Awakened Toad ideas

[ranagrande]

I'm going to be starting a new 3.5 campaign soon. I jokingly told the DM that I wanted to play an Awakened Toad and, much to my surprise, have been given permission to do just that. It should be so awesomely fun that of course I have to play it now.

We'll be starting at third level, so I'll only get one class level. I suppose I probably shouldn't go melee, since diminutive weapons would do so little damage, although Barbarian is kind of tempting as it would triple my movement speed. I think a Warlock might be the best choice, but I'm still deciding.

Anyway, I'm curious. If you were going to play an Awakened Toad, how would you do it?

We can use pretty much anything, but we can't have evil alignments.

[9mm]

bard with perform (croaking) or some other type of spell caster focusing on sonic attacks.

[Flickerdart]

Spellcasting will be gimped: even though a Toad has +4 WIS, thus making it a reasonable Druid candidate, starting two levels late (with melee-oriented Magical Beast HD) is going to cramp your style. Skill-monkeying will suck too with those 2 skill points, and your 3d6 INT unlikely to be stellar.

Your WIS bonus might make you a good Psychic Warrior though, and the Druid's Wildshape makes your awful STR not count.

[Ponce]

Psion?

[XiaoTie]

If you could have it in medium size a frog would be an awesome swordsman

But since you aren't, I think something that does not require you to move around a lot. Perhaps a ranger with Zen Archery (from Complete Warrior, replaces Dex with Wis for ranged attacks)?

[Quietus]

Spellcasting will be gimped: even though a Toad has +4 WIS, thus making it a reasonable Druid candidate, starting two levels late (with melee-oriented Magical Beast HD) is going to cramp your style. Skill-monkeying will suck too with those 2 skill points, and your 3d6 INT unlikely to be stellar.

Your WIS bonus might make you a good Psychic Warrior though, and the Druid's Wildshape makes your awful STR not count.

Plus, if he can make it to level 7 (or better, 10), he gets the awesome of going from a Tiny-sized Frog to a bigass bear.


CrrrooooaaaaaaAARRRRR!!!

[KillianHawkeye]

Play a sorcerer or wizard... with a toad familiar!

[Indon]

Play a sorcerer or wizard... with a toad familiar!

And name it Corsica.

[golem1972]

HypnoToad For The Win!!!

Straight Psion or Wilder, or Psion / Thrallherd.

No matter what class you play, talk to your DM about retraining your animal levels. They hurt a lot, especially in a caster build. And, they don't add anything thematically to your character. Perhaps you could buy off the levels like LA buyoff from UA (buy one off at 6th, and the other at 9th)?

Use whatever physical ability adjustments you agree on (I suggest S:-10, D:+6, C:+2; slightly underbalanced, but toads are seen as clumsy and fine sized is strong for casters) with no adjustments to mental stats. Kind of like using an intelligent animal race just using "Awaken" for fluff.

Oh yeah, if you go with Wilder instead of Psion, talk to your DM about their Powers Known progression. They actually get fewer known than a Warlock (who gets unlimited castings). We went with 21 (2 at first level, +1 per level after), in between a PsyWarrior and a Psion.

Whichever way you go, Quoth (my Raven Bard) wishes you good luck.

Edit: yeah I know Toad is Diminutive, not Fine. But a dinner plate sized toad isn't what I think of as "normal".

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Rogue. And then go with the Melee Killer Gnome.

Or go with Wizard(get your DM to let you buy off the HD, or just eat the penalty), take Invisible Spell(Cityscape), and ride on the party Bard. Let him claim to be the Wizard. You claim to be his Familiar. Vanish whenever you don't want to be around.

[Riffington]

Swordsage.
You've got great wisdom, and can do all kinds of size-related shenanigans. The only thing you can't do is generate damage. Maneuvers to the rescue.

[Olo Demonsbane]

You could always use the anthropomorphic toad from Savage Species.

Otherwise, Melee Killer Gnome FTW.

[The_JJ]

Be a cursed ex-lawyer.
Find 'employment' with Smurfs on steroids and Gaelic accents.
?????
Profit.

[Jayabalard]

everyone loves hypnotoad

[Froogleyboy]

Or go with Wizard(get your DM to let you buy off the HD, or just eat the penalty), take Invisible Spell(Cityscape), and ride on the party Bard. Let him claim to be the Wizard. You claim to be his Familiar. Vanish whenever you don't want to be around.

This. This is awesome. do it man!

[TSED]

I really really think you should have been cursed. You WERE just a boring generic NPC, but then you accidentally stiffed some chaotic evil warlock three copper on her change for her drink...


Anyways, your name somehow got slipped into the narrative and suddenly you went from bartender to PC!


I'd really recommend buying off your Magical Animal HD with some method, because there is no way you're ECL is 3rd with just one level. Maybe an LA+1 and take normal class levels, whatever.


The important thing is to go for awesome factor. How do you do that?

