Swindlespitter

[JellyPooga]

Been thinking about this lickle dinosaur from MMIII recetly and realised that although not massively powerful, they'd probably make quite good lycanthropes.

In "exchange" for your 2 Animal HD and +2 (or 3) LA, you get a whopping +10 Dex in Hybrid/Animal form, Uncanny Dodge, 3 bonus feats and a 15ft cone of blindness/con damage poison every 1d4 rounds. Sure you have to bite a -2 Str, but that's small fry to my mind for what you're getting out of it.

The only thing is, is that I'm struggling to think of a good base race. My first thought was immediately Kobold, but that's pretty much always my first thought and stacking that -2 Str on top of the Kobolds' -4 just doesn't appeal. Thematically, I think Kobolds fit perfectly; they got the right looks, the right sort of mentality and abilities...I just don't like that -6 Str.

So, my question is this: I'm looking for a good base race for a Were-Swindlespitter. Must be Humanoid or Giant and Medium, Small or Tiny sized. Preferably something without Racial HD or a Level Adjustment and something with no more than a -2 Str penalty. Hit me with what you got!

PS: This is not so much for a character build, per se, but rather for use as a GM...e.g. a tribe of Were-SwSp Kobolds or a family of W-SwSp Orcs or something.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

I'd go with your first instinct and build it off of a Kobold, if it was for a PC. Go with a USS dip for Assassin's Stance and then take Shadow Blade, Craven, WepFinesse, and Rogue or Fighter levels. +12 Dex, no armor, 3 nat weapons with massive bonus damage, you won't even notice the -6 Str. Not sure for mass-produced NPCs, though.