Class for Celestial Fleshraker?

[backpackjack]

I'm playing in a pretty high optimization campaign starting very soon.

I'm playing a druid who has taken the Exalted Companion feat from BoED and I'm planning on gaining a celestial fleshraker. Since it will have an intelligence of 3, I was thinking of trying to have it take a class. Since the other players are doing cheesy things, I see no reason not to enjoy the extravagance myself.

Fleshrakers have the following stats 17, 19 15, 2, 14, 12.

I do not have much specific information about the setting, quest, world, etc. I do not know what the other party members will be, except I've been told to expect cheese and no other druids and probably a party of five characters. We will start at level 5 and go through 18. I've also been told that this adventure would have many opportunities for the characters to be separated so I should build to be able to fend for myself at least part of the time. The DM promises to hit us hard.

So, while I realize that I could lose the animal companion at any time, I was thinking that I might be able to build one that can really help/boost me. By the way, leadership as a feat is not available.

Thanks for you help,

BPJ

[hamishspence]

Barbarian for the Rage? Seems like one that could work well.

There's barbarian dragons, after all.

[Invader]

Bard and let it take - Perform: Dinosaur noise

[hamishspence]

"Everybody walk the dinosaur" so to speak?

[ShriekingDrake]

I don't really have much in the way of advice here beyond the typical support classes--Cleric, Bard, Marshall, Crusader, etc.. I suppose a protection oriented cleric would be interesting.

But, I'm kind of curious as to how this will work.

When your Fleshraker takes a class, how does it advance, using the class or using druid AC advancement? I'm just not sure how you'd mesh PC and monster advancement.

Urpriest probably knows the answer to this kind of thing.

[A_S]

As mentioned, Ur-Priest tends to be the ultimate authority on these sorts of things, but I believe class levels and AC progression would be almost completely separate...the Fleshraker would gain a level when it gained enough XP to do so, and it would gain bonus HD and AC abilities when its master gained them through Druid class advancement.

The only way I think they'd interact is that the bonus HD would count toward the AC's ECL, so the XP required to hit the next level would kind of be a "moving target," the same way it is if you gain an acquired template with positive LA...you jump up in ECL all of a sudden, but the XP you need for the next level gets farther away to make up for it.

If I'm right about that, of course, it would lead to lots of opportunities for munchkinery, since it'd be advantageous to you to front-load your AC's experience gain (to get as many class levels as possible) before you start granting it bonus HD.

*edit* Oh, and I think I'd probably go PsyWar for the class levels. Fleshrakers have +4 racial wis, and PsyWar powers work extremely well as a dip. You could also go Swordsage; Tiger's Claw in particular has a lot of maneuvers that are nice for natural weapon users. Pity the companion is Celestial, or else a Soul Eater dip (from BoVD) would be awesome...level drain on all natural attacks.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Unarmed Swordsage, considering it can get iterative attacks with unarmed strikes then use all of its natural weapons as secondary attacks. Totemist could probably work out, too.

[A_S]

Would natural attacks granted by Totemist stack with the ones Fleshraker has naturally?

[Fouredged Sword]

So long as they are not the same type. You can get slams, claws, bites, tail slaps, wing attacks... All kinds of stuff.

[Urpriest]

It can't gain XP while adventuring with you, and arguably any XP it gains while on its own is given to you since it's your class feature, and it can't gain XP before you pick it up since then it won't be typical of its kind. Plus even if it did gain XP it has LA -- and thus never levels up, and lots of extra hit dice from companion advancement and therefore takes longer than you guys to level up if it is given a level adjustment. There's cheese and then there's silly houserules.

[A_S]

It can't gain XP while adventuring with you

Everything else makes perfect sense to me, but why is this?

[Urpriest]

Everything else makes perfect sense to me, but why is this?

It's not a cohort or a PC, so there is no clause for it doing so. Also, aforementioned being your class feature.

[SamBurke]

I'm playing in a pretty high optimization campaign starting very soon.

I'm playing a druid who has taken the Exalted Companion feat from BoED and I'm planning on gaining a celestial fleshraker. Since it will have an intelligence of 3, I was thinking of trying to have it take a class. Since the other players are doing cheesy things, I see no reason not to enjoy the extravagance myself.

Fleshrakers have the following stats 17, 19 15, 2, 14, 12.

I do not have much specific information about the setting, quest, world, etc. I do not know what the other party members will be, except I've been told to expect cheese and no other druids and probably a party of five characters. We will start at level 5 and go through 18. I've also been told that this adventure would have many opportunities for the characters to be separated so I should build to be able to fend for myself at least part of the time. The DM promises to hit us hard.

So, while I realize that I could lose the animal companion at any time, I was thinking that I might be able to build one that can really help/boost me. By the way, leadership as a feat is not available.

Thanks for you help,

BPJ
I'm going to encourage a Tome of Battle class... Warblade or Swordsage, focusing on Tiger Claw is probably best.

[RedDragons]

Bard and let it take - Perform: Dinosaur noise

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD6dnHtU2n8