Help me make a functional crazy cat lady [3.5]

[Lioness]

Just like the title says...if I can't be a crazy cat lady in real life, I want to play one. I'd like to make a character with as many cats as I can get through classes, etc, and have a bit of fun playing with her.

I'm thinking some sort of wizard dip for a familiar, Druid for animal companion and wild shape...what else can I do?

I'd like to be a useful character...able to fight and stuff too. But overall I'd just like to have a bit of fun and create a ridiculous concept that works. At the moment this is entirely theoretical, so no limits to supp books!

So...what can I do?

[Irk]

WotC made an article all about caps as an April Fools thing. Here it is (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fools/20030401c), maybe it'll help you out.

[A.A.King]

How about being a cat? Be a tibbit, now you are a crazy cat lady who collects cats but also is a cat.

[Particle_Man]

Leadership, where the cohort and all the followers are either tibbits or catfolk.

[Kazyan]

Wizard 1/Druid 4/Beastmaster 10/Effigy Master 5 with Wild Cohort. Familiar, urban companion, four animal comapnions, wild cohort, and as many robo-cats as you can shake a laser pointer at. Probably not good at fighting in your own right, but your cats can do the fighting for you. And with ranks in Hide/Move Silently, two cats can sneak around for you.

[ArcaneGlyph]

Mod a bag of tricks to only throw out different felines. Play a Wiz / Druid with a cat familiar / companion. Summon natures ally (cats), Summon Monster (cats). Polymorph Self and Shapeshift into cats.

[Jurai]

Spell to Power Erudite with all the Summon spells.

[The Insanity]

Be a bear cat riding a bear cat summoning bears cats. Meaning, Druid. You don't need much more.

[Zweisteine]

You can be an Anthropomorphic Cat (or Tibbit) Weretiger Jaguar Totem Barbarian/Druid (taking a Cat companion)/Wizard (cat familiar), taking the Wild Cohort feat to get a cat companion. You're a werecat cat who owns a cat, rides a cat, worships cats, and can throw (summon) cats out of your eyes (ocular spell).

Also, adapt the Bear Warrior and Bearlord PrCs to Cat Warrior and Catlord, to get the full deal (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=11771050&postcount=10) (just substitute "bear" for "cat").

[gorfnab]

Gnome Bard with the feat Animal Friends (RoF, may be taken more than once, take at least 4 times for two whole tone octaves or for one and a third chromatic octaves, may need flaws) and take ranks in Perform: Katzenklavier. Inspire Courage with the Meow Mix theme.

[(Un)Inspired]

Commoner/wizard with chicken infested. Cast chained PAO on the chickens to turn them into cats. Shazzam! All the cat you could ever want.

[Alent]

Aside from the handle animal skill to train them, it's not a "Class skill", but you can tame/rear as many animals as you want.

If you're allowed to backport material, Pathfinder lets you buy trained housecats for 3cp, which you can then spend two months and a single handle animal check to make them Warbeast housecats.

Taken to logical extremes, a level 1 character with starting wealth should be able to purchase and wartrain enough housecats to put down any kobold warren.

[Urpriest]

If you're allowed to backport material, Pathfinder lets you buy trained housecats for 3cp, which you can then spend two months and a single handle animal check to make them Warbeast housecats.

No you can't, that's not how warbeast works. The training rules are for training an existing warbeast to serve you, not turning a creature into a warbeast.

That said, if you just want to buy Warbeast Housecats they only cost 25gp each, so still pretty cheap by the mid-levels.

[Alent]

No you can't, that's not how warbeast works. The training rules are for training an existing warbeast to serve you, not turning a creature into a warbeast.

That said, if you just want to buy Warbeast Housecats they only cost 25gp each, so still pretty cheap by the mid-levels.

This sent me to checking MM2 again, I'm not sure where you're getting the "Existing warbeast" bit from?

The line I missed that exempts our tiny feline army from getting the template at all, actually:

CREATING A WARBEAST
“Warbeast” is a template that can be added to any Medium size
or larger...

But this is what I was thinking of in regards to the 2 months of training...


TRAINING A WARBEAST
A warbeast can be reared and trained just as the base creature
can. If the base creature is a domestic animal, the creature
need not be specially reared, but it must be trained for
two months (Handle Animal DC 20) to develop its abilities.

(It continues with longer training times for wild animals and beasts.)

Is there another version of that template somewhere?

[Talionis]

Thrallhurd? You could have tons of level one followers?

[Urpriest]

But this is what I was thinking of in regards to the 2 months of training...


