The Lonely Fir



Among these snows once stood a fir
that listened here
to sages and their words so wise

They worshipped mind and scale and lore
not prepared for
their ancient foes becoming bold

The slavers came in midnight dark
tore branch from bark
they took an axe and claimed their prize

They warped the tree with rites arcane
turned it profane
they made it hunt down its old clan

For sport, they made their monster fight
and when it died
its husk was cast out in the cold

The snow is now its burial gown
for trees cut down
will never plant their roots again

NE Needlefolk Fangshield Ranger 2 / Fighter 1 / Pious Templar 3 / Impure Prince 5 / Thayan Gladiator 5

Spoiler: Build Table
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Stats: 16 STR / 12 DEX / 10 CON / 14 INT / 16 WIS / 8 CHA
Racial: 18 STR / 12 DEX / 12 CON / 10 INT / 20 WIS / 2 CHA
ECL 20: 22 STR / 12 DEX / 12 CON / 10 INT / 20 WIS / 2 CHA

Level Class Base Attack Bonus Fort Save Ref Save Will Save Skills Feats Class Features
2nd Needlefolk 1 +0 +2 +0 +0 Gather Information 1cc, Hide 1, Knowledge (Religion) 2cc, Move Silently 1 Toughness -
3rd Needlefolk 2 +1 +3 +0 +0 Gather Information +1cc (2), Hide 1, Knowledge (Religion) 2, Move Silently 1 - -
4th Needlefolk 3 +2 +3 +1 +1 Gather Information 2, Hide 1, Knowledge (Religion) +1cc (3), Move Silently 1 True Believer -
5th Trap Expert Ranger 1 +3 +5 +3 +1 Gather Information 2, Hide 1, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) +4 (4), Knowledge (Religion) 3, Move Silently 1, Search +2 (2) - Favored Enemy (Aberrations), Spiritual Connection, Trapfinding
6th Fangshields Ranger 2 +4 +6 +4 +1 Gather Information 2, Hide 1, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) +4 (8), Knowledge (Religion) 3, Move Silently 1, Search +2 (4) MultiattackB Combat Style
7th Fighter 1 +5 +8 +4 +1 Gather Information 2, Hide 1, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 8, Knowledge (Religion) +1cc (4), Move Silently 1, Search 4 Improved Multiattack, Weapon Focus (Claw) Hit-And-Run Fighter
8th Pious Templar of Sardior 1 +6 +10 +4 +3 Gather Information 2, Hide +1cc (2), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 8, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Move Silently 1, Search 4 - Mettle, Spellcasting
9th Pious Templar 2 +7 +11 +4 +4 Gather Information 2, Hide +1cc (3), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 8, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Move Silently 1, Search 4 - Smite 1/day
10th Pious Templar 3 +8 +11 +5 +4 Gather Information 2, Hide 3, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 8, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Move Silently 1, Search 4, Speak Language (Daelkyr) +1cc Symbiont Mastery, Weapon SpecializationB DR 1/-
11th Impure Prince 1 +9 +11 +5 +6 Gather Information 2, Hide +2 (5), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 8, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Move Silently 1, Search +2 (6), Speak Language 1 - Expanded Spell List, Lure Symbiont
12th Impure Prince 2 +10 +11 +5 +7 Gather Information 2, Hide +2 (7), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 8, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Move Silently 1, Search +2 (8), Speak Language 1 - Favored Enemy (Aberrations)
13th Thayan Gladiator 1 +11 +13 +5 +7 Gather Information 2, Hide +1cc (8), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 8, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Move Silently 1, Search 8, Speak Language 1 Improved Natural Attack (Claw)B, Rapidstrike (Claw) Study Opponent
14th Thayan Gladiator 2 +12 +14 +5 +7 Gather Information 2, Hide +1cc (9), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 8, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Move Silently 1, Search 8, Speak Language 1 Improved CriticalB Natural Armor +1
15th Impure Prince 3 +13 +15 +6 +7 Gather Information 2, Hide +2 (11), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 8, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Move Silently 1, Search +2 (10), Speak Language 1 - Aberrant Anatomy
16th Impure Prince 4 +14 +15 +6 +8 Gather Information 2, Hide +2 (13), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 8, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Move Silently 1, Search +2 (12), Speak Language 1 Mitigate Suffering Aberrant Fortitude
17th Impure Prince 5 +15 +15 +6 +8 Gather Information 2, Hide +2 (15), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 8, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Move Silently 1, Search +2 (14), Speak Language 1 - Otherworldly Surge
18th Thayan Gladiator 3 +16 +15 +7 +9 Gather Information 2, Hide +1cc (16), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 8, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Move Silently 1, Search 14, Speak Language 1 - Stunning Critical, Silver Strike
19th Thayan Gladiator 4 +17 +16 +7 +9 Gather Information 2, Hide +1cc (17), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 8, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Move Silently 1, Search 14, Speak Language 1 Improved Rapidstrike (Claw) Natural Weapon Focus (Claw)
20th Thayan Gladiator 5 +18 +16 +7 +9 Gather Information 2, Hide +1cc (18), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 8, Knowledge (Religion) 4, Move Silently 1, Search 14, Speak Language 1 - Imbue Natural Weapon (Frost), Natural Armor +2


