Gruftzwerg
2020-03-11, 01:45 PM
Today we gonna build Papa Smurf. Yeah you heard/read right. We will take a Druid base and add some Master of Many Forms to get access to wild shape into a Redcap. Lion of Talisid helps to turn this build into a solid Ubercharger. We only get 16th clvl with Druid since MoMF has no spell progression. This will cap the build with 8th lvl spells unfortunately but spell casting is not the main point of this build.
We will build around the Redcap wild shape form an ubercharger build with some added Papa Smurf flavor to it for the sake of... well, I don't know and I don't care either, may I felt a divine urge to just do it and now you have to bear it, since you already took the click-bait^^ Beware of the high amount of optimization e.g. magic items for prc/feat requirements. The itemization breaks the wealth balance a lil on one occasion (Dark Blue Ioun Stone @lvl5 if you want to enter MoMF straight @lvl6) and the full suggested item list expends into epic wealth balance territory. If the DM should be really strict (and someone really intents to play this build..^^), you could rearrange the levels a bit to fit the character wealth balance again (or use flaws for the feat).
And last but not least there is a high amount of smurf flavored fluff text added. So prepare to either enjoy or to ignore it. :smallbiggrin:
Papa Smurf (",)
https://brynvalk.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/redcap.jpg?w=435&h=414
Prepare enough blue body paint^^
Druid 6/ Master of Many Forms 4 / Lion of Talisid 10
The Build:
Stats @ LVL 1 Human: (28P.)
Str: 8
Dex: 8
Con: 12
Int: 14
Wis: 18
Cha: 10
Feats:
H:Apprentice (Spellcaster: Use Magic Device)
1: Endurance
3: Exotic Shield: Riders Shield
6: Favored of the Companions
9: Spirited Charge
12: Power Attack
15: Imp. Bullrush
18: Shock Trooper
Skillranks @LVL 20:
Concentration: 23
Papa needs maxed Concentration. Otherwise he wouldn't achieve anything with 100 smurfs around to distract him^^.
Handle Animal: 23
His Handle Animal skills are perfect. He never fails any attempts unless the animal is magically corrupted. Thus it has to be maxed.
Ride: 23
Papa can ride anything. Reindeer, stork, wolf, triceratops youngling just to name a few of his used mounts in the series.
Spellcraft: 23
Recognizing magical effects is a piece of cake for Papa. He never fails with his magical understanding.
UMD: 23
Note: Starting @lvl6 you double the tax for ranks due to how Apprentice works..He can use any kind of magic items & mechanisms. Even corrupted items are no issue for him (e.g. the twin crowns of command and his battle against brainy smurf).
Knowledge Nature: 9
While he has good knowledge about nature, there are others who are better at this: Natural Smurf/Nat Smurfling, Tracker Smurf & Mother Nature are all more experienced and are consulted sometimes. Thus he hasn't maxed it.
Survival: 9
Again, while having a good foundation, he gets overshadowed by Natural Smurf and Tracker Smurf.
Craft Alchemy: 9
One of Papas hobbies. He can do many things, but for the really powerful things most of the time he needs to take 20 and waste a night with failed attempts. And thus his skills are only OK-ish in this discipline.
Diplomacy: 1
Heal: 1
Profession (Sage): 1
Profession (Tutor): 1
The last 4 skills are all medicore at best. Papa has only has a basic foundation here and often fails at these tasks. His diplomacy attempts between his Smurfs almost always fail and they need to leard from their mistakes and not from Papas advice. Keep also in mind that Papa rarely relies on the "heal" skill. He uses alchemy and magic for more serious health conditions. His abilities as Sage & Tutor share the same issues as diplomacy.
Magic Items
Required Items for feats & prc prerequisites:
Dark Blue Ioun Stone (10k)
Gives Alertness feat for entering MoMF
Battle Bridle (9k)
+5 competence on Ride and Mounted Combat feat
Riding Boots (12k)
+5 competence on Ride again (thus doesn't stack..) and Ride-by-Attack feat. Further increases your Spirited Charge multiplier by one step.
+5 skillful valorous Lance (128k)
You should start with a +1 skillful Lance and max the bonuses out on the later levels.
Monks Belt (13k)
For your animal companion. The imp. unarmed strike is required for Beast Strike. Further adds Wis to AC bonus and another +1 bonus.
