How to make a Pokemon Trainer?

[Nettlekid]

This is a pretty weird idea, but I want to be able to make what is effectively a Pokemon Trainer in D&D. I know that Summoning spells could do pretty similar, but I like the idea of having a party of creatures (cohorts/followers, animal companions, something like that), preferably varied in power and ability enough that different creatures would work better in different situations, to call upon at will. I like the idea of using Flesh to Stone to make your party into statues, Shrink Item to make them pocketable, and then Stone to Flesh and a toss onto the ground to call your partner forth. What's the best way to do this? You wouldn't really have to be a caster, because I could imagine some custom items of those three spells would be easy enough to get. A little more than 250,000 gold for the set, much less if you had limited uses per day. Of course it would be cheaper and easier if you were a Wizard or Sorcerer who could do the job yourself. But what class is best for this, and what creatures could you get? I'm tempted to go with like Ranger or Druid into Beastmaster or Beast Heart Adept, but the creatures aren't varied enough. Or maybe should you focus on a class that can boost the power of your minions, like Marshal, Dragon Shaman, or Bard? Ideas?

[Randomguy]

I'm tempted to go with like Ranger or Druid into Beastmaster or Beast Heart Adept, but the creatures aren't varied enough. Or maybe should you focus on a class that can boost the power of your minions, like Marshal, Dragon Shaman, or Bard? Ideas?

Not varied enough? There are a huge number of potential animal companions asides from those listed in the PHB.

For zombie pokemon you could be a Dread Necromancer.

A cleric with the right domains would be able to rebuke/command a lot of things to build a team of pokemon, in addition to being able to summon monsters.

You could try a Beguiler and use mind control rather than summoning things, but you need to be a high-ish level for that. Note that a cleric with the charm domain can mind control as well.

The Water Devotion feat lets you summon a water elemental 1/day + 1/day/turn undead use spent.

The Summon Elemental reserve feat lets you summon elementals at will.

And the wild cohort feat gives you an animal companion.

So a necromancer cleric with the wild cohort, summon elemental and water devotion feats, and the charm domain, and another domain that lets you turn and rebuke something (so an elemental domain or the Slime or Scalykind domain) would be the most versatile option.

A simpler option would probably be the Pathfinder Summoner.

[Urpriest]

First of all, anybody with access to Summon Monster has most of this. Why doesn't it fit what you're going for?

In Pathfinder, Preservationist Alchemists cast Summon Nature's Ally by bottling up animals and then throwing the vials, which definitely gets the image right.

[Hendel]

A simpler option would probably be the Pathfinder Summoner.
You could also be a Pathfinder druid with the Pack Lord archtype.

You could also get a few Bag of Tricks and throw those animals out. Maybe your DM would let you craft one of those but instead it throws out animal companions that you have or familiars, etc.

[Nettlekid]

Summoning does work really well, and a focused Druid summoner or Malconvoker would do the job crunch-wise. But for flavor, I want A) To have the same creature each time, as opposed to just a generic form of the species, B) Customize that creature, and C) Have it with me at all times (as though in a Pokeball.) Summoning doesn't work too well for that, even though mechanically it is the superior option by a long shot.

The Truenaming class Fiendbinder kind of does it, though I don't really like the coercion aspect. For that same reason I'm reluctant to use Domination or other Enchantments. I'd be okay with Rebuking, though.

What other options are there for animal companion? I know just about any animal is up for grabs, but after a point most animals are basically the same. They won't have cool, unique abilities.

[Urpriest]

Beast Heart Adept might be useful. It gives you a bunch of Magical Beast companions.

[Nettlekid]

What would happen if you got a bunch of regular Animal Companions (via Beastmaster or something) and used Polymorph any Object on them, to somehow make them permanently other creatures? Do they remain Animal Companions?

[Hyde]

I'd probably borrow the CR rules and ape the Pathfinder Summoner for starters.

The bit about "doubling the number of monsters in an encounter raises the CR by 2". Well, the Summoner isn't entirely his eidolon, so there's a bit later we're going to be fudging this with.

There are basically two ways I can see doing it- letting the summoner start out and maintain a fully-powered eidolon throughout his career (his pikachu, essentially), and then acquire decreasingly powerful additional eidolons over time, either through the mechanics of the class or through feats.

