What to do with a lvl3 Tibbit

[RCgothic]

So I've rolled really well on 4d6b3 for an eberron game, and found some art I like - the problem is I'm struggling to do anything much with it, so I'm looking for some inspiration.

My stats are 18,15,15,15,13,11. These stats lend themselves well to middle aged.

https://i.ibb.co/By1LkvS/Catfolk2.jpg


One more twist - core classes are banned by the DM.

Deadly Aim is in play, so that's good for Ranged damage, but I'm struggling for feats. As a Tibbit I didn't want to be dependent on physical weapons, so I was thinking maybe Psychic Rogue working into soulbow, but that comes online quite late. There's another psion applying, so I didn't want to be in direct competition for that.

Deadly aim should make this easy! In another game I have a lvl2 ranger putting out (d8+8)x2 damage a turn, and it's going to get even stronger going into swift hunter. But with core classes banned that's off the table.

Basically just need a little help with some inspiration for something reasonably damage capable so that I feel like I'm contributing to combat. :smallsmile:

[Crake]

I feel compelled to remind everyone that tibbits in their humanoid form do not have cat ears, they have pointed ears, more like a halfling

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Be careful when doing science in D&D. It kills catgirls. Thus, make sure your lowest stat is in Int, so it doesn't happen accidentally.

[RCgothic]

I feel compelled to remind everyone that tibbits in their humanoid form do not have cat ears, they have pointed ears, more like a halfling

Artistic license. There's more decent artwork for "Cat Faunus" or "Catgirl" than there is for "Tibbit". :smallwink:

[radthemad4]

I don't know much about Psionics or Archery, but maybe this handbook can help http://dictummortuum.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-archery-handbook-completed.html

[RCgothic]

I've read it through, mostly means "be a soulbow", which isn't available yet.

I'm open to melee, but I think part of my problem is I've never really built a small/tiny character before. How does one contribute meaningfully to combat with a large damage penalty and no meaningful weapons? E.g. claw attacks at 1d3-4. Add INT to damage. Is that effectively 1+INT, or do you have to subtract the strength penalty from the INT bonus?

[Crake]

I've read it through, mostly means "be a soulbow", which isn't available yet.

I'm open to melee, but I think part of my problem is I've never really built a small/tiny character before. How does one contribute meaningfully to combat with a large damage penalty and no meaningful weapons? E.g. claw attacks at 1d3-4. Add INT to damage. Is that effectively 1+INT, or do you have to subtract the strength penalty from the INT bonus?

Find a means of consistent bonus damage. Swordsage with the shadow blade feat gets you dex to damage and a whole slew of maneuvers that give you bonus damage, as well as some useful utility abilities like invisibility or short range (and technically nonmagical) teleportation.

Scout is another good one, if you can get some way to pounce (barbarian perhaps?), or even just spring attack to dart in, get an attack off and dart out, though thats not exactly available early on.

Also, one last thing to note, since cats get weapon finesse as a bonus feat, youd have it while in cat form, so you dont need to spend a feat on it unless you want it in humanoid form too.

[RCgothic]

So overpowering the penalty, basically. In which case a character who didn't suffer the penalty would be more effective.

I keep coming back to psion or psychic rogue and blasting, plus being useful for something beyond direct damage.

Dragonfire adept is pretty indiscriminate and doesn't require STR to damage, so that might work nicely but I don't think the invocations work in cat form.

[Khedrac]

I'm open to melee, but I think part of my problem is I've never really built a small/tiny character before. How does one contribute meaningfully to combat with a large damage penalty and no meaningful weapons? E.g. claw attacks at 1d3-4. Add INT to damage. Is that effectively 1+INT, or do you have to subtract the strength penalty from the INT bonus?
Generally the smaller characters do better as casters due to the advantages of spell damage not chaning with caster size.

With core classes banned I would suggest a beguiler. While they lack damage causing spells they get a lot of good combat buffs (e.g. haste) to make the rest of the party more effective and they have a good range of offensive spells (so long as your opponents aren't mindless).

[Crake]

So overpowering the penalty, basically. In which case a character who didn't suffer the penalty would be more effective.