Spoiler: Discussion
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Most things that people call 'ranged natural weapons' aren't. A manticore's spikes or a gibbering mouther's acid spittle are special attacks that happen to get listed in their attack section (as is commonly done). In the manticore's case, the same attack section makes some revealing claims: it doesn't consider the possibility of a manticore attacking with bite and tail spikes both (which should be a perfectly valid full attack if the spikes were natural weapons), and it doesn't treat the spikes as secondary weapons when they're used to make a normal attack.

But just because the obvious examples are wrong doesn't mean ranged natural weapons don't exist.

Enter MM2's needlefolk, 3 HD +1 LA plants with two claws and a 'needles' attack that deals 1d12+1 (1d12 + str?) damage at range. The needles aren't listed among its special attacks or qualities, and they're the primary rather than secondary weapon so their attack bonuses check out.

Two arguments stand against the needles being a natural weapon. The first is that even as part of a full attack, the stat block doesn't combine them with the monster's claws. The second is that the claws don't get the -5 penalty for being a secondary attack, which we'd expect to apply if they were secondary weapons to the primary needles.

Fortunately, we can explain both these things away. Firstly, you can only use a single part of your body once per full attack, and the part of the body used to make a needles attack is... your body. You can't subsequently also use part of that body to make claw attacks. And secondly, MM2 is 3.0 material, so the rules for secondary natural weapons got updated since its release: previously a single attack with a secondary natural weapon did not incur a penalty, but now it does (we will take feats to fix the issue this creates).

Conclusion: needlefolk have a needles attack (primary natural weapon) and two claw attacks (secondary natural weapons) though they cannot necessarily use the former in the same full attack as the latter.

Alright, but that's just splitting hairs, right? Whether it's a weird ranged attack or an actual natural weapon doesn't matter in practice.

Well...

Quote Originally Posted by Holding the Charge
If you don’t discharge the spell in the round when you cast the spell, you can hold the discharge of the spell (hold the charge) indefinitely. [...] Alternatively, you may make a normal unarmed attack (or an attack with a natural weapon) while holding a charge. [...] If the attack hits, you deal normal damage for your unarmed attack or natural weapon and the spell discharges. If the attack misses, you are still holding the charge.
Nowhere in this block of text are melee attacks mentioned.

That means that if we cast a touch spell, hold the charge, and start making needles attacks, the first target we hit with our needles will become the spell's target regardless of whether we missed with our needles beforehand. A lot of spells that are touch with good reason suddenly can reliably affect foes up to 200 feet away. Thus, a build concept was born.

The last thing to do was to acquire some spells that worked well with this. I tried to make a Shivering Touch build work initially (which is where a lot of the ice fluff comes from) I eventually realized the Corrupt list was just fine. At that point, the only challenge was to find a full-BAB easily entered casting class (not going rapidstrike would be a waste, which left me unable to drop too many points of BAB), grabbing Restoration from somewhere, and throwing on some general natural weapon support.


Spoiler: Spells
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Spells per Day
Level 1st 2nd 3rd 4th
8th 2 - - -
9th 3 - - -
10th 3 1 - -
12th 3 2 - -
15th 3 2 1 -
16th 3 2 2 -
17th 4 2 2 1

Spells prepared:
1: Disguise Self, Resurgence, Seething Eyebane, Summon Monster I
2: Lesser Restoration, Zone of Natural Purity
3: Invesiture of the Erinyes, Touch of Juiblex
4: Claws of the Savage


Spoiler: Breakdown
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ECL 5:
Being a plant comes at a steep level cost, but we're decent-ish at low levels. We got pretty dang good strength and wisdom, we're immune to poison, crits, and mind-affecting effects, and we can do some basic melee fighting / trapfinding when needed, in addition to having a weird knowledge base. Just wield a nice two-hander and occasionally help out with your weird skills.

(speaking of weird skills, did you know needlefolk have a 1500-feet elf radar? now you do!)

ECL 10:
Pious Templar gives us a solid +2 damage on all of our claw attacks, Mettle to go with our sky-high Fortitude, and some spells! As an evil character, we cast from the blackguard list, further expanding our utility with spells like Summon Monster or boosting our damage with Divine Sacrifice. We can't wear heavy armor without losing Multiattack, so we trade away our fighter proficiency to get +2 initiative and a very small bonus on damage against flat-footed foes.