Recommended:
Handy Haversack (1k)
Not much to say here. Magical storage room is always handy.
+5 valorous sizing Necklace of Natural Attacks [unarmed strike] (98.6k)
together with Beast Strike your Animal Companion will love this. Remember that one can always wield unarmed strikes despite their size. Colossal size unarmed strike + claw dmg at a -8 penalaity is nice.
+5 Animated Riders Shield (49k)
great defensive Shield that you don't need to hold (thus use your lance 2h) and that protects you and you mount at the same time. The Riders Shield has a base AC of 2 and thus it will provide a +7 Shield AC bonus for both of you.
Monks Belt + Belt of Giant Strength +6 (55.5k)
This is just the icing for Papas already high AC. Wis to AC and another +1 dodge to AC. Extra Str is always handy.
Belt of Giant Strength +6 (36k)
Extra Str for your companion.
2x Gloves of Dextrity +6 (72k)
more AC, better initiative and nice for skills
2x Periapt of Wisdom +6 (72k)
more AC for both and extra Spells for Papa.
Phoenix Cloak (50k)
For your mount, not for you. Since you will be sitting on it for the most part of the day/game. Enables Dive Attacks (flying charge) for your Animal Companion and you, which further increases the charge multipliers by one.
Wand: Divine Power (21k)
Always nice to have as mundane damage dealer to have full BAB. Don't forget to share it with your Animal Companion for free.
2x Invulnerability Bracers of Armor +8 +5 (156k)
These bracers will provide another +13 AC bonus and DR 5/magic for you and your companion. Start with simple +1 +1 invulnerability bracers and fully build em out when you are epic.
+(1x) Warning Armor Spikes +1 (16.2k)
Your Armor Spikes can count as always drawn and held when you are not fighting to provide you with a +5 insight bonus to your initiative. Your companion doesn't need these since it will use your initiative roll.
Mask of the Tiger (4k)
Gives you Track, since you have some ranks in survival and scent. Your Animal Companion also has track and thus can try to "aid another" you.
5x Wilding Clasp (20k)
For your gear to not meld into your wild shape forms: Boots, Belt, Bracer, Gloves, Amulet
Deluxe:
Wish x15+ (432,375g+)
Well this is when you have to much money to spend on stuff. If you reach epic level, you can start to spend your money to buy these. Always take 5 to boost one stat to +5 and don't forget to share it with your animal companion for double profit!! This will give each of you +5 inherent bonus to Strength, Dexterity and Wisdom. If you have even more money to waste, you can use it on Constitution too for the extra HP
Animal Companion: Fleshraker
(@lvl4+)
The Fleshraker is one of the best Animal Companions one can get early and still remain useful on later levels with the right optimization.
Stats:
+ 10 bonus HD (and thus 3 feats)
+ 10 Natural Armor
+ 5 Strength & Dexterity
+6 Bonus Tricks
selected Feats:
Martial Study (White Raven): Douse the Flames
1/encounter standard attack an enemy and deny its AoO for the round when hit
Martial Stance (White Raven): Leading the Charge
+1 dmg/Initiator lvl (max. +7) when charging for all allies within 60ft.
Beast Strike
Allows you to add claw dmg to unarmed strike dmg. This enables you to make use of high BAB full attacks (since claws don't get iterative normally) and double dip the sizing enchantment for claw and unarmed dmg. Colossal Beast Strike: -8 to Hit & 6d6+6d6 dmg
Since Papa did ride a wide variation of mounts (even a triceratops as mentioned) as
Fleshraker ain't that far streched imho^^
Spell usage
Here is a selection of recommended spells who aid this build well:
Primal Hunter (2nd) / Instinct (3rd) / Senses (4th) / Speed (6th)
24h duration and a nice selection of lil buffs. most mentionable +5 competence bonus to initiative and when all 4 spells are up, the improved uncanny dodge ability.
Enrage Animal (1st)
Give an animal rage for as long as you concentrate + 1round/clvl
Instant Power (1st)
Immediate Action (!) +4 on either the next to hit, dmg or save roll for target animal.
Summon Fey (1st-8th)
This is a scaling summon spell, which mean you can cast it at any lvl. It summons a fey with spell level -1 / HD. This means with 5-8th lvl you can summon another Redcap with 4-7HD.
