Halfling Druid Brixashulty Rider Character Idea

[Justus]

Hi all,

Long time reader, first time poster. My group and I have been playing for about 7 year now have decided to go back to 3.5e after a stint playing 5e and Edge of the Empire. I have a character concept in mind and mostly fleshed out but having trouble with feats and animal companion advancement. It's not the most optimised but that's ok as I'm sacrificing certain abilities for flavour. The group is not going to be completely optimised either so I would be concerned of overshadowing at certain parts.We always have played in Forgotten Realms and in the same setting we have played in for 7 years (past character/story development can be stumbled upon). I am going with a Strongheart Halfling Druid. We are starting at level 2. Here are the details I have worked out as of now:

Druid
- Strongheart Halfling Druid 2
- Stats STR 10 (12-2), Dex 16 (14+2), Con 14, Int 12, Wis 16, Cha 12
- Level 1 Halfling Druid Alternate class feature from Races of the Wild.
- Focused Animal Alternate Class Feature from Dragon Magazine 347
Level: 1st. Replaces: If you select this class feature, you do not gain trackless step, wild shape, or woodland stride. Benefit: You gain the effects of a continuous speak with animals spell, but you may only use it to speak with your animal companion. In addition, for the purpose of determining your animal companion's bonus Hit Dice, natural armor adjustment, Strength and Dexterity adjustment, bonus tricks, and special abilities, you are treated as a druid two levels higher than you actually are. This does not allow you to gain a more powerful alternative animal companion at an earlier level.
- Skill Points Placed (lvl 1 - 7x4, lvl 2 - 5) : 5 Conc, 4 Diplomacy, 5 Handle Animal, 2 Heal, 5 Know (Nat), 5 Ride, 2 Spot, 5 Survival.

Animal Companion:
- Brixashulty (Races of the Wild), Warbeast Template through training
- Hit Dice: Starts with 2d8, +1 for Warbeast, + 2 for Focused Animal Druid treating Druid levels as 2 higher
- Stats - Str 17 (13+3+1), Dex 18 (17+1), Con 19 (16+3), Int 2, Wis 15 (13+2), Cha 4
I am stuck for feat selection, skills and attribute placement for the companion. I am also confused on how the Knockback (Ex) feature bonus is calculated and how it scales with advancement. I understand the Reflex DC Save is 10+1/2 HD+Str but the description based on base stats says it does a bull rush with a +7 bonus which includes a +4 Racial. I don't know how the other +3 is calculated and how it advances.

The concept I am going for is all focus on the animal companion that is ridden for the majority of the time. I wanted to go for a Halfling Outrider feel. I could not work out how to charge with a lance and Animal Companion attack at the same time so abandoned the lance charge feats. For the moment I am on the riding around buffing the companion with Magic train.
Depending on plan of attack the feats I were contemplating were lvl 1) Mounted Combat and Saddleback (Player's Guide to Faerun [GM approved taking it as a Halfling through Backstory training and growing with the companion whole life]) with Mounted Spellcasting or Mounted Mobility at lvl 3. I was planning on possibly 1 level dip of Beastmaster at level 6 by taking Skill Focus (Handle Animal) Feat then to further accelerate the animal companion.

Short Story recap: 20 yrs old, lives on families farmstead in Luiren with mother and father. While training to be an Outrider, after initial rejection, his elderly adventurer Grandmother comes back to his families Farmstead. Seeing the bond he has with his Brixa (born same day cliche) she begins to teach him the ways of Druidism without openly explaining what was going on. She dies 2 years into the beginning of training as she was ill (hence her return) and he qualifies to begin training with the Outriders. The GM's story starts with the group not knowing each and being taken/transported after a blinding light blacks us out. I have played the opening with the GM 1 on 1 and it appears we have been taken to another part of the world and the adventure begins with us all meeting each other in this transport.

Any and all help would be appreciated as I've been obsessing with it over a week now and need to lock it in to help ease my mind. Everything is pretty flexible and GM is normally fine with most 3.5 things if it can be explained in story.

Thanks,
Justin

[eggynack]

Well, I'm not much for the whole mounted combat thing, but my sigged handbook should help with most other things. As for the +7, I'd just add a +1 whenever you add to the strength mod. I'm not really sure what the point of being mounted is here. It seems like you're putting a whole lot of effort into just getting back to neutral, and you seem to still mostly get downsides even after all the feats are in place. If you just want easy spell sharing, companion spellbond is great at that.

[Justus]

Well, I'm not much for the whole mounted combat thing, but my sigged handbook should help with most other things. As for the +7, I'd just add a +1 whenever you add to the strength mod. I'm not really sure what the point of being mounted is here. It seems like you're putting a whole lot of effort into just getting back to neutral, and you seem to still mostly get downsides even after all the feats are in place. If you just want easy spell sharing, companion spellbond is great at that.

Thanks Eggynack for the advice. I appreciate the thought and effort you've put into the handbook and look forward to getting through it tonight.

Would you also add any increases in BAB to the +7 knockback as well as increases to strength mod as it's a bullrush attack?

The point of being mounted was the character concept. Obviously there are times when being mounted won't be suited and Companion Spellbond would be fantastic for that. I have weighed the pro's and cons of Focused Animal and losing wild shape is huge but wild shape is not in my plans for this character. I have played wild shaped characters in the past and it is amazingly strong but was looking for a new avenue to take this druid that may not have been all in on summons and wild shape. Is there a way you would plan out this concept?

What is your take on increasing an animal companions intelligent to 3. Is it possible? If so does it still remain your animal companion and what does that entail.

[eggynack]

Well, the loss of wild shape and summoning isn't a good thing, but I was mostly referring to the simple act of being mounted. It doesn't seem to add any value, which makes it odd even from an in-game perspective. The build is a bit more difficult than usual, as you lack access to a lot of a druid's better feat options, but casting feats and animal companion feats are still open to you, and they both things have handbook sections. As for the question about upping intelligence, it's usually not possible, because the companion loses its animal status (and gets a weirdly ambiguous type), but exalted companion from the book of exalted deeds solves the problem quite well. You just make your brixashulty celestial, and you're done. You also get to have your companion take vow of poverty, which is nice. Also helps with the feat selection thing, cause it obviously eats one of them. I'm a bit doubtful on the BAB thing, cause that doesn't seem to be the source of the bonus, as it plus strength doesn't add up to +3. I guess the source could be charging or something, but it's weird that they'd list it as an all the time thing were that the case. All I know for sure is that it scales off of strength, so have it do that.