El'the Ellie
2019-04-17, 12:30 PM
Build-a-Flerken!
https://terrigen-cdn-dev.marvel.com/content/prod/2x/chewie-slurp_0.jpg
If you're like me, you recently saw Captain Marvel and fel-ine love (see what I did there?) with Goose, the lovable house cat/alien monstrosity. Or you know Flerkens from the printed comics, either way.
"How can I bring this horrible monstrosity to my D&D table?" you ask. Well cry no more friends, for I have devised a way. It can even be semi-optimized, if you pick your spells right.
Step one: Pick your base
You'll need 3 levels of Druid for the second level spells, trackless step, and the animal companion. In fact, we'll really only be taking 3 levels, so feel free to optimize the rest away. You're going to want a relatively high wisdom (16+ probably), since your druid casting is going to advance later. (and your wisdom will also drop! Sorry, certain sacrifices must be made in the pursuit for greatness)
The animal companion will be the base for your Flerken, so you can really pick whichever type you want. There's a small snag here: technically cat isn't an allowed druid animal companion. I think most DM's would allow you to down grade or reflavor this to be an actual cat, however. If your DM is being a big stickler, well then Goose just got a big buff into being a wolf. (And you can always make it a cheetah later using the stronger animal companion rules.)
Step two: Hit the books
Next, we need some arcane casting. The obvious go-to is wizard for spell selection and such, but any arcane casting will work! Even though we need second level arcane spells for the next step, we also need +4 BAB. Taking sorcerer isn't too bad, because it doesn't delay your entry at all. Feel free to alternate-class-feature away your animal companion: you'll be required to get rid of it later anyway.
Step 3: Mix gently
The next step is to get into Arcane Heirophant. If you took 3 Druid/3 Wizard, you'll need one more level of anything for the +4 BAB. I recommend a 1 level dip in beastmaster. You lose a caster level for the +3 effective level to our animal companion, but he's the real showstopper anyway. And if sacrificing a bit for your flerken doesn't sit will with you, the next step is going to be really hard.
Once you're in Arcane Heirophant, say goodbye to your familiar if you had one! Your animal companion now gets all of your familiar abilities, which will be crucial to finish this up.
Stay in Arcane Heirophant until you can cast 3rd level spells in either druid, or your arcane class, which will probably only be 1 or 2 levels. Make sure to have picked up the Augment Summoning feat by this point. Other good feat recommendations are Natural Bond to buff up the companion even more (check with your DM first to make sure they're ok with it stacking with beastmaster), companion spellbond, and extend spell (since many spells will go to buffing you and your animal companion).
Step 4: Let's get crazy
We're in a dual casting prestige class for one or two of the most powerful classes in the game! You know what we should do now? Immediately leave it for something unoptimized. That's right, we finally qualify for alienist! On the downside: you're going to lose 2 wisdom, lose a lot of flexibility in summoning spells, and pause advancing wisdom classes. On the upside, you get a metamagic feat, +1 to saving throws (kind of), and can summon pseudonatural creatures!
Stay here until level 5 (and probably not any longer) to get a pseudonatural familiar! Now you regular old 'cat' is an animal companion equivalent of a 12th level character (counting the level of beastmaster and natural bond feat), a familiar for a 10th level character, and is pseudonatural, granting it an alternate form with horrifying tentacles!
Step 5: Season to taste
Chances are at this point you're a Druid 3/Wizard 3/Beastmaster 1/Arcane Hierophant 2/Alienist 5, with 5th level druid casting and 10th level arcane casting. From here, you can go wherever! The obvious choice is back into Arcane Heirophant for the multiple casting stats and animal companion advancement, but there's lots of different directions you can go, depending on what you want to do.
There's also probably ways to further optimize this, with cheese to get into Arcane Hierophant before level 7 for instance, but I picked options that didn't use too many additional books and that most DM's (assuming they were already ok with a flerken animal companion) would be ok with.
Suggested spells:
Bite of the were(wolf, bear, rat, etc): You can share these spells with your familiar to beef each of you up quite a bit in combat.
Gutsnake: More tentacles! Now from the stomach!
Flame Whips: Keep your enemies on the back foot by turning your arms (and the arms of your flerken) into whips!
Enhance/Fortify/Augment Familiar: Decent buffs to your familiar
Girralon's Blessing: Who doesn't love more arms?
Evard's Menacing Tentacles: Who doesn't love more arms tentacles?
Amorphous Form: Did the bad guys close the door in your companion's face? Enjoy their looks of horror as he slides right under the crack!
Wraithstrike: Meh for you, great for your companion!