Papa can always count on the help of his lil Smurfs^^
Ghost Companion (2nd)
Kill your Animal Companion and turn it into a ghost with all benefits and handicaps(!) for days/clvl duration. At the end of the duration the animal really dies. Before this happens you kill it again and cast Last Breath (4th) on it to restore it back to life with -1hp and stable. Rinse and repeat.
Really powerful but also has downsides to consider in this build. Your fleshrakers poison ability relies on physical contact and thus becomes unusable and it loses it natural armor. So either Ghost Companion or Venomfire, depending on the circumstances/your choice.
Luminous Armor (2nd) /Greater (4th)
Sacrifice 1d2 Strength (1d3 Greater) at the end of the spell (hours/clvl) to give yourself &/or your animal companion +5 armor bonus (+8 Greater). Has included Daylight spell. Nice to have in the early levels until you can effort bracers of Armor. Use Lesser Restoration to negate the ability damage.
Nature's Favor (2nd)
Swift Action (!) +1/3clvl luck bonus on attack and dmg rolls for 1min on target animal (companion). The low activation cost ensures that is stays handy even on later levels.
Venomfire (3rd)
buff your fleshrakers poison with +1d6/clvl for a duration of hours/clvl. This is really strong since, except the bite, all attacks apply poison. And not to forget that with Beast Strike it will have iterative attacks.
Enhance Wild Shape (4th)
Pick one of several buffs for your next wild shape form. This can also be the Extraordinary Abilities of the target form! Potential abuse with "War Troll" (+9 regeneration) or other wild shape forms.
Freedom of Movement (4th)
For obvious reasons. As a melee character a must have to deal with problem. Especially with difficult terrain as charger, this spell becomes priceless.
Friendly Fire (4th)
redirect a ranged (touch) attack (targeted at you) to a new target. either once as Immediate Action or as Full Round Action to get a buffduration of 1 round / clvl.
Last Breath (4th)
Restore some who died last round back to life. Abuse with Ghost Companion as mentioned. otherwise a medicore battle rez^^
Animal Growth (5th)
Short duration (clvl/round) buff to increase the size of your animal companion to the next size category and give it a bunch of buffs associated with it.
Owl's Insight (5th)
for a single hour you get +1/2 clvl to your Wis score. Raises your AC even further..^^
Rejuvenation Cocoon (5th)
One of the rare good (out of combat) druid healing spells.
Bite of the Werebear (6th)
clvl/round buff that fits your fleshraker. The claws and bite do more dmg, +16 enhancemnet bonus to Str and access to Power Attack are the most noteable benefits here.
Heal (7th)
we need a good combat heal spell^^
True Seeing (7th)
always handy
Unicorn Heart (7th)
Besides from buffs you most likely already have from other sources the important part is that you can expend the buff for a swift dimension door (including another person/your mount) where you may act afterwards! For fast & sneaky ambushes.
Wild Shape: Redcap
While the build has access to other interesting and strong forms, this build and guide focuses mostly on the Redcap. And this form has some interesting synergies with Wild Shape. A Recaps HD can vary between 4 - 20HD and gets increased Stats accordingly to the advancement. This is a special type of advancing where normally a Recap has to kill enough enemies and dip his cap into their blood to gain it. We don't get the ability. But that doesn't stop you to Wild Shape directly into a higher HD version, with only the ability itself limiting your max HD form. So you can always go for the max HD version that is available for your current lvl. This build caps at a max. of 18HD for Wild Shape, due to Lion of Talisid missing 2 lvls of Wild Shape progression. But even a 18HD Redcap has impressive stats.
@18 HD Redcap form gives us:
Str: 28
Dex: 27
Con: 28
Natural Armor: +8
DR: 15/cold iron (only with Enhance Wild Shape)
Small Size + Powerful Build
These are some solid stats for a small sized and humanoid shaped form. The abnormal high stats will provide you with great modifiers for combat and skill rolls. Combined with a Fleshraker as mount and it becomes a good foundation for a fearsome mounted Ubercharger combo that will fit into any space (where a medium sized creature would fit).
PR-Class-Abilities
Shifter's Speech
Allows you to speech in any form you shape into. This makes Natural Spell redundant and thus is a nice to have ability.
Humanoid, Monsterious Humanoid, Giant & Fey Shapes
The options here could fill a guide by itself. Humanoid can help with some social encounters or some undercover missions. The other shapes offer a wiede varity of interesting creatures. But as said, this build/guide focuses more on the Redcap form. So consider other guides for more info.
