Arcane hierophant bear brigade

[Carth]

Druid3/wiz1/theurge6/hierophant10

This is for a level 20 campaign where we'll never level. Sure, there's dual 9s in there, but it's going to be more RP heavy, so because the spellcasting already gives me power to spare, I'm looking for fun suggestions for this character. The plan is to be wildshaped into a brown bear all the time, and have a brown bear as a familiar companion. If a different kind of bear would be more optimal I suppose that's a concession I'd be willing to make, but otherwise my companion will have an int of 11 and be equipped with a pearl of speech. Together we will be the bear brigade. I'm looking for equipment (for both), feats (also for both), character hooks (again, for both :smallbiggrin: ), and most importantly, bear puns to use in game. So far the only feats I've decided on are extend spell, companion spellbond, and natural bond.

[Arc_knight25]

Only thing i can think of is just a bigger bear if you can pull it off. Dire Bear of some sort or a Polar bear.

As for the puns. All I can think of is Yogi and Bubu jokes.

Feats maybe natural spell so you can cast in bear form.

[Darrin]

Dip into Beast Heart Adept for an owlbear monstrous companion.

Wild Cohort (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a) for +1 bears.

Leadership for an Urskan cohort.

Dragon Cohort for a half-dragon/half-bear.

[ps377]

Since your pet is a familiar too, instead of getting companion spellbond (http://dndtools.eu/feats/players-handbook-ii--80/companion-spellbond--411/), get enspell familiar (http://dndtools.eu/feats/dragon-compendium--109/enspell-familiar--3355/).

And since you dont need a familiar to get Arcane Hierophant's companion familiar, i would say you could exchange your familiar for any variants looks useful in Player's Handbook II and Unearth Arcana (you are gonna get it back as soon as you get your first level in Arcane Hierophant), but ONLY if your DM agree that your Arcane Hierophant levels stacks with your wiz levels for those abilities you know you will get.

natural bond (http://dndtools.eu/feats/complete-adventurer--54/natural-bond--2030/) will make your companion familiar +3 levels.

spell-linked familiar (http://dndtools.eu/feats/players-handbook-ii--80/spell-linked-familiar--2722/) will give some spells to your companion familiar. Good to save some actions (buffs and utilities mostly).

And ofcourse you should get Natural spell (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Natural_Spell), like Arc_knight25 already said. You need it if you want to be able to cast spells while in wild shape..

That's what i remember now..

If you need tricks with spells tell us and we may have something to say..

[Shred-Bot]

Only thing i can think of is just a bigger bear if you can pull it off. Dire Bear of some sort or a Polar bear.

As for the puns. All I can think of is Yogi and Bubu jokes.

Feats maybe natural spell so you can cast in bear form.

Ooooooh! Bags of holding that look like Pic-a-nic baskets!

Cast Symbol of Pain, say "That must be," put on sunglasses OOC "un-BEAR-able!"

If you ever have to miss a session, obviously you and your companion are hibernating.

If anyone in your party is asked to sheathe their weapons, loudly proclaim your right to bear arms.

If an encounter is going poorly, "We need to BEAR down and finish off these scumbags!" And afterwards, "We BEARly made it through that one, time to set up camp."

And finally, if you ever end up in a pastry shop that sells bear claws, start up a massive destructive rampage to avenge your fallen kin.

Hopefully these get your mind in a place where you can come up with more!

[Spuddles]

You don't have enough druid levels to get wildshape, and arcane hierophant wont give it to you. But that's ok. Trade out wildshape for the swift hunter alternate class featur (unearthed arcana). That gets you a monk's ac bonus, monk speed, the track feat, and a favored enemy.

Next, grab skin of kaletor (dragon magazine) and an amulet of wildshape (magic of faerun). They each increase your druid level by 4 for wildshaping and explicitly give you wildshape if you don't have it. Arcane Hierophant explicitly adds its level to druid level for wildshaping.

So at level 20 you'll have 3+10+8, or 21 HD for wildshaping.

[ps377]

You don't have enough druid levels to get wildshape, and arcane hierophant wont give it to you.

Arcane Hierophant WILL give it to you when you get to the right level. Look at the example of the Arcane Hierophant when it explains the WS. You will get it.

[Spuddles]

Arcane Hierophant WILL give it to you when you get to the right level. Look at the example of the Arcane Hierophant when it explains the WS. You will get it.

Huh. Interesting. I always interpreted the first line to mean "if you dont have it, you don't get it. Full stop." I guess that's not what they mean, though.

[Darrin]

Arcane Hierophant WILL give it to you when you get to the right level. Look at the example of the Arcane Hierophant when it explains the WS. You will get it.

As much as I agree with your interpretation, it's probably not a good idea to use example characters to justify your argument. They are so full of notorious errors, no one seriously considers them as evidence of how to intepret Rules As Written (RAW).

[Palanan]

The second line of the wild shape entry seems to directly contradict the first, and if these were the only two sentences this might create some confusion. But the third sentence of the wild shape entry makes it plain that they intended for a third-level druid to qualify for all class features--including the stacking wild shape--and the fourth sentence rather belatedly clarifies the first.

But if someone absolutely insists on the primacy of the first sentence, there's always Shaping Focus (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/shaping-focus), which is essentially Practiced Spellcaster for wild shape. If at all possible, I would use that for an arcane hierophant as a matter of course, since it compensates for the wizard and theurge levels which wouldn't ordinarily advance wildshaping.

[ps377]

As much as I agree with your interpretation, it's probably not a good idea to use example characters to justify your argument. They are so full of notorious errors, no one seriously considers them as evidence of how to intepret Rules As Written (RAW).

Arcane Hierophant already got fixed. You can find in a lot of places people talking about it.


asked Skip Williams whether the original intention was to have woodland stride as the class feature requirement for the arcane hierophant instead of trackless step, so rangers can qualify as the descriptive text strongly suggest, and he said:

"Woodland Stride is certainly what I *meant* to write, Not sure how Trackless Step got in there instead."

It makes sense.. A ranger will never get WS but a druid will. Both ranger and druid have pets and thats why Arcane hierophant is a prestige class for those 2 classes (a prestige class that focuses on pets). Trackless step and Woodland stride were the only things to be fixed.

And as much as i agree with you that there are a lot of errors, think about it that, if we take almost anything to be an error, then we would never played the game.. You cant just go around saying "hey, you better not do this. It may be an error!" If its an error they will fix it. Until then, i guess, we have to play by what we have.. No other choice..

[Carth]

For what it's worth, in my case the DM will almost certainly allow AH to advance wildshape despite the amount of druid levels which makes me a level 13 wildshaper, out of the box at least. Can't believe I forgot natural spell in the OP, otherwise, great suggestions so far.