Rats! 3.5

[The_Scourge]

I like rats. But I've never been able to successfully integrate them into a character. On one hand, roleplay-wise it's pretty easy but mechanically rats are hard to integrate into an effective build. So I turn to the boards to see what you guys can come up with. Anything, from Rat-King-esque recluses to the pied piper or make the character a rat himself. Thrill me. The only stipulation is that rats have to be a key part of the crunch and fluff. Go to town

[Lappy9000]

Have you tried a search of Rat PC Races on the Homebrew Forums? I've seen quite a few this year alone.

I'll see what I can turn up for ya'.

[Fax Celestis]

Mousefolk!

[Rutskarn]

Is the creation of new items acceptable? If so:

Amulet of the Rat King

Wearing this amulet makes your features grow shadowy and furitive, fine hairs sprout up on your hands, and a thin, repulsive tail snake from your spine.

Requirements: Any Evil

Grants +2 to hide, jump, climb, balance. All unarmed attacks carry a disease, DC17, which deals 2d2 Points of CON damage. Grants the bearer the ability to summon 3d4 rats at will--limit one summoned at any one time, cooldown of three rounds. Note that these rats emerge from the environment, not magically, and thus cannot appear on other planes or in environments hazardous to rats.

[Lappy9000]

Ratling
^Adds some neat stuff and lots of fluff, although I personally think it needs some tweaking. And Squeaking.
Myosines
Rat-Man
Ratlings
Vurminee

[Starscream]

You could always be a wererat, or use the Bite of the Wererat spell to approximate one in battle.

Savage Species has a template that can basically create an anthropomorphic version of any animal. A Rat version would be a Small creature, no level adjustment, -4 str and cha, +4 wis, +2 dex.

Seems like kind of a raw deal, though. The ability scores aren't great, and you only get a 15 ft speed.

[UserClone]

@^ That would make a NASTY druid.

Also, the Nezumi stats from OA might work, or the (IMO) better ones (with various subraces) from Rokugan Campaign Setting.

[Fax Celestis]

You could always be a wererat, or use the Bite of the Wererat spell to approximate one in battle.

Wererats actually make decent rogues.

[Starscream]

That would make a NASTY druid.

True, you wouldn't need much charisma, you'd be small enough to use a wolf or similar animal companion as a mount to offset your speed penalty, and Wild Shape would take care of the strength problems.

[Fax Celestis]

True, you wouldn't need much charisma, you'd be small enough to use a wolf or similar animal companion as a mount to offset your speed penalty, and Wild Shape would take care of the strength problems.

Wildshape would take care of your speed problems too, actually.

[Starscream]

Just glanced through Oriental Adventures and there's a race there called Hengeyokai which can switch from a human form to an animal form to a hybrid form, and one of the choices for these forms is Rat.

[UserClone]

True, and in the VERY IMPORTANT 3.5 UPDATE their ludicrous +1 LA is reduced to zero, and they become humanoids with the shapechanger subtype.

[Heliomance]

Someone dig up Silus, the Rat Lich again?

[Fax Celestis]

Someone dig up Silus, the Rat Lich again?

OH GOD. That was the best villain ever.

[Heliomance]

Herre we are.
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55087

[The_Scourge]

Nifty! Lots of response!
You guys have given me some food for thought on races but what about class? A druid with a dire rat companion seems pretty weak, but there's nothing else I could think of.

[UserClone]

But a Mousefolk Druid has +2 to his casting stat, and can RIDE his dire rat AC!

[bosssmiley]

There's always the magic of refluffing. It's a cheap and dirty hack, but there's nothing to prevent you describing the Druid's various spells in ratty terms.

His animal companion might be a giant filthy rat that pounces from the shadows and tears its opponents to shreds (just a reskinned fleshraker dinosaur), or a mutated water rat that drags its enemy down (reskinned crocodile).

The Skaven sourcebook "Children of the Horned Rat" for the WFRP rpg is gold for your purposes.

