go barb); the only reason for going half-giant would be for the psionic subtype.

Yeah, which is why I said it was a decent LA +1, but by no means overpowered. (Not even goliath is really too powerful for +1, in point of fact.)

[Phaederkiel]

I do not know why, but in my campaigns normal guys are definitely a minority.

One saw a centaur cleric (ride-by charge! 80 dmg!),
a stony warrior knight (everybody fight ME! Robilars karmic gambit strike!)
and a changeling factotum (did you know that I get to decide to gain my classlvl on my concentration check AFTER i know if that insightful strike is a crit?)

the other campaign has 2 humans,
a lizardfolk warblade and
a raporan swordsage.

I nearly did the cat thing once, too.

[Fyermind]

I'm working right now with a Marrulurk and a Stony Saint half minotaur human. That human is a pain in the rear. DR 8/adamantine, DR 5/magic, fast healing, +14 str, +12 con, wis to AC (he doesn't have any thankfully), SLAs at will, scent, and a gore attack. The Marrulurk is much more reasonable. In fact to the point it's raw damage from sneak attacks is being overshadowed. I'm considering letting it take the dark template for free.

[Phaederkiel]

but you do know that the damage reductions do not stack, do you?

yes, a stony is quite a burden. to challenge him, you really endanger the rest of the party. I gave mine

(HD /2) plus 1 damage reduction adamantine

which is a lot easier to handle than flat 8.


on the other hand, you allowed a player to put 3 of the higher powered templates on one character. It is not exactly unexpected that this produces something difficult to handle.