Lycan Change of Plans

[Thanatus Mors]

Hey everyone. I hope I'm going about this right. Just joined, so trying o get my feel for the place while still taking care of business. Looking for a little help on adjusting my character concept after contracting lycanthropy (werewolf) at L5.

I've got a great DM who is no rules Nazi, but requires good rationale for any deviation from the Rules, so I'm looking for mostly RAW/RAI suggestions here.

Current status:
Scout 3/Ranger 2 (R1,S1,S2,S3,R2)
Was going for Swift Hunter Ranger Skirmisher with TWF shortsword and handaxe
Contracted lycanthropy (werewolf) at level 5 while searching for my wolf animal companion.

Potential revision:
Continue with TWF feat chain (since I've already started it)
Move into 4 levels of Warshaper PrC (taking me to lvl 9)
Pick up next level of Ranger and continue normal progression from there.

Homebrew:
For purposes of this game, my character was assumed to have started the game with improved unarmed strike.
I made a successful case for DM approval of claws working with TWF feat chain and improved/superior unarmed strike.

So, what are your thoughts? Am I on the right track? Am I missing something? Am I making any huge mistakes? Never played a template character before, so even though I've been playing D&D since the basic set, I feel like a noob. Any and all suggestions are welcome and appreciated. Cheers, gang; and thanks in advance.

EDIT: If I've left anything out that make it easier to make suggestions, just let me know and I'll post straight away.

[Demidos]

Inquire about whether Level Adjustment Buyoff rules are in effect (effectively, since the templates benefits become less important over time, you get to ignore part of the level adjustment).

As is, you are counted as 2 levels higher than you actually are. If LA buyoff is in effect, it'll make a large (2 extra levels!) difference in how your build ends up.

Note the difference between natural lycanthrope (stronger, more LA) and the infected version.

Depending on whether you prefer straight up werewolf fluff vs gaining more widespread shapeshifting ability, you might consider master of many forms (PRC).

There's also a racial werewolf class, havent heard too much about it, but it might be interesting.

...yeah.



As an unrelated note, the first thing I thought of when I saw your weapons was this feat (http://www.realmshelps.net/cgi-bin/featbox.pl?feat=High_Sword_Low_Axe). I assume you took it, but if not...seems tailormade to you.

[Segev]

The biggest pain about lycanthropy is not the LA, which can be bought off by an optional but official set of rules, but rather the animal HD. Have you accounted for them in terms of when you actually get to level up again?

Wolves have 2 animal HD, so upon contracting Lycanthropy, you immediately jumped by 4 ECL without gaining any extra exp. So you have to earn your way up to 5 levels higher worth of exp before you gain your next level.

with buyoff, you're over 6th level, so you can spend ... I think it's 6000 exp? ... buying off your first LA, at least. You'll have to reach 9 HD before you can buy off the second, though.

[Thanatus Mors]

Great input guys, thanks. I feel stupid for not including such a big point, but the type is afflicted and LA buyoff is in effect, and he's granting me a few free levels with the option of taking levels in were or animal if I chose and want the extra HD. I'm currently in the process of playing catch-up with the existing team, who are all at lvl 10. So by the time I hit Lvl 10, I should be fully bought off and caught up. I'm not really too into MoMF for this character due to backstory/fluff, but I like where your head's at.

Demidos: Very cool feat! Thanks for the heads up. I hadn't seen it, and while it's a little feat-heavy requiring 3 more slots than I had accounted for, it may be worth it. Time to change the plans that are currently in the process of being changed haha

[Thanatus Mors]

I'm under a time crunch on finalizing my plans for this character, so I wanted to give another thanks to Demidos and Segev for their thoughts, and give this a quick bump to see if there are any other thoughts on my situation. To recap:

Water under the bridge:
- Lvl 1 - Ranger | Lvl 2-4 - Scout | Lvl 5 - Ranger (non-spellcasting/high HD variant)
- Ranger Feats: Favored Enemy 1 - Arcanist; Track; Wild Empathy; Two Weapon Fighting
- Scout Feats: Skirmish I-III (+2d6 dam, +1 AC); Trapfinding; Battle Fortitude +1; Uncanny Dodge; Pounce (from Brutal Charger ACF); Trackless Step
- Free Feat: Improved Unarmed Strike; Iron Will
- Chosen Feats: Nemesis; Versatile Unarmed Strike; Superior Unarmed Strike; Swift Hunter (foregone conclusion @ lvl 6)
- Werewolf is not a template that I chose, but rather a disease that my character was inflicted with due to bad luck and poor decision making. It is what it is, so sugestions to be a wildshape ranger or a werebear instead of werewolf will not be incredibly helpful at this point.

Homebrew/Houserules in effect:
- Natural weapon (claw not bite) works with unarmed strike and TWF chain
- 2-3 (not sure yet) levels of lycanthrope are free, do not count hit dice
- LA buyoff in effect and should be even with party by lvl 10
- Stupid alignment rule is out. I am the alignment that I act out. Besides, it's not really like bears and tigers are *good* while wolves are *evil*. All animals as neutral maybe, but chaotic evil? Stupid rule. Stupid, stupid, stupid rule. (Are you listening WoTC?)

Prospects:
- Thinking Leadership feat. Cuz how cool would it be to have a whole cohort of werewolves of various classes? But then I read that afflicted lycanthropes can't pass on the affliction. Oh well. Leadership may still be in.
- At least 2 levels of warshaper.
- Maybe one lvl of MoMF so I can gain the ability to speak in hybrid and animal form (unless there is an item that will do this that I'm missing?) But using a level for essentially fluff seems a bit much.
- other PrCs...????

Thanks again folks!

[Segev]

Unless he's letting you take a houserule about not having to have the animal HD, I'd go ahead and just count the 2 animal HD towards those "free" levels he's giving you. This puts you up to level 7. At level 6, you were able to buy off the first of your +2 LA, so you're down to +1 LA and 7 HD, for an ECL of 8.

Now, if he's willing to give you those 2 HD 100% for free, and not even count them against your ECL, then cool. Continue your progression as you'd originally planned, with possible modification to take advantage of your new racial abilities. You're ECL 7, thanks to the +2 LA, and can buy off the first LA next level (leaving you at ECL 7, but with an extra class level).

If he's not giving them to you for free, you have a burden of 2 HD that are rather weak. If he's being kind, though, he might still give you the exp necessary to "already" have achieved your ECL of 8 (5 class levels, 2 animal HD, +1 LA after buyoff), so you can gain your 9th and 10th levels slightly faster, at least.

[Metahuman1]

Honestly? In my group, when a person contracts Lycanthropy one of the first things we do is get a partially depleted ring of 3 Wish's with some limits on (Must be good aligned or must be X race or the like to use it.) to reduce cost, or get a candle of Invocation, and wish away the LA and Racial HD, and maybe to get access to some feats to help (Like that silver fist feat that let's Lycan's not risk infection on bite/claw attacks unless they specifically want to on enemy's.). Keeps it form utterly crippling the character.