3.5 Ranger Weretiger (Scout Role) General Advice

[JohnStone]

I am building a Ranger/Beastmaster for an upcoming campaign, we are lvl 10 (with a free template). I want to play the "Scout Role" (Stealth, Tracking, Survival) so i chose a weretiger, for the enhanced senses and skills. Not to mention a crazy strong beastly hybrid form.
my Rolls were 17,17,16,16,17,15 (im going to improve str and dex first to 18)

MY QUESTIONS:
what are some feats i should look toward, im thinking of using a longspear or other 2hander (have to remain human most of the time) obviously power attack and the basics but are there any really interesting ones for a werecreature. Including up to 2 Flaws (which im not familiar with at all)

What kind of equipment should i get first for both me and my Animal Companion (Tiger)

Any Official Source is allowed for feats and skills and such.

EDIT: My DM has stated that the animal HD are indeed free bonus HD (how generous)

[Phelix-Mu]

The real issue and first question you need to resolve is if weretiger is really free.

The issue is that usually Lycanthrope template saddles you with both the LA for the type of lycanthrope as well as the ACTUAL HD of the animal. Tiger has 6HD. Unless you are getting these "for free" (which is way more generous than a stipulation of a "no LA template"), you will end up with 6/10 HD being animal HD, which are pretty much just terrible.

So, if you know you are getting those 6HD from tiger for free, then that's good, but you really need to iron that out.

Flaws are an optional rule that give some kind of mechanical drawback in exchange for a free feat chosen at character creation. You must meet all of the pre-reqs for any feat chosen. Flaws themselves are in Unearthed Arcana, though there were a bunch of others published in Dragon Magazine. Beware homebrew flaws from the web.

[JohnStone]

YES I WILL DEFINETELY FIND OUT.

Lets assume for a moment that they are not free. Does anyone know of a Template that could give me some animal instinct type powers (Scent, Low-light Vison, etc.)

[infomatic]

Shifter race (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=225294)? Savage Progression were-tiger (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20031212a)? Tiger Claw-focused Swordsage?

[JohnStone]

My DMs answer was:


I think by RAW they do for experience calculation. I'm going to say they are just bonus HD.

Also, your effective druid level for animal companion bonuses is Ranger Level -3, not half the ranger level.

Checklist for bonus features from those 6 animal hit dice
Form Bonus
All +5 Fortitude
All +5 Reflex
All +2 Will
All +4 BAB (There's another .5 here but you have a perfect BAB class so it won't matter)
All (2+Int) skill points per level, if you are a natural lycanthrope this is where you will quadruple your first HD of skill points
All Bonus feats!
__________________

i think that means im getting them for free, but now i am very confused have no idea how to apply these

[JohnStone]

So yes now i know that i will indeed be a lvl 9 character with the template for free.

So i would like to know what sort of feats would be effective to compliment either the Hybrid (claw/bite) style, or anything else that may be related

Also what kind of equipment would you consider mandatory for a lvl 9 character

[Runeclaw]

Your DM forgot to list hit points. (Oddly, to me at least, the racial HD seem to benefit from the alternate forms' Con bonus, while the class level HD do not).

What do you mean you will be level 9? Your OP listed level 10, which I thought was character levels?

Your ECL should be LA(+3) + RHD(6) + Character Level. If your DM is giving you the RHD and LA for free, you will be highly powerful compared to the theoretical starting level. Which is really only a problem if the other PCs are not doing similar things or if the DM fails to adjust encounters appropriately. Otherwise you're effectively just playing at a much higher level then what you're saying that you're playing at.

[Grayson01]

Is it Bonus Hit Dice or is it 6 levels of Tiger which is why you get "Checklist for bonus features from those 6 animal hit dice
Form Bonus
All +5 Fortitude
All +5 Reflex
All +2 Will
All +4 BAB (There's another .5 here but you have a perfect BAB class so it won't matter)
All (2+Int) skill points per level, if you are a natural lycanthrope this is where you will quadruple your first HD of skill points
All Bonus feats"
so as a 9th level charcter you would have 6 levels of tiger 3 levels of ranger.

P.S. Also for Flaws my suggestions are if you are going Mellee go with Shaky -4 to ranged attacks and then Pathetic -2 to one ability score with your rolls that will not be a problem at all make one for your stats, it in ether CHA or Int, a 14 with one of your 16's.

[Runeclaw]

so as a 9th level charcter you would have 6 levels of tiger 3 levels of ranger.

That would be the case if you were getting free LA but not free racial HD. It would also make this choice much less attractive.