3.5 Game Need Help Optimizing a Totemist /10 Beastmaster

[Talionis]

My brother wants to play a Totemist that optimizes Share Soulmeld using Beastmaster.

The biggest problem I see is that every level of Totemist is not a level with Animal Companion. I'm not sure if there are feats or any smart ways around that. That may mean I need to do something like Totemist 5/Druid 5/Beastmaster 10.

Its a low tier 3, high tier 4 game.

I'd love suggestions and ideas to make this fun for my brother, I just don't know much about Animal Companions.

[Oxydeur]

Hi,

You don't need an animal companion to enter Beastmaster just some skill ranks and a feat
Thus, your brother can do Totemist 5/Beastmaster X and take the Share Soulmeld feat at lvl 6.

For fluff and optimization you can orientate your brother to the Beast Heart Adept prestige class (dungeonscape) since it focus more on magical creature than mundane ones (so does the totemist). Plus, the magical creature a generally better than the mundane ones (hello you Chuul !).
It also give better will saves rather than reflexes.
Oh and the required feat is less useless (+2 handle and +2 ride rather than just +3 handle).

[Talionis]

Hi,

You don't need an animal companion to enter Beastmaster just some skill ranks and a feat
Thus, your brother can do Totemist 5/Beastmaster X and take the Share Soulmeld feat at lvl 6.

For fluff and optimization you can orientate your brother to the Beast Heart Adept prestige class (dungeonscape) since it focus more on magical creature than mundane ones (so does the totemist). Plus, the magical creature a generally better than the mundane ones (hello you Chuul !).
It also give better will saves rather than reflexes.
Oh and the required feat is less useless (+2 handle and +2 ride rather than just +3 handle).

Beast Heart Adept is a really good idea. I'll have to look at that one tonight when I get home from work.

But doesn't Wild Cohort feat leave you with a much lower level Animal Companion? I thought I was going to have problems with Animal Companion levels???

[Oxydeur]

Damned...

I just notice something on the Share Soulmeld prerequisite :

Ability to shape soulmelds and a familiar, animal companion, or mount with whom you can share spells
Paladin's mount, familiar and druid/ranger companion qualifies. As does the Beastmaster's companion (since it says it work like the druid's one)
But the Beast Heart Adept Monstrous Companion and the Wild Cohort don't allow you to share spells, thus don't qualify.
My bad...

(But with open-minded DM you can overlook that specification)

[Talionis]

Damned...

I just notice something on the Share Soulmeld prerequisite :

Paladin's mount, familiar and druid/ranger companion qualifies. As does the Beastmaster's companion (since it says it work like the druid's one)
But the Beast Heart Adept Monstrous Companion and the Wild Cohort don't allow you to share spells, thus don't qualify.
My bad...

(But with open-minded DM you can overlook that specification)

The more RAW approach works better. He kinda wants to make really badass Wolves and Bears and stuff like that anyway. I just need to find the best entry into Beastmaster that puts enough emphasis on Totemist to make the animals and him better. I think I also need the feat that lets the Share Spells go out to 30ft, Companion Spellbound Feat from PHB2. So if I need to talk to the DM about something working, I'd rather it be on that feat working with Share Soulmeld, not that I'm planning on this guy being any type of caster. I'm thinking Totemist 5/Druid 1/Beastmaster 10 then maybe back into Totemist? Totemist 5 grants Brow, Feat and Hands Binds.

Is there a good way to add Animal Companion levels? Maybe a feat that makes up for lost Druid levels where Animal Companion is concerned like Practiced Spellcaster?

[Ellowryn]

You dont need to be a spell caster to get Companion Spellbond, you just need a companion. Also, Natural bond increases you druid level by 3, up to the maximum of your HD. So you can go totemist 10/ Beastlord 10 and have a effective druid level of 16.

