Shifter Barbarian/Ranger | Weretouched master/Warshaper... Help me!

[Delai]

Okay so I've been doing a 3.5 campaign with a group of friends using Roll20, campaign has gone on for nearly a year now. Nearly every week since sept 2012. Currently I am playing a human Cleric 3/ Warlock 2/ Eldritch Disciple healer. He's pretty great, but I like to have a backup or two ready, so I rolled some stats with my DM this week and Ive decided this guy is going to be a weretouched master of some sort. I was hoping I could get some ideas from people.

Currently we are level 10, base stats before improving are 16, 16, 14, 14, 14, 13. Now Ive built characters before, but shifters are alien to me. Ive learned if I go zerker I'm basically gonna need to have all shifter feats. We can have two flaws, but I only want one for this character.. so..

Flaw - ???
Level 1 - ???
Level 3 - ???
Level 6 - ???
Level 9 - ???

I know weretouched master gives 2 shifter bonus feats as well.. plus theres warshaper.. I think the issue I am having is that there are so many options. I think taking an extra shifter trait is a no brainer, but beyond that..

[Delai]

Realized I forgot a few details. My vision for this character is as a kind of tribal outsider, hence the barbarian.. I know I ultimately want him to be focused around shifting and raging at the same time, but I'm not sure on what route I should take to get there.

I need knowledge nature for the class, so a ranger or druid dip is probably my best bet, but I'm not sure which I should do.. or if there is another option I'm not thinking of.

On top of that I dont know if I should go warshaper first, or weretouched master...

[Jon Everyman]

I was working on a similar build last night, and I decided on 2 levels of Totemist. It has knowledge (nature) and survival as class skills, and helps the build more than ranger or druid, IMO. And Totem Rager or w/e the class is called helps finish your build off if you take the Shifter Savagery feat (and why wouldn't you).

[Delai]

I was working on a similar build last night, and I decided on 2 levels of Totemist. It has knowledge (nature) and survival as class skills, and helps the build more than ranger or druid, IMO. And Totem Rager or w/e the class is called helps finish your build off if you take the Shifter Savagery feat (and why wouldn't you).

I was considering not taking it for about 20 seconds.. when I realized it was for ALL natural weapons. Lol.

[Biotroll]

Shifters are fun. NeoSeraphi made a handbook for them with some advices for weretouched master, moonspeaker and all that. So be sure to check it, you might find something useful: handbook link (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=225294)

[Delai]

Yeah, I've been using that very handbook as a guide, my only real issue at this point is the starting class. I could go ranger for the knowledge nature, or I could do duskblade, with 12 int that would give me 3 shocking grasps a day, which I could channel through my weapons. Question is if I can do that while raging and shifting or not.

[Biotroll]

As far as I know, casting (even if it is duskblade casting) is no no in rage, unless you take levels in Rage Mage (which isn't that great at all). Shifting remains silent about preventing casting, so you should be able to cast while shifted. So I would start with ranger, same hps as duskblade, but more skill points, free track and favored enemy (and wild emphaty, duh). Duskblade's shocking grasp sounds nice, but you would need at least 3 lvls in duskblade to be able to channel it with attack and then, using shifter to it's full potential is mostly about getting more attacks rather then doing just one. And 13 lvls to get channeling for full attack is too much. If you really need spells that badly, ask your dm to allow Mystic ranger (dragon mag., trades some proficiencies and gets stuff later on for more spells) and grab Sword of Arcane Order feat at 6th lvl to be able to prepare and cast wiz spells from spellbook.

[Nightraiderx]

don't bother with duskblade channeling, you'll end up dividing your actions between channeling once as an attack, vs using all your natural weapons as a full attack. It will divide your playing styles BADLY. also more MAD isn't good most shifters will have STR/CON with DEX/WIS secondary and INT/CHA as your third.

Tob is pretty good for shifters, alot of tiger claw manuever's improve your offensive damage prowess.
The level ten build I would suggest is this:

2 Barbarian/2 ranger/2 warshaper/2 Were touched master/1 Swordsage(or warblade)/1 Bloodclaw master

I find weretouched master tiger and bear to be one of my favorites, (I would reflavor as lion for the barbarian alt for pounce) but you'll have the ability to grow claws/extra natural attacks whenever, a good boost to your con/str scores, you get the shifting trait from were touched master (either bite or claw). ranger 2 gives you free TWF for more attacks and prereq to bloodclaw.
bloodclaw also counts as having the razorclaw shifter trait.