I keep coming back to psion or psychic rogue and blasting, plus being useful for something beyond direct damage.

Dragonfire adept is pretty indiscriminate and doesn't require STR to damage, so that might work nicely but I don't think the invocations work in cat form.

+/-4 damage or so in the face of 6d6 bonus damage isn't really going to make a huge difference.

One thing I quite enjoyed doing on a character once is playing around with hide in plain sight. Working toward a 1 level dip into shadowdancer isn't too difficult, desert wind dodge counts for the dodge feat for pre-reqs and is almost straight up better, combat reflexes is a decent pick up, and mobility can be taken as an armor ability.

Once you have hide in plain sight, you can start to really utilize that +8 bonus to hide from being tiny. Take note that hiding isn't an action in and of itself, but rather done as part of movement, which can include a 5ft step. You can also try to remain hidden while attacking at a -20 penalty on your hide check. Now, if you get a cloak of elvenkind, max ranks when you enter shadowdancer, and say, 18 dex, you'd be rocking a +28 bonus to hide, meaning at the end of every turn, you can 5ft step and hide against your opponents, meaning they need to guess which square you moved into (and since you're tiny, that can even include their own square) if they fail their very difficult spot check, and on your next turn, you can get an attack vs flat footed, and after attacking, you can roll a hide check at +8 to try and remain hidden for your next attack, and then repeat for your next attack etc, making sneak attacks with assassin's stance or just from rogue levels very easy to achieve.

Up until you actually get hide in plain sight though, you can take advantage of the cloak of deception maneuver, which gives you 1 round of improved invisibility. I had a character that did this, and it was super fun, just get an absurd hide bonus and hide in plain sight, and the enemies will never see you again.

[Yogibear41]

Something with sneak attack. Always thought it would be hilarious to play a Tibbit assassin type.

While you are fighting a local thug, you see a house cat approach behind you out of the corner of your eye. Thinking nothing of it you turn your attention back to the fight at hand. Suddenly you feel incredible pain as the house cat scratches you for 1d2 + 10d6 sneak attack damage.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Psionics is always good for races that (at least, occasionally) don't have hands and/or can't speak. So long as you can think, you can manifest. (Just make sure you use Wis or Cha as your manifesting stat and avoid certain overtly technical skills so you don't accidentally SCIENCE! yourself to death.)

Plus, given the right powers, you can be a cat with eye lasers, a conical or line breath weapon, the ability to stare at things until they burst into flames, and the ability to literally ghost through walls. Fun times.

[edit] Note that there are enough flavors of psi that you can have several on a team and not overlap. In fact, having multiples increases each psi character's flexibility, given that they can use each other as power stones, thereby increasing their effective powers known. Just do all the manifesting outside of battle or have the tibbit riding another psion as a mount, and you both share power lists.

[Vizzerdrix]

If racial variants are acceptable, psychic warrior 2, stoneblessed (goliath) 3, mountain rager barbarian. You can become a large sized housecat when raging.

[atemu1234]

If core classes are out, then Warlock would be at the very least an incredibly funny way to play a Tibbit; Eldritch blasts coming from the mouth of a housecat.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

If core classes are out, then Warlock would be at the very least an incredibly funny way to play a Tibbit; Eldritch blasts coming from the mouth of a housecat.I'm pretty sure that wouldn't work. You still need to use spell components (Somatic and Verbal), and cats can't do either.

There's a reason psionics is a favored modus operandi for nonstandard-shaped characters, since all you need is a mind.

[Crake]

I'm pretty sure that wouldn't work. You still need to use spell components (Somatic and Verbal), and cats can't do either.

There's a reason psionics is a favored modus operandi for nonstandard-shaped characters, since all you need is a mind.

They can do both if you get the surrogate spellcasting feat from savage species

Edit: that said, i dont see where it says warlock invocations have verbal and somatic components, it only says that theyre subject to spell failure from armor above light.