Familiar Pocket: Plan B if your familiar gets in too deep. Also great to watch some huge creature jump in/out of your backpack
Animal Growth: Just great for animal companions
Heal Animal Companion: Because he's going to take some hits
Please feel free to comment with thoughts/improvements!
https://terrigen-cdn-dev.marvel.com/content/prod/2x/chewie-slurp_0.jpg
If you're like me, you recently saw Captain Marvel and fel-ine love (see what I did there?) with Goose, the lovable house cat/alien monstrosity. Or you know Flerkens from the printed comics, either way.
"How can I bring this horrible monstrosity to my D&D table?" you ask. Well cry no more friends, for I have devised a way. It can even be semi-optimized, if you pick your spells right.
Step one: Pick your base
You'll need 3 levels of Druid for the second level spells, trackless step, and the animal companion. In fact, we'll really only be taking 3 levels, so feel free to optimize the rest away. You're going to want a relatively high wisdom (16+ probably), since your druid casting is going to advance later. (and your wisdom will also drop! Sorry, certain sacrifices must be made in the pursuit for greatness)
The animal companion will be the base for your Flerken, so you can really pick whichever type you want. There's a small snag here: technically cat isn't an allowed druid animal companion. I think most DM's would allow you to down grade or reflavor this to be an actual cat, however. If your DM is being a big stickler, well then Goose just got a big buff into being a wolf. (And you can always make it a cheetah later using the stronger animal companion rules.)
Step two: Hit the books
Next, we need some arcane casting. The obvious go-to is wizard for spell selection and such, but any arcane casting will work! Even though we need second level arcane spells for the next step, we also need +4 BAB. Taking sorcerer isn't too bad, because it doesn't delay your entry at all. Feel free to alternate-class-feature away your animal companion: you'll be required to get rid of it later anyway.
Step 3: Mix gently
The next step is to get into Arcane Heirophant. If you took 3 Druid/3 Wizard, you'll need one more level of anything for the +4 BAB. I recommend a 1 level dip in beastmaster. You lose a caster level for the +3 effective level to our animal companion, but he's the real showstopper anyway. And if sacrificing a bit for your flerken doesn't sit will with you, the next step is going to be really hard.
Once you're in Arcane Heirophant, say goodbye to your familiar if you had one! Your animal companion now gets all of your familiar abilities, which will be crucial to finish this up.
Stay in Arcane Heirophant until you can cast 3rd level spells in either druid, or your arcane class, which will probably only be 1 or 2 levels. Make sure to have picked up the Augment Summoning feat by this point. Other good feat recommendations are Natural Bond to buff up the companion even more (check with your DM first to make sure they're ok with it stacking with beastmaster), companion spellbond, and extend spell (since many spells will go to buffing you and your animal companion).
Step 4: Let's get crazy
We're in a dual casting prestige class for one or two of the most powerful classes in the game! You know what we should do now? Immediately leave it for something unoptimized. That's right, we finally qualify for alienist! On the downside: you're going to lose 2 wisdom, lose a lot of flexibility in summoning spells, and pause advancing wisdom classes. On the upside, you get a metamagic feat, +1 to saving throws (kind of), and can summon pseudonatural creatures!
Stay here until level 5 (and probably not any longer) to get a pseudonatural familiar! Now you regular old 'cat' is an animal companion equivalent of a 12th level character (counting the level of beastmaster and natural bond feat), a familiar for a 10th level character, and is pseudonatural, granting it an alternate form with horrifying tentacles!
Step 5: Season to taste
Chances are at this point you're a Druid 3/Wizard 3/Beastmaster 1/Arcane Hierophant 2/Alienist 5, with 5th level druid casting and 10th level arcane casting. From here, you can go wherever! The obvious choice is back into Arcane Heirophant for the multiple casting stats and animal companion advancement, but there's lots of different directions you can go, depending on what you want to do.
There's also probably ways to further optimize this, with cheese to get into Arcane Hierophant before level 7 for instance, but I picked options that didn't use too many additional books and that most DM's (assuming they were already ok with a flerken animal companion) would be ok with.
Suggested spells:
Bite of the were(wolf, bear, rat, etc): You can share these spells with your familiar to beef each of you up quite a bit in combat.
Gutsnake: More tentacles! Now from the stomach!
Flame Whips: Keep your enemies on the back foot by turning your arms (and the arms of your flerken) into whips!
Enhance/Fortify/Augment Familiar: Decent buffs to your familiar
Girralon's Blessing: Who doesn't love more arms?
Evard's Menacing Tentacles: Who doesn't love more arms tentacles?
Amorphous Form: Did the bad guys close the door in your companion's face? Enjoy their looks of horror as he slides right under the crack!
Wraithstrike: Meh for you, great for your companion!
Familiar Pocket: Plan B if your familiar gets in too deep. Also great to watch some huge creature jump in/out of your backpack
Animal Growth: Just great for animal companions
Heal Animal Companion: Because he's going to take some hits
Please feel free to comment with thoughts/improvements!