Best Monster to use with the feral template

[thewiredone]

I am joining another campaign, and am wanting to make a feral something fighter. So I want to know what monster has full bab and good saves with good skill points? The campaign level is starting at lvl 10.

[mattie_p]

Savage Species is on the table, what other books are permitted?

Sounds to me like you want a feral (SS) mineral warrior (Underdark, Forgotten Realms) water orc (UA/SRD).

EDIT: For full BAB and good saves you want a dragon or an outsider. Feral won't work on them, though.

[Waddacku]

Feral is only applicable to humanoids and monstrous humanoids. For BAB and saves, you'll want monstrous humanoid...

[thewiredone]

all books are ok except forgotten realms and oriental. this includes dragon magazines.
The group prefers to not use psionics and the magic of incarnum

[Urpriest]

You've asked for full BAB, good saves, and good skill points. Every Feral creature is a Monstrous Humanoid (unless they got another template later), so your BAB and saves are fixed, as are skill points (except the contribution from Int). If you didn't know that already, you probably shouldn't be playing a monstrous character in the first place without reading up on the rules for monsters. I have a monster handbook in my sig that should help.

In terms of Feral, the only benefit monster HD give you over regular HD is Special Attacks. The breakpoints for these are Improved Grab (1HD, which you might have anyway as a monstrous humanoid version of any race), Pounce (4HD), Rake (8HD) and Rend (12HD). Beyond that, it's a question of what races are actually worth it independent of the feral template.

By those criteria, you would typically want to stick with an LA +0 or LA +1 race. In the first case, Water Orc has already been mentioned, while in the other Goliath is nice.

If you really want something with racial hit dice, Anthropomorphic Baleen Whale gives nice stats and Large size, though only enough RHD for Improved Grab.

Beyond there, you have to consider what you're gaining and what you're losing out on. Picking up a 4HD race to gain Pounce sounds nice...but you could get that with a level of Barbarian with the Spirit Lion Totem from Complete Champion, giving you better hp and skill points. So we really don't need to consider anything till 8HD. Rake is still fairly nice, and handy for a grappling build, so we can think about races that fit there. That said, that would mean having only one level of Fighter, max, at this point, so it's kind of a waste. At higher levels I'd suggest considering the War Troll, as-is you don't really have many other options.

Another important question is what sort of Fighter you're planning on building. Fighter is a class that gives a lot of specialized bonus feats, it's mean for planned builds featuring specific combat tricks that need a lot of feats to pull them off. If you're not interested in a particular combat trick then you would probably be better off with a more generic class like Barbarian or Warblade.

[thewiredone]

Thanks for the info guys,Urpriest ur sig is great and is something I needed to read thank you.

[Yogibear41]

Needs less feral and more Were-Bear RAWR!!! :smallsmile:

[Spuddles]

Feral Anthrowhale may be the best option. Feral's pounce comes from monster HD, and it is also the inferior 3.0 pounce, I believe(only works in surprise round). As pointed out, two levels of lion spirit totem wolf totem barbarian gets you you improved trip (ignore prereqs, which is nice) and pounce. Nab extra rage (complete warrior) and you should usually have enough anger to get you through the day.

Consider picking up some levels of psychic warrior to use expansion. If you are going to be using claw attacks, you may as well get them big and mean as possible. Expansion can get you up to gargantuan size when you have 6 HD, if your manifester level is 6 (which can be done with 2 levels psy war and the practiced manifester feat).


Needs less feral and more Were-Bear RAWR!!! :smallsmile:

Werebear is terrible.

[Yogibear41]

Werebear is terrible.

Blasphemy!

[Spuddles]

Blasphemy!

*checks user name*

Oh... I see.

My apologies sir.