[Falontani]

Fukimi Bari is a ranged weapon... That you spit. Each successful attack roll deals 1 damage, three times. Point blank shot adds 1 damage per hit, meaning you now do two damage 3 times. A +1 returning fukimi bari of Collision deals 7 points of damage 3 times. That's 21 damage. Before the feat you are looking at. Before adding deadeye, or sneak attack, or dex to damage.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Edit: that said, i dont see where it says warlock invocations have verbal and somatic components, it only says that theyre subject to spell failure from armor above light.Haven't read it for awhile, so I was going by memory, but you only get spell failure if the ability has somatic components, so warlock invocations, perforce, have somatic components, which cats can't do without the feat you mentioned.

[Crake]

Haven't read it for awhile, so I was going by memory, but you only get spell failure if the ability has somatic components, so warlock invocations, perforce, have somatic components, which cats can't do without the feat you mentioned.

The entry doesn't say you get somatic therefore spell failure, it merely says you get spell failure.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

The entry doesn't say you get somatic therefore spell failure, it merely says you get spell failure.Spells and effects without somatic components do not have spell failure.


Arcane Spell Failure
Armor interferes with the gestures that a spellcaster must make to cast an arcane spell that has a somatic component. Arcane spellcasters face the possibility of arcane spell failure if they’re wearing armor. Bards can wear light armor without incurring any arcane spell failure chance for their bard spells.

Casting an Arcane Spell in Armor
A character who casts an arcane spell while wearing armor must usually make an arcane spell failure roll. The number in the Arcane Spell Failure Chance column on Table: Armor and Shields is the chance that the spell fails and is ruined. If the spell lacks a somatic component, however, it can be cast with no chance of arcane spell failure.

[Crake]

Spells and effects without somatic components do not have spell failure.

Specific overrides general in this case

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Specific overrides general in this caseAnd the warlock specifically suffers from arcane spell failure from wearing armor, which is only garnered when using somatic components.

So in this specific case, warlocks have somatic components.

[edit] Behold:


Because the somatic components required for warlock invocations are relatively simple, a warlock can use any of his invocations while wearing light armor without incurring the normal arcane spell failure chance. However, like arcane spellcasters, a warlock wearing medium or heavy armor or using a shield incurs a chance of arcane spell failure (all invocations, including eldritch blast, have a somatic component). A multiclass warlock still incurs the normal arcane spell failure chance for arcane spells received from levels in other classes.

[Crake]

And the warlock specifically suffers from arcane spell failure from wearing armor, which is only garnered when using somatic components.

So in this specific case, warlocks have somatic components.

[edit] Behold:

Ah ok, there you go, well in that case surrogate spellcasting will do the trick

[Elrak]

How about going Totemist focusing on manticore belt if you want to go ranged and not wanting to be too dependent on a manufactured weapon? You can also get several other natural weapons out of that class.

Get one way or the other of getting extra bonus damage, for example dipping Swordsage at the right level for assasins stance or getting one of the variant items that grant a maneuver and picking the stance, and you can dish out quite some respectable damage.

[BaronDoctor]

My wife has been playing a Tibbit Warlock with Surrogate Spellcasting to pretty good effect in this past year's game. "Flying Princess Laser Cat" is the simple explanation. If that sounds hilarious and awesome? Warlock.

[Bphill561]

Along with the psionics thumbs up given above, a Psychic Warrior with claws of the beast is fun on a small house cat. Pretty funny too with the Necklace of Natural Weapons from Savage Species. The listed example is adding throwing and returning to your natural attacks. It got ridiculous when I saw the Sizing weapon property added, but I am not sure I would allow oversized natural weapons to avoid the normal oversized weapon penalties that DM allowed.

[Asmotherion]

You can turn into a cat, thus already a more dangerous beast than 90% of your world's population ;)

[MaxiDuRaritry]

You can turn into a cat, thus already a more dangerous beast than 90% of your world's humanoid population ;)Fixed that for you.

I doubt dragons care about stock-standard kitty cats.

[Kazyan]

For later levels, the CE Tibbit Soulborn trick might be useful. For those uninitiated: a Chaotic Evil Soulborn gets a thing at level 2 where it ignores all ability drain, damage, or penalty to its Strength. This lets you shed the -8 Strength penalty from being in cat form.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

CE Tibbit SoulbornCats are Chaotic Evil...