By playing dress up. If you are a wizard, get a wizard hat. If you go into a class with armour proficiency, wear the heaviest armour you can. So what if it costs extra? Being a a toad crusader in custom-made plate mail... Yes. If you go cleric, wear the plate mail and take domains that are totally not toad-like (Sun and Good, for example, instead of Trickery and Animals).

For actual class I'd recommend something that gets you an alternate movement form ASAP (read: flight). This could be as simple as picking a riding hawk as your animal... companion...

RANGER. ARCHERY RANGER. WITH A LOYAL OWL STEED. YES. For damage, try to get the DM to homebrew some kind of +1 enchantment of Medium Size Arrow Firing or rub your poison on the 1 dmg arrows or whatever.

I am totally in love with the image of a toad riding bird-back and doing the whole Mongol Horse-Archer schtick taken to an illogical extreme.

[Jack Zander]

Bard.

"Hello my darling, hello my baby, hello my ragtime gal!"

[Quietus]

RANGER. ARCHERY RANGER. WITH A LOYAL OWL STEED. YES. For damage, try to get the DM to homebrew some kind of +1 enchantment of Medium Size Arrow Firing or rub your poison on the 1 dmg arrows or whatever.

I am totally in love with the image of a toad riding bird-back and doing the whole Mongol Horse-Archer schtick taken to an illogical extreme.

Soulbow?


Owl-riding toad (in armor?)... with MIND BULLETS!

Either way, anything involving doing HP damage has to use a damage source outside of normal weapons and devoid of strength input. Other options : Melee-based, mounted, with a Flame Blade and Spirited Charge? Sadly, you won't have the strength to Power Attack with it, so its damage would be fairly weak...

[Lawless III]

Or go with Wizard(get your DM to let you buy off the HD, or just eat the penalty), take Invisible Spell(Cityscape), and ride on the party Bard. Let him claim to be the Wizard. You claim to be his Familiar. Vanish whenever you don't want to be around.

This is genious, pure genious. I haven't heard a better idea for a dynamic roleplay in ages. I'm seriously considering stealing this and making it into a series of young adult novels. Please forgive me.

[Alleine]

Warlock actually wouldn't be bad, you'd make up for the lost warlock levels with always hitting everything forever. Hello size bonus to hit! Not to mention some of the other cool things you can do, like shoot laser beams and raise the dead to serve as your tireless mounts.

[Tetsubo 57]

Psion, all the way.

A long time poster on the dnd Usenet newsgroup Sea Wasp has told of an awakened toad in an epic campaign. It sounded like a great time.

[squeekenator]

Play as a Rogue. Max out on sneak attack damage, since it isn't affected by your size. Use your ridiculous size bonus to Hide and your modest bonus on attack rolls to kick ass. In fact, if you want to be completely awesome, take Monkey Grip and dual wield spiked chains. A toad with two spiked chains sneak attacking for a gazillion damage. How is anything better than that?

[Tetsubo 57]

Play as a Rogue. Max out on sneak attack damage, since it isn't affected by your size. Use your ridiculous size bonus to Hide and your modest bonus on attack rolls to kick ass. In fact, if you want to be completely awesome, take Monkey Grip and dual wield spiked chains. A toad with two spiked chains sneak attacking for a gazillion damage. How is anything better than that?

An awakened toad I can buy. But a weapon wielding toad? Not so much.

And a spike chain alone is absurd. Let alone two of them being used by an amphibian.

[TSED]

An awakened toad I can buy. But a weapon wielding toad? Not so much.

And a spike chain alone is absurd. Let alone two of them being used by an amphibian.

They have digits! Their fingers close!

Sticky pads make up for lack of thumb!

[squeekenator]

Well, if we're going to be realistic about things, then he holds one weapon with his tongue and doesn't dual wield. Actually, that might be even awesomer than the aforementioned sticky pads solution. Tongue-wielding FTW!

[KillianHawkeye]

If there were four of you, you could all be ninjas.

[AstralFire]

And name it Corsica.

"Your current eyeglass prescription appears to contain a small percentage of fail... And a huge percentage of racism! HMMMM?!"

[Arachu]

*cough*dragondisciple*cough*

And, of course an amphibian using weapons is absurd. That's what makes it... Interesting


You could be a Druid, and then at (15th level? I forget), you could be a magical frog riding on a particularly sarcastic velociraptor.


EDIT: A frog with two spiked chains would be a wee little Kratos wannabe. And we can all imagine how badass that would be

[Deth Muncher]

Be a Knight.


EDIT: I can't post pictures on these forums. I've TRIED posting pictures. I've been TOLD how to post pictures. Still doesn't work.

SPOILER ALERT FOR CHRONO TRIGGER

The picture that SHOULD be accompanying this post is of the character Frog, from Chrono Trigger, who was effectively a night. He was a guy by the name of of Glenn who pissed of this guy with magic flying out of his arse - always a bad idea. On the plus side, he kicked all kinds of arse, so he's good.

[Tengu_temp]

Here, let me help you with that.



Most badass antropomorphic animal ever.