Or, have the Summoner maintain six separate eidolons throughout his career, albeit at lower levels.

I think the first one has a better design space, but the second might be more satisfying, overall. I'd say six Eidolons at Summoner Level -4 is probably appropriate. (-2 for 2, -2 for 4, -1 for 6, but +1 for the summoner having other, albeit minor things going on).

Another thing to look at is that since the Eidolons already use a point-buy system not entirely dissimilar to the one used in Mutants and Master minds, you could use a perhaps adjusted version of M&M's "one point can be used to let a power have an alternate mode" This is essentially how their "magic" system works. You might consider further asking your DM to assign appropriate types and subtypes to your creatures for further flavor.

[Tvtyrant]

Psion using Astral Constructs? Make a few predetermined forms and pretend you are using Pokeballs. You are even only allowed one at a time!

[Dissonance]

There is a spell in pathfinder called carry compainion (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/c/carry-companion).

Get a magic item, preferably a ring or something and set an active limit of "6" to the item.

features:
- duration is permanet, as in you can do this to a creature and they will stay that way until you need them.
- Must be cast on a willing target. beating a creature into unconsciousness makes it count as a willing target.
- is only a second level spell for a lot of classes, so should be very cheap to produce this item.

[Nettlekid]

I should say now, since it keeps coming up, NO Pathfinder. Not using Pathfinder.

[Hendel]

I should say now, since it keeps coming up, NO Pathfinder. Not using Pathfinder.
Not a big deal, but you may want to put that in the tittle or the original post. It saves a lot of wasted time.

[Divide by Zero]

Summoning does work really well, and a focused Druid summoner or Malconvoker would do the job crunch-wise. But for flavor, I want A) To have the same creature each time, as opposed to just a generic form of the species, B) Customize that creature, and C) Have it with me at all times (as though in a Pokeball.) Summoning doesn't work too well for that, even though mechanically it is the superior option by a long shot.

I know there is an ability of some kind, somewhere, that does exactly A and B for summons, and for C you can just fluff your summons as throwing Poké Balls. Unfortunately I can't remember what book that ability is in, but maybe someone else will remember now that I've mentioned it.

[Hand_of_Vecna]

BESM d20 Pet Monster Trainer

[LTwerewolf]

Go cleric, and do persist/dmm shenanigans to keep the summon around for as long as you want it to be. You can cater the summon to you, and use the same one over and over if you want to, it doesn't have to be straight out of MM.

You can even use advanced HD monsters of previous summons with higher spells. "My fiendish scorpion leveled up!"

With Persist, it can stay with you all day.

[Urpriest]

I know there is an ability of some kind, somewhere, that does exactly A and B for summons, and for C you can just fluff your summons as throwing Poké Balls. Unfortunately I can't remember what book that ability is in, but maybe someone else will remember now that I've mentioned it.

A is a variant in the DMG. B...you can't customize, but you can give them weapons and the like and when you summon them again they'll have them (again, if you're using that particular variant).

[Kittenwolf]

Here's (http://www.scshop.com/~ritaxis/pokemaster.html) one someone prepared earlier :)

[Divide by Zero]

A is a variant in the DMG. B...you can't customize, but you can give them weapons and the like and when you summon them again they'll have them (again, if you're using that particular variant).

Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking of. Assuming the OP is trying to emulate the Pokémon games, giving them custom gear is probably as close to customizing moves, held items, etc. as you can get.

[Piggy Knowles]

Psion using Astral Constructs? Make a few predetermined forms and pretend you are using Pokeballs. You are even only allowed one at a time!

This. You can flavor the various astral construct models as different pokemon, give them all names, etc. As you go up in level and your astral constructs get bigger or learn more menu options, you can claim they're evolving, or learning new moves.

[Zombulian]

This. You can flavor the various astral construct models as different pokemon, give them all names, etc. As you go up in level and your astral constructs get bigger or learn more menu options, you can claim they're evolving, or learning new moves.

Yes. Yes yes. I know it may not be something a Pokemon trainer would have, but put ranks in craft (sculpting) to make them look like you want. You may want to take advantage of the Shaper expanded class from The Mind's Eye web enhancement.

[Nettlekid]

Hmm, those Astral Constructs do fit the bill pretty nicely. The only downside is that I don't imagine they'd have too much personality, but you could flavor it however you wanted.