We can start doing the needle-channel technique at this point, but cannot reliably heal the ability damage this inflicts. Still, our Wisdom is pretty high and Seething Eyebane is a very nasty spell to fail a save against (permanent blindness that takes a Regenerate to get rid of).

ECL 15:
With Rapidstrike, we're now making two claw attacks in addition to our only-two-points-behind-full-BAB weapon attacks. Impure Prince grants us a symbiont: the Breed Leech is probably best for now, but we're going to swap it out soon anyway. The class also lets us deal AoE damage (something a bit lacking up until now), lets us add our Wisdom modifier to Fortitude saves (by now, we might as well be immune to fortitude-targeting effects), and gives us some new spells to cast.

Disguise Self is another utility-enhancer. Zone of Natural Purity is a fun long-duration area buff that gives plants (like us) +1 to several rolls and weakens aberrations, which might sometimes end up being worth it. Lesser Restoration lets us start using corrupt spells a bit more seriously... like the ridiculously deadly Touch of Juiblex, which is a 3rd-level save-or-die kept in check only by the fact that it's touch range and takes a while to kick in. We, however, can cast it from afar and then flee or hide while the timer runs out, making us a notably better user than most other characters. "Snipe people with a functional save-or-die from 150 feet away" is somewhat above the power level that our mix of tier 4 classes suggests! Sure, we don't have darkstalker, but special senses rarely function beyond 60 or so feet.

Moreover, remember that symbionts get Share Spells, and the blackguard gets a lot of underleveled selfbuffs that give new attack modes. These, our symbiont(s) can take full advantage of with its own set of actions. Investiure of the Erinyes is a really nice option here, basically forcing a free save-or-suck each round that also improves your battlefield position (ways to solve the Pounce Conundrum: make the foe come to YOU). We're a good user of natural weapons, we're using natural weapons to deliver our spells, and we get better use out of a lot of spells than you'd expect at first glance: how's that for fulfilling the round's conditions?

Thayan Gladiator improves our claws first and foremost, but also has a little feature that grants a stacking bonus on attacks and AC during the first round of combat if we spend some time studying our opponent. If we get the chance to rack this up (via Disguise Self / stealth / simply betraying people) it's actually a quite meaningful bonus.

ECL 20:
With Improved Rapidstrike and Natural Weapon Focus, we're looking at seven claw attacks per round, or six claw attacks and four tentacle whip attacks. The claw attacks all count as silver for the purpose of overcoming DR, threaten a DC 21 save vs stun on a crit (which, by the way, occur on a roll of 19-20), and get 1d6 damage from our imbued ability. The tentacle whip injects poison on a hit, has huge reach, and can be used to grapple or disarm. That's a very respectable melee presence, especially when we can open the fight with a needle barrage from afar and deliver some nasty debuff that way. Favored enemy is a notable per-hit effect, adding +4 damage on each hit against the relatively common aberration type.

Claws of the Savage is a very good mid-duration buff for this sort of strategy, upping our claws by two sizes (for a final 2d6 base damage) and adding on a +2 enhancement bonus, though other 4th-level spells definitely compete for its spot. Good alternatives include Absorb Strength (for potentially insane ability buffs), Revenance, Summon Undead IV (which gets you an allip; tarrasques beware!) and Invesiture of the Barbed Devil.

Mitigate Suffering helps us save spell slots when using corrupt spells by giving us a free 4-point ability damage buffer in all our stats; this is also helpful when adding or removing any symbionts we might acquire.

A brief note about casting: we've mostly been focused on combat spells, but between the 3 lists we're pulling from, there's quite some utility available to us as well. Absorb Mind is a very useful information source once you get a way to negate the wisdom damage, Demon Wings gives mid-duration flight, Bedevil is an infinite-range no-save debuff that lasts days/level and is actually quite hard to end prematurely, and Demoncall brings your knowledge (religion) modifier back to decent levels. Deeper Darkness cast on a pebble you keep in a drawstring bag gives a quick source of concealment, in case that Touch of Juiblex target is slightly fast to run away from.

Finally, a look at our skills. We're by no means a skill monkey, but we've got nearly-maxed Hide (and a huge situational bonus for a pretty common environment type) and can snipe at range much better than sneak attackers or most casters, and we can find DC 34 traps (9th-level magic traps; the highest target listed in the DMG) by taking 20 on Search.


Spoiler: Sources
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MM2 - Needlefolk
CoV - Fangshields Ranger
DotU - Hit-and-run Fighter
Dun - Trap Expert Ranger
CDiv - Spiritual Connection Ranger, Pious Templar, True Believer, Mitigate Suffering
MoE - Impure Prince, Symbiont Mastery
ECS - Tentacle Whip
CoR - Thayan Gladiator
Drac - Rapidstrike, Improved Rapidstrike, Improved Multiattack