Swordsage is cooler because by the time you grab it 8 non-initiator levels divide by 2 and that gets your 3rd level manuevers. You can grab desert wind burning blade and it's predecessor for that fire damage gish feel. you get a boost to ref and will saves which is good. and you get a stance, which with track from ranger, scent becomes a very nice out of game balance. There are also alts for ranger shifter but you won't need them. Warblade is if you want more consistent/useable ones.

As for feats: Improved Unarmed Strike/ Beast Strike is really nice, (unarmed swordsage variant can give that for free, but it would be stuck at 1d6 without using superior unarmed which has it scale up to a max of 2d6)

Races of Eberron has a really really nice feat for shifter barbarians, i forget the name but it will increase your crit and base attack damage of a natural weapon by 2. grabbing an extra rage is good.

Extra shifter trait is key, there is also shifter multiattack which will be better to grab for the synergy, I suggest that you do NOT pick a razorclaw shifter or a gorebite one because you can pick those up with the prestiege classes. Races of Eberron has a host of shifter feats that are very nice, so try grabbing an initial trait that has a good "elite" option that fits your play style, razorclaw elite is not suggested b/c you will have pounce.

[Delai]

Spoke with my DM about an hour ago and I've got a few more things setup. Firstly ToB actually is only allowed some of the time, and honestly I've got a pretty specific idea in mind for this guy.

Build will be a Ranger 1 / Barbarian 4 / Weretouched Master 5

Level 11 will probably be the earliest I bring the guy in, in which case I will be taking warshaper. My DM had actually been looking at the WMaster and agrees with me that the errata was freaking stupid. He's changing it so that it doesn't COMPLETELY negate the other 4 levels of the class. Now its going to be basically you can shift at the same time as it (if you expend 2 shift uses) and it will be +4+2+2 spread out across the physical attribute scores. For my form, which is a white tiger (it fits with his background, trust me, the lion would have worked for most barbs tho :P) would have +4 STR, +2 DEX, +2 Con.

Adding all the combinations of stat increases, at level 10 (Before adding my 2 extra stat points mind you) my stats are the following

Base Stat + Rage + Shifting + Weretouched 1 + Alternate form = Result

16 +4 +2 +2 +4 = 26
16 +0 +0+0 +2 = 18
16 +4 +0+0 +2 = 22
12
14
9

with 6 shifter feats that means I can shift 4 times a day for a total of 14 rounds each time. OR I can megashift 2 times a day for a total of 16 rounds.

If warshaper stacks with Shifter Savagery (That's the name of the feat btw) then my attacks will be doing something along the lines of...

Bite 3d6+2+8
Claws 2d6+2+4 x2

... all in all he's turning out pretty awesome... imo. I know most builds go into all sorts of different 1 class dips, but I want it to make sense.. a ranger who becomes a barbarian, who then turns to his heritage to become the white tiger shifter.

[Delai]

Heh. and looking into warshaper, looks like at level 12 I will gain an additional +4 STR and CON, because.. weretigers.

[Nightraiderx]

Any reason why Barb 4 other than rage uses? Complete warrior has feat that grants two extra uses of rage, so if you used that you could actually grab a level of warshaper in that mix.

[Delai]

Any reason why Barb 4 other than rage uses? Complete warrior has feat that grants two extra uses of rage, so if you used that you could actually grab a level of warshaper in that mix.

Well with my limited number of shift uses, with requiring 2 shifter feats per usage, I am limited to two encounters a day.. by 18th level I would have an additional extra mega shift (minus the rage of course).

The 2nd rage use is important, and considering we're halfway through level 10 already, this character will almost certainly not see light until lvl 11 at the earliest. If that feat were a shifter feat, then I might consider it.. you know what I mean?

[Nightraiderx]

I got ya, hopefully you got to look at the shifter stuff in Races of Eberron, what feat line are you using currently?

[Delai]

I got ya, hopefully you got to look at the shifter stuff in Races of Eberron, what feat line are you using currently?

Shifter Instincts
Shifter Magnetism
Extra Shifter Trait
Shifter Multiattack
Longtooth Elite
Shifter Savagery
Great Rend

is what I have so far.