[Bonzai]

I did something similar to this once for an NPC. Duskling Druid 3/totemist 2/ Beast Master 10. Essentially flew around with a bunch of bird animal companions that all had maxed out Manticore spines. 4 max essentia, +1 totem capacity, +1 capacity from the feat, +1 from item =7 possible essential invested into it, for 7 spines each. With one familiar from Druid, 4 from beast master, and the character himself, that is 42 attacks each doing a d6 +half strength. If your DM will count a wild cohort as working with share soulmeld, then there are another 7 spine attacks. With the last 5 levels you could go Ranger 4, Wizard or Sorcerer with animal companion variant instead of a familiar for 14 more attacks. Not the greatest of builds, but it did it's job and dropped a player down to negatives in one volley before being brought down by the party. I like that it really doesn't care what level the companions actually are.

I actually plan to revisit the idea and play a crazy cat lady build, and REALLY role play it. And I mean REALLY role play it. They will all have names, there will be tea parties and outfits, and tearful funerals each time one dies.

[Talionis]

You dont need to be a spell caster to get Companion Spellbond, you just need a companion. Also, Natural bond increases you druid level by 3, up to the maximum of your HD. So you can go Totemist 10/ Beastmaster 10 and have a effective druid level of 16.

That is a huge help. I don't even need a level of Druid... Good to know. I assumed it would be a pre-requisite fro Beastmaster, but its not... cool. Anything else I need to know or think about? Totemist 5/Beastmaster 10/Totemist 5 is what I'm going to look at optimizing.

I'm really tempted to go Totemist 5/Beastmaster 9/Totemist 6 (this would give you one less animal companion of fairly low level, but would grant you double Totem Chakra Bind which is really cool to have as a capstone.

Feats
Skill Focus - Handle Animal (Pre-requisite for Beastmaster)
Wild Cohort (Have an extra Animal Companion)
Share Soulmeld (Allows Companions to have all the same benefits from Soulmelds you have)
Companion Spellbond (Increases Radius of Share Soulmeld to 30ft)
Natural Bond


Did we decide that Wild Cohort doesn't get the benefit of Share Soulmeld? It says it works like a Druid's Animal Companion of a lower level. Making me think it would work.

[gorfnab]

I posted this build awhile ago for someone who was looking to have a Halfling Totemist with a Fleshraker mount for an Eberron campaign. There may be something you can salvage from it.

Not the most optimal but this could give you a starting point:
Strongheart Halfling
1. Barbarian (Whirling Fenzy UA, Spirit Totem: Lion CC)- Weapon Finesse, Dinosaur Wrangler (or some other feat, like Mounted Combat)
2. Totemist
3. Totemist - Skill Focus: Handle Animal
4. Totemist
5. Totemist
6. Beastmaster - Cobalt Rage
7. Totem Rager
8. Totem Rager
9. Beastmaster - Natural Bond
10. Totem Rager
11. Beastemaster
12. Totem Rager - Multiattack
13. Beastmaster
14. Totem Rager
15. Beastmaster - Shared Soulmeld
16. Totem Rager
17. Totem Rager
18. Totem Rager - Shared Fury
19. Totem Rager
20. Totem Rager

[Talionis]

I posted this build awhile ago for someone who was looking to have a Halfling Totemist with a Fleshraker mount for an Eberron campaign. There may be something you can salvage from it.

Not the most optimal but this could give you a starting point:
Strongheart Halfling
1. Barbarian (Whirling Fenzy UA, Spirit Totem: Lion CC)- Weapon Finesse, Dinosaur Wrangler (or some other feat, like Mounted Combat)
2. Totemist
3. Totemist - Skill Focus: Handle Animal
4. Totemist
5. Totemist
6. Beastmaster - Cobalt Rage
7. Totem Rager
8. Totem Rager
9. Beastmaster - Natural Bond
10. Totem Rager
11. Beastemaster
12. Totem Rager - Multiattack
13. Beastmaster
14. Totem Rager
15. Beastmaster - Shared Soulmeld
16. Totem Rager
17. Totem Rager
18. Totem Rager - Shared Fury
19. Totem Rager
20. Totem Rager

That's a big help, but I think I might be better off with straight Totemist levels.