TRAINING A WARBEAST
A warbeast can be reared and trained just as the base creature
can. If the base creature is a domestic animal, the creature
need not be specially reared, but it must be trained for
two months (Handle Animal DC 20) to develop its abilities.

(It continues with longer training times for wild animals and beasts.)

Is there another version of that template somewhere?

Read that sentence again. "A warbeast can be reared and trained just as the base creature can." Then look at the DCs, and compare to the 3.0 Handle Animal rules that they correspond to. You'll notice that all that section is doing is further confirming that yes, you can rear and train a warbeast rhino in the same way you can rear and train a rhino. You can't rear and train something else and turn it into a rhino, and you can't rear and train something else and turn it into a warbeast rhino. As the template states, warbeasts are the result of breeding programs, they aren't just normal animals that are taught extra stuff.

[Alent]

Ahh, that makes sense now. It's amazing what processing one line incorrectly does to a rule. The guy who made the Handle Animal handbook on minmax guides made the same mistake, too.

[Urpriest]

Ahh, that makes sense now. It's amazing what processing one line incorrectly does to a rule. The guy who made the Handle Animal handbook on minmax guides made the same mistake, too.

Yeah, it's an old optimization mistake that caught on like wildfire. I don't think anyone who read the original read it that way, but all it took was one person saying "hey this is cool" and now whenever people hear about warbeast it's in the context of that mistake. Which is a shame, because the ability to buy a souped-up animal is still nothing to sneeze at.

[BeerMug Paladin]

Just like the title says...if I can't be a crazy cat lady in real life, I want to play one. I'd like to make a character with as many cats as I can get through classes, etc, and have a bit of fun playing with her.

I'm thinking some sort of wizard dip for a familiar, Druid for animal companion and wild shape...what else can I do?

I'd like to be a useful character...able to fight and stuff too. But overall I'd just like to have a bit of fun and create a ridiculous concept that works. At the moment this is entirely theoretical, so no limits to supp books!

So...what can I do?
I believe there was a feat to give you an extra animal companion at 2 levels behind your lowest animal companion, and I think it could be taken multiple times. I don't recall where it was, or even if it existed. (I may think it exists because a player I had would often print out and ask for feats from the internet he wanted to use)

Also, leadership could always be used in tandem with the druid spell awaken. So you could just use awaken on every cat you see, then recruit them into your ever-expanding army of trained cat warriors! That's not really doable until you get access to awaken, though. If you start high enough level for leadership, maybe your character background stipulates that you know another crazy cat lady druid who did the cat-awakening in the past?

[Kennisiou]

Depending on how much in-game downtime exists, you could probably just handle animal to train yourself a whole buttload of cats to do simple tasks. "Captain snuggles, open that door. Wuddiekins, track the criminal. Thomas, dance for mommy. Yess... good kitty, Thomas." Animal Lord is a prestige class for druids that is pretty heavily based on handle animal. It's generally considered a suboptimal class, but it's far from non-functional and thematically sounds like exactly what you want. You can even be a catlord! It's hard to see a crazy cat lady as anything but a catlord.

You may also want to talk to your DM about adapting Tamer of Beasts to 3.5. Ruleswise it's mired in 3.0 stuff, referencing the "animal friendship" spell rather than animal companions, but it seems like a class that exists to give significantly above standard progression to your animal companion -- especially with regards to their intelligence, which is probably something that would interest you.

[sideswipe]

summoner what has the throw anything feat and summons cats once purr round. i believe there is a feat where you can summon a small elemental at will. ask your dm if it can be a common house cat instead. and throw it! take the feat that allows you to intimidate with a thrown weapon and buff intimidate and make people run from a cat to the face! its almost useless but hilarious.

[Lioness]

summons cats once purr round.

Was that intentional? :smalltongue:

Looks like wizard/druid is the way to go, with various feats. Sweet.

[Snowbluff]

Wizard 1/Druid 4/Beastmaster 10/Effigy Master 5 with Wild Cohort. Familiar, urban companion, four animal comapnions, wild cohort, and as many robo-cats as you can shake a laser pointer at. Probably not good at fighting in your own right, but your cats can do the fighting for you. And with ranks in Hide/Move Silently, two cats can sneak around for you.

This would be my first suggestion.

The others are the Extra Familiar feat (+1 familiar, no limit IIRC, but Dragon Magazine) and taking Leadership for a bunch of Tibbits or Templated kitties... who take Leadership in turn.