Lion's Courage
Immune to fear and +4 against mind affecting effects if always nice.
Lion's Pounce
While we get this ability a bit late @lvl 15, it comes with our 3rd attack (BAB +11). So we are only missing it in the levels from BAB +6 to +10. Imho it's bareable.
Lion's Swiftness
A haste effect for a total of 1 round per class level per day, which don't need to be consecutive.
Leonal's Roar
As the spell, usable 3/day. The interesting part is that the DC is raised to 20+ Cha mod. This is like heightening the spell to epic lvl (10th grade) and would otherwise need epic lvls to do so. So a really strong and reliable ability.
Combat
As already mentioned, once you get access to Redcap form you'll try to use it as much as possible until you can use it 24h/day. In this form you are small enough to ride your Fleshraker and to get all available charge multipliers. When full geared the build achieves a x6 multipier for charging (Lance, Spirited Charge, Riding Boots, Valorous, Dive).
Combined with a high base dmg (high Str mod 15-20+ x1.5, +20 Power Attack for +40dmg, Leading the Charge +7) this will escalate over 450dmg per hit (1800dmg per turn, 2250 if haste is available).
Your fleshraker, maybe not as powerful as you, is still a powerhorse compared to many other ubercharger. (6d6+6d6+Str mod+7)x3 + 16d6 dmg (colossal Beast Strike, Leading the Charge, Valorous, Diving, Venomfire) on a charge.
The combo of a small rider on a medium mount with Ride by Attack & Pounce allows you to charge in a line and to clear a path for your charging mount until you run out of attack and finally your mount may move up to a living enemy and do his Pounce routine. and finally if your mount still has movement left, you can move to a safer spot.
On the defensive side this build will have solid saves due to high ability modifiers. Further an abnormal high AC score due to so many AC sources stacked. Even with Headlong Rush from Shock Trooper and -20 to AC, most enemies will even have problems to hit you with a natural 19, since your (geared) AC can reach the 60's. Further you can deflect incoming ranged attacks (incl. magical with attack rolls) back to your enemies with Friendly Fire (4th).
And with spells up to 8th grade you can still support your teammates with buffs, dispells, heals and such stuff.
The END
Thx as always for reading my wall of text and I hope you enjoyed it. I would be happy for any kind of response, be it questions, suggestions, critic, errors found or whatsoever build related you have to say. Just hoping for some feedback^^
We will build around the Redcap wild shape form an ubercharger build with some added Papa Smurf flavor to it for the sake of... well, I don't know and I don't care either, may I felt a divine urge to just do it and now you have to bear it, since you already took the click-bait^^ Beware of the high amount of optimization e.g. magic items for prc/feat requirements. The itemization breaks the wealth balance a lil on one occasion (Dark Blue Ioun Stone @lvl5 if you want to enter MoMF straight @lvl6) and the full suggested item list expends into epic wealth balance territory. If the DM should be really strict (and someone really intents to play this build..^^), you could rearrange the levels a bit to fit the character wealth balance again (or use flaws for the feat).
And last but not least there is a high amount of smurf flavored fluff text added. So prepare to either enjoy or to ignore it. :smallbiggrin:
Papa Smurf (",)
https://brynvalk.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/redcap.jpg?w=435&h=414
Prepare enough blue body paint^^
Druid 6/ Master of Many Forms 4 / Lion of Talisid 10
The Build:
Stats @ LVL 1 Human: (28P.)
Str: 8
Dex: 8
Con: 12
Int: 14
Wis: 18
Cha: 10
Feats:
H:Apprentice (Spellcaster: Use Magic Device)
1: Endurance
3: Exotic Shield: Riders Shield
6: Favored of the Companions
9: Spirited Charge
12: Power Attack
15: Imp. Bullrush
18: Shock Trooper
Skillranks @LVL 20:
Concentration: 23
Papa needs maxed Concentration. Otherwise he wouldn't achieve anything with 100 smurfs around to distract him^^.
Handle Animal: 23
His Handle Animal skills are perfect. He never fails any attempts unless the animal is magically corrupted. Thus it has to be maxed.
Ride: 23
Papa can ride anything. Reindeer, stork, wolf, triceratops youngling just to name a few of his used mounts in the series.
Spellcraft: 23
Recognizing magical effects is a piece of cake for Papa. He never fails with his magical understanding.