How might you go about increasing the HD of your animal companion/monstrous companion? I'm thinking that maybe the way to go for that full party feel is Beastmaster/Beast Heart Adept, and using Polymorph Any Object on the team to switch them to something cooler. If I keep them in the same kingdom (animal, easy enough) and class (mammal, fungus, etc. I assume this implies Animal to Animal, Magical Beast to Magical Beast) then I can change anything else and they'll be like that for a week. But there is the HD limitation to worry about. Unless that doesn't apply for PaO? After all, shrew to manticore...

[Hikarizu]

There is a 5 lvl prestige glass in CPsi, Ectopic Adept. It offers some nice bonuses and offers more customization options(via feat you can take anyway), but you lose a manifester lvl.
link (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070411a) for the mentioned earlier web enhancement

[Hyena]

Fiendbinder prestige class. Well, it does force you to be a god awful truenamer, but there are some ways to dodge that.

[Person_Man]

I would suggest optimizing the much overlooked Wild Empathy ability, which allows you to convince certain creatures to be Helpful. (Historical note: In previous editions of D&D, this is very similar to what Druids had to do in order to get an animal companion). Handle Animal can also be used for this in certain situations:


Totemist: Provides Wild Empathy. Also, you get a +4 bonus to effect a magical beast if you have it's the same kind of soulmeld bound.

Beast Tamer Circlet: Totemist soulmeld. Provides a 2 + (2 * essentia invested) Insight bonus to Wild Empathy and Handle Animal checks.
(Essentia investment is limited by your hit dice, but can be raised by taking certain feats, items, class levels, etc).

Unicorn Horn: Another Totemist soulmeld. Provides a 2 + (2 * essentia invested) Competence bonus to Wild Empathy and Move Silently checks. Because the bonuses are different types, they stack.

Beast Heart Adept: One level gets you the Monstrous Empathy ability. This ability stacks with the Wild Empathy ability of other classes to determine effectiveness, and allows you to effect magical beasts regardless of their Intelligence, and Aberrations (with a penalty).

Marshal: One level gets you the Motive Charisma aura, which lets you add
your Charisma bonus (a second time) to all Charisma based Skills and checks.

Handle Animal Skill: 5 ranks gets you a +2 bonus on Wild Empathy.

Vow of Peace: Can provide a lot of bonuses to Cha based checks, AC, plus Continuous Calm Emotions aura. And if a creature strikes you with a manufactured weapon, the weapon must make a Fort Save or shatter. And Vow of Nonviolence (prereq) boosts the Save DC of many abilities. The down side is that you have to vow never to harm any living creature, and your party has some strict roleplaying restrictions as well. Never ever take this feat unless everyone in the party is on board with it. Assuming they are, this can actually be quite a useful feat for this concept, since it's assumed that you will use Wild Empathy or Diplomacy on everything living, and will be free to kill anything non-living. Requires Sacred Vow, Vow of Non-Violence. Book of Exalted Deeds pg 48.

Amulet of Aberrant Empathy: You can use a Handle Animal check in place of a Diplomacy check to influence the attitude of aberrations with low Int. Cheap. Comp Adventurer pg 132.

Pendant of Dragon Empathy: You can use a Handle Animal check in place of a Diplomacy check to influence the attitude of dragons with low Int. Cheap. Comp Adventurer pg 134.

Dragon Trainer feat: You can use Handle Animal to train dragons like you train animals. Races of the Dragon pg 98.

Aid Another action: This is just something any "Summoner" type build should to keep in mind as a general tactic. Go read the Aid Another rules. Recognize that each successful Aid Another check can add a +2 Untyped bonus to many different things. Now multiply that by the number of companions/creatures/pokemon/etc you have, and it's fairly easy to get a very large untyped bonus to almost anything. (Also known as a "nanobots" build).

[Bakeru]

The EN Publishing book "Bride of Portable Hole (Book of Neurotic Fantasy)" (you can see the clear seriousness from the title) has the "prestige-less prestige class" "Ball Master".
The ball master is a very specialized summoner, able to bring forth the same creature again repeatedly, using a foci dedicated to that creature. In time these creatures rise in power as the summoner does, becoming larger and more potent with each level.
Yes, it is a blatant pokemon parody.

It is supposed to even be somewhat balanced, but I can't vouch that, I didn't put any ranks in balance.