Totem Rager basically adds 5 essential while you rage, but you lose 3 meldshaper levels (one from Barbarian, two from Totem Rager). So that's more than half the essentia you gain while raging. Plus it feat taxes you the Cobalt Rage feat which also grants an essentia. It just depends what you are going for. If I needed Barbarian to make it work it would be wonderful. Maybe I'm missing something cool, but its hard to beat being able to have two Totem Soulmelds bound with Totemist 11.

But you did make me look at where I was going to jump out of Beastmaster and I think I'm going to jump out at Beastmaster 7 or Beastmaster 9, or Beastmaster 10. I don't want the Animal Companions to be too far behind in HD. So maybe I want more levels of Beast Master to advance Animal Companion? Totemist 11 or Totemist 14 look like the break points and I'd lose another animal companion at Beastmaster 6. So I'm leaning towards Totemist 5, Beastmaster 9, Totemist 11.

[Ellowryn]

Just make sure to check with the Dm to see if they are okay with Share Soulmeld, and Shared Fure if you want to go that route, extend with Companion Spellbond. I dont see any reason why they shouldnt, but as CS doesnt say it expands any rider feats associated with it I would just make sure its all cool before you put the character together.

The Shared Fury trick with Whirling Frenzy is a neat idea, i knew there was a feat to share rage but for the life of me i couldnt find it, but i curious how the extra attack works with a full round attack with multiple different types of natural weapons. Do you just get one extra attack with a primary weapon?

But yeah, gaining pounce and extra attacks from soulmeds and rage and then giving them to multiple animal companions means a feeding frenzy during combat.

[Talionis]

Just make sure to check with the Dm to see if they are okay with Share Soulmeld, and Shared Fure if you want to go that route, extend with Companion Spellbond. I dont see any reason why they shouldnt, but as CS doesnt say it expands any rider feats associated with it I would just make sure its all cool before you put the character together.

The Shared Fury trick with Whirling Frenzy is a neat idea, i knew there was a feat to share rage but for the life of me i couldnt find it, but i curious how the extra attack works with a full round attack with multiple different types of natural weapons. Do you just get one extra attack with a primary weapon?

But yeah, gaining pounce and extra attacks from soulmelds and rage and then giving them to multiple animal companions means a feeding frenzy during combat.

This was what I was saying when I was saying am I missing something. That is cool.

Sadly, I didn't think about Shared Fury. That's a pretty cool feat. 5ft Range is a little small, but you can argue Companion Spellbond might increase that range too.

I would think Whirling Frenzy would also pass to your Animal Companions as well. Its just a different benefit from Raging... Interesting.

[Ruethgar]

One level of Focused Totem Druid for a quick boost to your animal companion level, not strictly RAW able as Totem Shape != Wild Shape, but would add 5 to your AC levels. Also the Mongoose Quintessential fighter Beastmaster Background gives you an AC that scales with your level, not you effective druid level so that it nice.

Edit: Oh! You also need a major bloodline to boost the animal companion level by three more.

[Talionis]

One level of Focused Totem Druid for a quick boost to your animal companion level, not strictly RAW able as Totem Shape != Wild Shape, but would add 5 to your AC levels. Also the Mongoose Quintessential fighter Beastmaster Background gives you an AC that scales with your level, not you effective druid level so that it nice.

Edit: Oh! You also need a major bloodline to boost the animal companion level by three more.

Focused Totem Druid is a Variant, from Dragon 335. Giving some small bonuses. Cool good to know about. I never can keep track of those Dragon Magazine editions. I wish they would publish more Compendiums of that material.

Quintessential Fighter - is non-official? Ruethgar... I was having a little problem finding a source for it. AC bonuses would be really nice.

Bloodlines, I am very familiar with. My play group has house-ruled some of there use so that they have value in some situations... I'll keep it in mind...

These have been really good suggestions!!!