UMD: 23
Note: Starting @lvl6 you double the tax for ranks due to how Apprentice works..He can use any kind of magic items & mechanisms. Even corrupted items are no issue for him (e.g. the twin crowns of command and his battle against brainy smurf).
Knowledge Nature: 9
While he has good knowledge about nature, there are others who are better at this: Natural Smurf/Nat Smurfling, Tracker Smurf & Mother Nature are all more experienced and are consulted sometimes. Thus he hasn't maxed it.
Survival: 9
Again, while having a good foundation, he gets overshadowed by Natural Smurf and Tracker Smurf.
Craft Alchemy: 9
One of Papas hobbies. He can do many things, but for the really powerful things most of the time he needs to take 20 and waste a night with failed attempts. And thus his skills are only OK-ish in this discipline.
Diplomacy: 1
Heal: 1
Profession (Sage): 1
Profession (Tutor): 1
The last 4 skills are all medicore at best. Papa has only has a basic foundation here and often fails at these tasks. His diplomacy attempts between his Smurfs almost always fail and they need to leard from their mistakes and not from Papas advice. Keep also in mind that Papa rarely relies on the "heal" skill. He uses alchemy and magic for more serious health conditions. His abilities as Sage & Tutor share the same issues as diplomacy.
Magic Items
Required Items for feats & prc prerequisites:
Dark Blue Ioun Stone (10k)
Gives Alertness feat for entering MoMF
Battle Bridle (9k)
+5 competence on Ride and Mounted Combat feat
Riding Boots (12k)
+5 competence on Ride again (thus doesn't stack..) and Ride-by-Attack feat. Further increases your Spirited Charge multiplier by one step.
+5 skillful valorous Lance (128k)
You should start with a +1 skillful Lance and max the bonuses out on the later levels.
Monks Belt (13k)
For your animal companion. The imp. unarmed strike is required for Beast Strike. Further adds Wis to AC bonus and another +1 bonus.
Recommended:
Handy Haversack (1k)
Not much to say here. Magical storage room is always handy.
+5 valorous sizing Necklace of Natural Attacks [unarmed strike] (98.6k)
together with Beast Strike your Animal Companion will love this. Remember that one can always wield unarmed strikes despite their size. Colossal size unarmed strike + claw dmg at a -8 penalaity is nice.
+5 Animated Riders Shield (49k)
great defensive Shield that you don't need to hold (thus use your lance 2h) and that protects you and you mount at the same time. The Riders Shield has a base AC of 2 and thus it will provide a +7 Shield AC bonus for both of you.
Monks Belt + Belt of Giant Strength +6 (55.5k)
This is just the icing for Papas already high AC. Wis to AC and another +1 dodge to AC. Extra Str is always handy.
Belt of Giant Strength +6 (36k)
Extra Str for your companion.
2x Gloves of Dextrity +6 (72k)
more AC, better initiative and nice for skills
2x Periapt of Wisdom +6 (72k)
more AC for both and extra Spells for Papa.
Phoenix Cloak (50k)
For your mount, not for you. Since you will be sitting on it for the most part of the day/game. Enables Dive Attacks (flying charge) for your Animal Companion and you, which further increases the charge multipliers by one.
Wand: Divine Power (21k)
Always nice to have as mundane damage dealer to have full BAB. Don't forget to share it with your Animal Companion for free.
2x Invulnerability Bracers of Armor +8 +5 (156k)
These bracers will provide another +13 AC bonus and DR 5/magic for you and your companion. Start with simple +1 +1 invulnerability bracers and fully build em out when you are epic.
+(1x) Warning Armor Spikes +1 (16.2k)
Your Armor Spikes can count as always drawn and held when you are not fighting to provide you with a +5 insight bonus to your initiative. Your companion doesn't need these since it will use your initiative roll.
Mask of the Tiger (4k)
Gives you Track, since you have some ranks in survival and scent. Your Animal Companion also has track and thus can try to "aid another" you.
5x Wilding Clasp (20k)
For your gear to not meld into your wild shape forms: Boots, Belt, Bracer, Gloves, Amulet
Deluxe:
Wish x15+ (432,375g+)
Well this is when you have to much money to spend on stuff. If you reach epic level, you can start to spend your money to buy these. Always take 5 to boost one stat to +5 and don't forget to share it with your animal companion for double profit!! This will give each of you +5 inherent bonus to Strength, Dexterity and Wisdom. If you have even more money to waste, you can use it on Constitution too for the extra HP
Animal Companion: Fleshraker
(@lvl4+)
The Fleshraker is one of the best Animal Companions one can get early and still remain useful on later levels with the right optimization.
