Crow master

[vricko55]

I've been reading a bunch of articles about how smart Crows are. They can communicate with each other to pass along information, they are capable of using tools and a bunch of other cool stuff. I came up with the idea for a character that uses crows to help him rob people and for combat. I was thinking they could use their own murder of crows to distract enemies during combat(make them flat-footed) or have them act as lookouts or something. I figured I could use either a druid or ranger and have a crow as my animal companion but I really like the idea of a rogue using them.

[Deadasadoor]

If you're alright with homebrew, there's a really awesome Warlock class that does exactly that. It's called the Unkindness, and it's floating somewhere around the Homebrew forum. I'm away from my usual computer right now so I don't have the bookmark. Otherwise, I believe that there's a dragon magazine feat/class feature in Dragon 329 that let's you get a swarm as a familiar. No crows unfortunately, but it could be used as a baseline.

[RolandDeschain]

how about this? (http://dndtools.pw/classes/knight-of-the-raven/)

[THEChanger]

The Unkindness (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?251809-As-of-someone-gently-rapping-rapping-at-my-chamber-door-3-5-PrC), a most excellent homebrewed Warlock PrC.

Less homebrew-y options include the Vestige Malphas from Tome of Magic, who provides a raven scout when Bound(in addition to Poison Use, Invisibility every 5 rounds, and Sudden Strike damage). While a Binder can be built to be fairly Rogue-like with the right Vestige choices, Malphas and his Birds-Eye Viewing ability can be achieved by three Feats(Bind Vestige, Improved Bind Vestige, and Practiced Binder), so you could get it on a Rogue if you really desired it.

Also in that book are stats for a Murder of Crows. It's a Swarm, but unlike most Swarms, it has the Animal Type, rather than Vermin. This technically qualifies it for use with a Small character to achieve Lycanthropy - the interaction between the Lycanthrope template and a Swarm Animal is unclear, but not expressly prohibited. My personal feeling on the matter is that a Were-Murder could explode into a cloud of shrieking ravens and then reform into a vaguely humanoid swarm of feathers and ripping beaks, but you'd need to check with your DM. In any case, the entry on the Murder states that it can be substituted as the swarm summoned by the Summon Swarm spell - which is found on several spell lists, and can also be accessed via a Warlock invocation if you were to pursue the above PrC.

That's all the raven/crow themed first party material I can think of, but I'll be back with more if I think of any.

[ILM]

The Unkindness (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?251809-As-of-someone-gently-rapping-rapping-at-my-chamber-door-3-5-PrC), a most excellent homebrewed Warlock PrC.
Whoa. Unlimited times per day immediate action NOPE button to any targeted or AoE effect, and half damage from weapon damage?

[THEChanger]

Whoa. Unlimited times per day immediate action NOPE button to any targeted or AoE effect, and half damage from weapon damage?

I assume you mean A Sudden Departure at level 10? Yeah, it's rough. I'm not sure where you're getting the protection from AoE effects from(if anything, transforming into the Swarm would make one more susceptible to AoE since you take 50% more damage), but it does make you extremely hard to kill. I'm not sure if transforming into the swarm negates targeted effects, as you're still the same creature, just now you're a Swarm creature. It's something that require DM adjudication.

EDIT: Forgot about Bleak Ephemera. Been awhile since I've looked hard at the class. Yeah, it's a bit crazy.

[Flickerdart]

Knight of the Raven can get you a boss raven companion, Malphas (vestige) another. Not the same as crows, but close enough.

[DMVerdandi]

For a druid, you could use the ACF's from Cityscape (City-shape and Urban Companion)

With City shape, you can initially turn into a raven, and later shape into a murder of crows yourself.

With Urban Companion, you can have a raven as a familiar.


Also, there is the summon swarm spell that druids get at level 2, which you can summon a murder of crows with. (Murder of crows is in the tome of magic BTW)



Alternatively if you are attached to the Rogue Idea, you can either use UMD to summon a murder of crows with a wand, or better, an eternal wand.

-OR-
You can be a spell thief, whom gets access to summon swarm VIA the sorc/wiz list.



Personally, I would suggest the druid.
Taking all of the Cityscape ACF's gives you quite a bit of flavor, being attached to the life of the city, rather than being wilderness based. Best way to play a rat king, or in your case, raven king.
You also get quite a bit of spells to enhance animals, so you could ditch all the elemental spells, and ditch all of the plant based spells, and only focus on animal buffing.

[Dgrin]

If you are willing to look into Pathfinder, Ravenlord (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EsgZxSmnr9mwAeZRxHdxZSAS95QeUI0RWQ3F7nm4j38/edit), an archetype for Harbringer (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HCtvRArIRPjcClMf5KVJrDBrkV_gBoaVFuvwA4CmCew/edit) from Dreamscarred Press sounds like something you'd like
Other than that, you could be a Binder and use Malphas for that

[Troacctid]

Any character can train and command crows with the Handle Animal skill.

[ShurikVch]

I figured I could use either a druid or ranger and have a crow as my animal companion but I really like the idea of a rogue using them. Firstly, how about the Raven familiar?
You can get it via Obtain Familiar (http://dndtools.pw/feats/complete-arcane--55/obtain-familiar--2078/) feat. And get more of them via Extra Familiar feat from Dragon Magazine #280.
For "arcane caster level 3rd" prerequisite, there are such classes as Spellthief (Complete Adventurer) and Factotum (Dungeonscape), also, maybe Bard is roguish enough for your tastes? But even if you wish to play strait Rogue, you still will be able to obtain familiar, if you select some race with racial SLAs, such as (lesser) planetouched.

Secondly, Summon Monster III (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/summonMonsterIII.htm) may summon 1d4+1 of Fiendish ravens. Besides usual casters, you may also play Binder, bind the Zceryll (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/frcc/20070718), then summon Pseudonatural fiendish ravens every 5 turns. Binder levels may be very useful for roguish characters: Leraje gives +4 competence to Hide; Naberius will allow to take 10 on Diplomacy and Bluff
checks and use Disguise Self at-will; Acererak allow to Detect Undead, Hide from Undead, and Speak with Dead; Marchosias give huge +16 to Hide and Move Silently

Complete Adventurer have Animal Lord PrC. One of possible variants, Birdlord, allow, among other things, summon 1d4+1 ravens 1/day; grows feathery wings, allowing to fly (up to 3/day); converse telepathically with any animal of his selected group that he can see within 100 feet

Frostburn have Giant Raven, which you may get as cohort (or special mount)

Oriental Adventures have Tengu: crow-headed (2 HD, LA +2) and human-headed (5 HD, LA +7)

If you OK with Ravenloft stuff, Denizens of Dread have Ravenkin (2 HD, LA +2) and Living Tattoo, Grandfather Raven

Finally, you may try to do something with Handle Animal skill, using it on regular ravens (or Dire Ravens from Ravenloft)

[vricko55]

Sorry for the super late reply and thank you for all the options. I really like the Unkindness, I'll have to check with my DM about it