Ideas that dont pan out.

[TheCrowing1432]

So one of my character concepts was a Ranger/Halfling Outrider.

He would specialize in archery and ride atop a tiger as his animal companion/mount.

Now there are a couple problems with this.

Druids dont get Tigers until 7th level, with the tiger being equivalent to a 1st level animal companion.

Rangers, being HALF their Effective Druid Level, wouldnt be able to get it until....14. Now Halfling Outrider advances animal companion thankfully, but by the time level 20 comes along, the Tiger mount will only be at the equivalent of a 6th level animal companion.

It has to be a tiger since the idea was the tiger would use its pounce/improved grab abilities while my character was still mounted and shoot the grappled foe with arrows.

The idea kind of works, but not as well as I'd hope.

What are some ideas you've had that either didnt work, or not as well as you'd hoped.

[Tohsaka Rin]

Why not use something with trip, like a wolf?

Granted, it's not improved grab/grappling, but plenty of players will swear by a tripping/lockdown build.

[Heliomance]

Hrm. It's not quite what you want, but you could go Deadly Hunter Druid 5/Beastmaster 1/Halfling Outrider, and make a Zen Archery build. It would probably be quite potent. Alternatively, Ranger 6/Beastmaster 1 would qualify you for a tiger. Or you could try Wild Cohort, but that won't get you a tiger until 10th level.

[Abd al-Azrad]

I've been trying to build a good trip-and-BC staff fighting gish (the Pathfinder Magus class, Staff Magus archetype for those who follow that game) for a little while, but it's a fairly awkward build.

The Magus class really shows its teeth when used for massive bursts of damage, channeling big touch attack spells through a high crit-range weapon to basically one-shot enemies. It is a 3/4 BAB class as well, so its trip bonuses are lower than ideal in general. There are loads of tricks that make this a tolerable choice, but every time I try to realize the build, I end up asking myself, "Why am I doing this, why with a Magus when a fighter or monk would be superior for this purpose, etc."

The secret shame reason is that I think it reminds me of Harry Dresden from the Dresden Files series. I think he's cool, but terribly unoptimized.

[torrasque666]

Just batted about a Shifter Totemist/Warshaper. Didn't work as well as I wanted, but then again its 5:16am right now, and I haven't slept yet. Damn finals.

[Crake]

Well, since you're a halfling, cant you just ride a leopard, and then use animal growth to make it larger if necessary? Plus, you have a chance to hit your mount while shooting into a grapple, so is that really the best option?

[atemu1234]

Nature's Avenger druid later going into ranger fixes this problem.

[Khedrac]

shoot the grappled foe with arrows.

At best that gives you a 50% chance to hit the tiger not the foe, and if the foe is smaller than the tiger then the DM may make it more likely you hit the tiger...

[Heliomance]

At best that gives you a 50% chance to hit the tiger not the foe, and if the foe is smaller than the tiger then the DM may make it more likely you hit the tiger...

Improved Precise Shot fixes that.

[Abd al-Azrad]

Hah, this just happened in another thread. A Spear Fighter who could inflict an escalating series of status conditions, ending in Dazed for 1d4 rounds, pretty much at will... but due to the wording of the key feat in the build, it was not to be.

Poor useless Spear Fighter.

[PraxisVetli]

Hah, this just happened in another thread. A Spear Fighter who could inflict an escalating series of status conditions, ending in Dazed for 1d4 rounds, pretty much at will... but due to the wording of the key feat in the build, it was not to be.

Poor useless Spear Fighter.

Which feat?
or link to thread?

[Abd al-Azrad]

Which feat?
or link to thread?

This thread. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?383446-I-need-help-with-my-wife-s-character-%28PF%29)

It's a Pathfinder thing, I shifted over to the system a few years back. They have a combat system like tripping and grappling, which inflicts nasty status effects - sickened, blinded, deafened, entangled. We were working on new ways to optimize. An idea came up, I got very excited, but the idea did not pan out as advertised.

Granted, one can still make the awesome dazing warrior build - it simply did not end up finding use in an underpowered spear-combat feat which I liked, consigning said spear-fighting feat back to the annals of uselessness.

[Der_DWSage]

I've got one-a poison-based Hunter from Pathfinder, who had one big trick of Abundant Ammunition and Poisoned Arrows. Poison becomes a lot more relevant when you can fire it off every round and not worry about cost, right...?

As I soon learned, no, no it does not. Poison is about as useless as it comes, especially when you get a few levels in.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Not a full build but an idea I had at work one day, a goliath bloodstorm blade with throw enemy that uses an enemy as the projectile he bounces off of his other foes. I had this hilarious mental image of a goblin ricocheting off of all of his friends in agonized horror. Alas, the phrasing of throw enemy prevented it from working.

Btw, does the OP know about the natural bond feat? +3 to your effective druid level for animal companion.

[WhamBamSam]

My most recent crash and burn came in Iron Chef: Acolyte of the Ego. I tried to pull shenanigans with Quicken Breath, Cadence of the Thunder Drake, and Cadence Mastery to make attempts to activate my Morphic Cadences as a free action, and effectively take 20. The judges pretty much unanimously agreed that it didn't work, and between that, some cheese, and a major qualification error, things went poorly for me.

I've been consistently a little disappointed in my attempts to make a good Abrian Shadow Pouncer (Alter Self+Assume Supernatural Ability or Metamorphic Transfer for a 4th teleport/round with the Blink Dog's Dimension Door) or Fang Wyrmling Tripper. The Abrian has the lowest non-cohort ECL of any magical beast that I know of, but its HD, LA, and Int penalty are just such a pain, and I've somehow never gotten something that I was 100% happy with when I tried putting a sample Fang Dragon build into my handbook.

[SwordChucks]

A druid1/ranger4/beastmaster 1 with Natural Bond gets you an effective druid level of 8 if I'm counting correctly (1 from druid, 2 from ranger, 2 from Natural Bond, and 3 from beastmaster). It would mean a tiger AC one level sooner than straight druid.


Personally, I've been wanting to play a Gazeebo Jones build but I never get the chance due to the evil requirement on Thrall of Jubilex.