Stats:
+ 10 bonus HD (and thus 3 feats)
+ 10 Natural Armor
+ 5 Strength & Dexterity
+6 Bonus Tricks
selected Feats:
Martial Study (White Raven): Douse the Flames
1/encounter standard attack an enemy and deny its AoO for the round when hit
Martial Stance (White Raven): Leading the Charge
+1 dmg/Initiator lvl (max. +7) when charging for all allies within 60ft.
Beast Strike
Allows you to add claw dmg to unarmed strike dmg. This enables you to make use of high BAB full attacks (since claws don't get iterative normally) and double dip the sizing enchantment for claw and unarmed dmg. Colossal Beast Strike: -8 to Hit & 6d6+6d6 dmg
Since Papa did ride a wide variation of mounts (even a triceratops as mentioned) as
Fleshraker ain't that far streched imho^^
Spell usage
Here is a selection of recommended spells who aid this build well:
Primal Hunter (2nd) / Instinct (3rd) / Senses (4th) / Speed (6th)
24h duration and a nice selection of lil buffs. most mentionable +5 competence bonus to initiative and when all 4 spells are up, the improved uncanny dodge ability.
Enrage Animal (1st)
Give an animal rage for as long as you concentrate + 1round/clvl
Instant Power (1st)
Immediate Action (!) +4 on either the next to hit, dmg or save roll for target animal.
Summon Fey (1st-8th)
This is a scaling summon spell, which mean you can cast it at any lvl. It summons a fey with spell level -1 / HD. This means with 5-8th lvl you can summon another Redcap with 4-7HD.
Papa can always count on the help of his lil Smurfs^^
Ghost Companion (2nd)
Kill your Animal Companion and turn it into a ghost with all benefits and handicaps(!) for days/clvl duration. At the end of the duration the animal really dies. Before this happens you kill it again and cast Last Breath (4th) on it to restore it back to life with -1hp and stable. Rinse and repeat.
Really powerful but also has downsides to consider in this build. Your fleshrakers poison ability relies on physical contact and thus becomes unusable and it loses it natural armor. So either Ghost Companion or Venomfire, depending on the circumstances/your choice.
Luminous Armor (2nd) /Greater (4th)
Sacrifice 1d2 Strength (1d3 Greater) at the end of the spell (hours/clvl) to give yourself &/or your animal companion +5 armor bonus (+8 Greater). Has included Daylight spell. Nice to have in the early levels until you can effort bracers of Armor. Use Lesser Restoration to negate the ability damage.
Nature's Favor (2nd)
Swift Action (!) +1/3clvl luck bonus on attack and dmg rolls for 1min on target animal (companion). The low activation cost ensures that is stays handy even on later levels.
Venomfire (3rd)
buff your fleshrakers poison with +1d6/clvl for a duration of hours/clvl. This is really strong since, except the bite, all attacks apply poison. And not to forget that with Beast Strike it will have iterative attacks.
Enhance Wild Shape (4th)
Pick one of several buffs for your next wild shape form. This can also be the Extraordinary Abilities of the target form! Potential abuse with "War Troll" (+9 regeneration) or other wild shape forms.
Freedom of Movement (4th)
For obvious reasons. As a melee character a must have to deal with problem. Especially with difficult terrain as charger, this spell becomes priceless.
Friendly Fire (4th)
redirect a ranged (touch) attack (targeted at you) to a new target. either once as Immediate Action or as Full Round Action to get a buffduration of 1 round / clvl.
Last Breath (4th)
Restore some who died last round back to life. Abuse with Ghost Companion as mentioned. otherwise a medicore battle rez^^
Animal Growth (5th)
Short duration (clvl/round) buff to increase the size of your animal companion to the next size category and give it a bunch of buffs associated with it.
Owl's Insight (5th)
for a single hour you get +1/2 clvl to your Wis score. Raises your AC even further..^^
Rejuvenation Cocoon (5th)
One of the rare good (out of combat) druid healing spells.
Bite of the Werebear (6th)
clvl/round buff that fits your fleshraker. The claws and bite do more dmg, +16 enhancemnet bonus to Str and access to Power Attack are the most noteable benefits here.