[UserClone]

As is the Vigil Watch: Secrets of the Ratmen Scarred Lands book.

[KIDS]

If I might suggest, the Druid Shapeshift variant from PHB2 is excellent for roleplaying awakened animals of all kinds.
For example:

- Play a halfling or gnome or whatever. Your predator form is a Dire Rat. Stay in Dire Rat form all the time (with its +STR/AC/speed/bite). Apart from an eventual antimagic field, you are free to stay as a rat 100% of the game time.
- Take Spontaneous Rejuvenation for being a rat who regenerates himself and maybe others, and eventually grab silent/still spell for some limited, subtle spell effects.
- At level 8, you have Ferocious Slayer form (one size category larger). Now you can be a massive dire rat, medium in size and with strong attacks that count as magical. You start in Predator (small) and after first hit, become enraged, increasing your size and strength. It's a ferocious rat! Run away! Only the sewer slime somehow obeys it (silent/stilled entangle) and stops you from running. The rat catches you and eats you.
etc. etc.
Bonus trivia: the giant rat haunting the city sewers with a party of bandits is rumored to have once been a halfling, cursed sixty-two years ago to spend his life in an animal farm. However, no one has been able to prove the theory.

Congratulations! You just roleplayed Ratatouille, the best Pixar movie ever. No awakened animal crap, no LA, no rules headache :)

If you think this is crazy, I'm playing a Wolf in one adventure this way right now (elf shapeshift druid) and having a blast. I encourage you to try it!

[Heliomance]

OH GOD. That was the best villain ever.

Afroakuma's Hellstar would like to disagree.

[Mushroom Ninja]

I like rats. But I've never been able to successfully integrate them into a character. On one hand, roleplay-wise it's pretty easy but mechanically rats are hard to integrate into an effective build. So I turn to the boards to see what you guys can come up with. Anything, from Rat-King-esque recluses to the pied piper or make the character a rat himself. Thrill me. The only stipulation is that rats have to be a key part of the crunch and fluff. Go to town

Ever heard of the Bag'o'rats trick?

[The_Scourge]

Ever heard of the Bag'o'rats trick?

Yeah, that's not exactly what I had in mind

[Starscream]

Stay in Dire Rat form all the time (with its +STR/AC/speed/bite). Apart from an eventual antimagic field, you are free to stay as a rat 100% of the game time.

True, but it is impossible to cast spells while shapeshifted, even with Natural Spell. I'm playing a shapeshift druid right now, and the biggest hassle is switching back and forth to use my spells, even if it is only a swift action.

Still a good idea if you just want rat flavor, because you can decide the exact look of your form whenever you use it.

[Gaiwecoor]

It's been a while since I looked at it, but the Beastmaster PrC from Complete Adventurer might work (base class Druid with Dire Rat animal companion). If I recall correctly, the class focuses more on your companion than anything else, improving it and granting you more companions. That could get you a pack of dire rats.

[Prometheus]

There's always the magic of refluffing. It's a cheap and dirty hack, but there's nothing to prevent you describing the Druid's various spells in ratty terms. :

Spell Thematics (look it up at crystal keep), lets you refluff you spells in-game and gain bonuses to those that already fit it (Summon spells, Contagion, probably a couple others).

[Waspinator]

The shapeshift Druid still sounds like a good idea, even with the casting restrictions. If you find a suitable ratlike humanoid race, you make your Druid that and you can be a rat of some kind all of the time.

[newbDM]

Why not just play an awakened rat?

Sure you get two racial HD, but the role-playing potential is incredible. Even mechanically it would make an incredible, and infamous rogue.

One of my favorite characters ever was an awakened cat (irony?) that wore an appropriately sized bag of holding type IV on a string around his neck. The bag of holding idea would be perfect for an awakened rat, since their hands are opposable like a humans. (Oh, even I like the role-playing potential here.). Just pump up hide and move silently, and take levels of rogue.