[sideswipe]

Was that intentional? :smalltongue:

Looks like wizard/druid is the way to go, with various feats. Sweet.

yes it was ;)

[rexx1888]

its vaguely worrying how many of you know about cat related material in 3.5 O.o Is this the first time this has been posted on the forum :P

[Snowbluff]

its vaguely worrying how many of you know about cat related material in 3.5 O.o Is this the first time this has been posted on the forum :P

The article about cats has the Collar of Perpetual Attendance, which is at will Unseen Servant. Everyone who is anyone uses that item, and the cats are noted.

Also, I may have a soft spot for cats and catgirls. I like cute things. :smalltongue:

[Kraken]

its vaguely worrying how many of you know about cat related material in 3.5 O.o Is this the first time this has been posted on the forum :P

This is the internet. Cats are basically everywhere, for better or worse.

[Jack_Simth]

Yeah, it's an old optimization mistake that caught on like wildfire. I don't think anyone who read the original read it that way, but all it took was one person saying "hey this is cool" and now whenever people hear about warbeast it's in the context of that mistake. Which is a shame, because the ability to buy a souped-up animal is still nothing to sneeze at.
Yes, especially as it's a stupidly-linear cost. A warbeast of a maximally advanced Legendary Tiger (48 HD - 49 after Warbeast) costs only 3,775 gp. A 4th level character can afford one with WBL, and it's officially CR 18. Oh yes, and templates that don't change the type are perfectly fine, apparently, as they don't add any costs. Say hello to the Paragon (the ELH template) Maximally Advanced Legendary Tiger Warbeast, only 3,775 gp market price.

You will of course want to optimize Handle Animal a little bit, but ... seriously? Who thought that linear costs were a good thing in this game?

[Jeff the Green]

How about a mad cat lady? This is an idea I've been working on: CE tibbit Soulborn 2/Stoneblessed 3/Barbarian 1/Totemist 2/Totem Rager 10/Warshaper 2. Soulborn lets you keep your normal strength when you become a cat. Stoneblessed lets you take the Goliath barbarian substitution level to become large when you rage (and you can still go lion totem for pounce and flavor). Totemist and Totem Rager get you additional natural weapons. Warshaper does the same, but is kinda cheesy so I stick it on the end. Grab IUAS, Beast Strike, and Superior Unarmed Strike, as well as Improved Natural Attack (claws), and you've got a formidable (and cute!) beatstick.

[Alent]

Yeah, it's an old optimization mistake that caught on like wildfire. I don't think anyone who read the original read it that way, but all it took was one person saying "hey this is cool" and now whenever people hear about warbeast it's in the context of that mistake. Which is a shame, because the ability to buy a souped-up animal is still nothing to sneeze at.

Aye, buying animals is situational but the payoff can be amazing, even without warbeast.

This seems like a good place to ask, where would you find the 3.5 equivalent to PF's table of purchasable pets and mounts? PF puts several good options in the reach of early level characters: hunting cats (3d8+6 HD Leopard, OP might like this?), dire bats, riding dogs, etc. I don't know where to find anything similar in 3.5.


its vaguely worrying how many of you know about cat related material in 3.5 O.o Is this the first time this has been posted on the forum :P

Look closer. Not all of that is cat material. Some of it is general animal companion/minionmancy.

Also, you should look up D&D Housecat jokes. They're a pretty big meme.

[Urpriest]

Aye, buying animals is situational but the payoff can be amazing, even without warbeast.

This seems like a good place to ask, where would you find the 3.5 equivalent to PF's table of purchasable pets and mounts? PF puts several good options in the reach of early level characters: hunting cats (3d8+6 HD Leopard, OP might like this?), dire bats, riding dogs, etc. I don't know where to find anything similar in 3.5.

It's not all in one place, but there's info spread around. The PHB has horses, riding dogs, and the like of course, there are purchasable dinosaurs in various Eberron books (mostly the campaign setting, but I think a few in the others), most of the Races Of books have a couple...there's also often info in the monster entry itself (costs for eggs and young are in a lot of the MM monster descriptions for plausible mounts, for example), and Arms and Equipment Guide (while 3.0) has lots of prices that could be pulled forward. There's also rules for pricing for slaves in Lords of Madness and for mercenaries in DMG II (and maybe somewhere else, not sure).

[Talionis]

Thrallhurd? You could have tons of level one followers?

I was sorta thinking that you could get a bunch of Tibbit followers...

[Ruethgar]

It is not official, but there are cat swarms (http://dreamsoffreeport.wikispaces.com/Cat+Swarm+(3.5)) if you want to summon and tame 300 cats at a time. A warlock for summon swarm at will would be easy enough, though SNA focused druid would be better(Green Ash Bound kitties with a wizard dip for Augment Summoning).