Heal (7th)
we need a good combat heal spell^^
True Seeing (7th)
always handy
Unicorn Heart (7th)
Besides from buffs you most likely already have from other sources the important part is that you can expend the buff for a swift dimension door (including another person/your mount) where you may act afterwards! For fast & sneaky ambushes.
Wild Shape: Redcap
While the build has access to other interesting and strong forms, this build and guide focuses mostly on the Redcap. And this form has some interesting synergies with Wild Shape. A Recaps HD can vary between 4 - 20HD and gets increased Stats accordingly to the advancement. This is a special type of advancing where normally a Recap has to kill enough enemies and dip his cap into their blood to gain it. We don't get the ability. But that doesn't stop you to Wild Shape directly into a higher HD version, with only the ability itself limiting your max HD form. So you can always go for the max HD version that is available for your current lvl. This build caps at a max. of 18HD for Wild Shape, due to Lion of Talisid missing 2 lvls of Wild Shape progression. But even a 18HD Redcap has impressive stats.
@18 HD Redcap form gives us:
Str: 28
Dex: 27
Con: 28
Natural Armor: +8
DR: 15/cold iron (only with Enhance Wild Shape)
Small Size + Powerful Build
These are some solid stats for a small sized and humanoid shaped form. The abnormal high stats will provide you with great modifiers for combat and skill rolls. Combined with a Fleshraker as mount and it becomes a good foundation for a fearsome mounted Ubercharger combo that will fit into any space (where a medium sized creature would fit).
PR-Class-Abilities
Shifter's Speech
Allows you to speech in any form you shape into. This makes Natural Spell redundant and thus is a nice to have ability.
Humanoid, Monsterious Humanoid, Giant & Fey Shapes
The options here could fill a guide by itself. Humanoid can help with some social encounters or some undercover missions. The other shapes offer a wiede varity of interesting creatures. But as said, this build/guide focuses more on the Redcap form. So consider other guides for more info.
Lion's Courage
Immune to fear and +4 against mind affecting effects if always nice.
Lion's Pounce
While we get this ability a bit late @lvl 15, it comes with our 3rd attack (BAB +11). So we are only missing it in the levels from BAB +6 to +10. Imho it's bareable.
Lion's Swiftness
A haste effect for a total of 1 round per class level per day, which don't need to be consecutive.
Leonal's Roar
As the spell, usable 3/day. The interesting part is that the DC is raised to 20+ Cha mod. This is like heightening the spell to epic lvl (10th grade) and would otherwise need epic lvls to do so. So a really strong and reliable ability.
Combat
As already mentioned, once you get access to Redcap form you'll try to use it as much as possible until you can use it 24h/day. In this form you are small enough to ride your Fleshraker and to get all available charge multipliers. When full geared the build achieves a x6 multipier for charging (Lance, Spirited Charge, Riding Boots, Valorous, Dive).
Combined with a high base dmg (high Str mod 15-20+ x1.5, +20 Power Attack for +40dmg, Leading the Charge +7) this will escalate over 450dmg per hit (1800dmg per turn, 2250 if haste is available).
Your fleshraker, maybe not as powerful as you, is still a powerhorse compared to many other ubercharger. (6d6+6d6+Str mod+7)x3 + 16d6 dmg (colossal Beast Strike, Leading the Charge, Valorous, Diving, Venomfire) on a charge.
The combo of a small rider on a medium mount with Ride by Attack & Pounce allows you to charge in a line and to clear a path for your charging mount until you run out of attack and finally your mount may move up to a living enemy and do his Pounce routine. and finally if your mount still has movement left, you can move to a safer spot.
On the defensive side this build will have solid saves due to high ability modifiers. Further an abnormal high AC score due to so many AC sources stacked. Even with Headlong Rush from Shock Trooper and -20 to AC, most enemies will even have problems to hit you with a natural 19, since your (geared) AC can reach the 60's. Further you can deflect incoming ranged attacks (incl. magical with attack rolls) back to your enemies with Friendly Fire (4th).
And with spells up to 8th grade you can still support your teammates with buffs, dispells, heals and such stuff.
The END
Thx as always for reading my wall of text and I hope you enjoyed it. I would be happy for any kind of response, be it questions, suggestions, critic, errors found or whatsoever build related you have to say. Just hoping for some feedback^^