Concept, exotic Pet catcher(3.5and4e)

[DizzyD]

I have a character concept that I think would be fun to play, although it would rely on the DM to ok it, but I need a little help on what would make it good as the concept but not useless in every other way like I’ve seen before.

The concept would be an exotic pet catcher. He entered the life of adventuring so that he could catch, rather than kill, most of the animals and or creatures that he fights. He would sell them to a type of zoo or exotic pet shop. I’m sure you can see why this concept would be GM permits.

Anyway, whether one of my 2 GM’s permits or not I was interested in building the character just for fun. So I am interested in both 4e and 3.5 Dawnforge suggestions. If you don’t know dawnforge, just go with 3.5.

For 4e I was thinking human ranger or rogue. Human because they seem to be the ones that would be most ok with trapping and holding creatures for others viewing pleasure and ranger or rouge for skills and proficiencies.

For 3.5 I was thinking again a human ranger, rogue or scout. The scout would have a good benefit to speed and skills but the ranger would have a few spells available if necessary…

What kind of items would be useful for this characters line of work?

[Vizzerdrix]

3.5, either ranger or druid. I'd go Mystic Ranger variant, and snag the two feats out of one of the Dragon Mags that let you get a monster instead of an animal (things like Darkmantles, gricks and displacer beasts. You know, the cute ones)

Useful gear would be bolas (I think they are touch attack weapons, so don't bother with any prof. feats), tanglefoot bags, knock out poisons, Manacles (get the strongest ones you can find, but don't worry about better locks), cages, rope, and last but not least, Shapesand out of Sandstorm. Also, The Arms and Equipment Guide has a ton of good gear for training critters with.

Later, a Merciful weapon to subdue the critters.

[Hal]

Gotta catch 'em all, eh?

If you're just selling them away, and not keeping them to use in combat, then really ANY 4E character, trained in Nature, should be able to do this. Non-lethal damage is sufficiently easy in 4E, you just declare at the "killing" blow whether or not it's fatal.

I'm not sure which items would help you in the follow-up, but this isn't a difficult thing to start in 4E.

[Shademan]

3.5, either ranger or druid. I'd go Mystic Ranger variant, and snag the two feats out of one of the Dragon Mags that let you get a monster instead of an animal (things like Darkmantles, gricks and displacer beasts. You know, the cute ones)

Useful gear would be bolas (I think they are touch attack weapons, so don't bother with any prof. feats), tanglefoot bags, knock out poisons, Manacles (get the strongest ones you can find, but don't worry about better locks), cages, rope, and last but not least, Shapesand out of Sandstorm. Also, The Arms and Equipment Guide has a ton of good gear for training critters with.

Later, a Merciful weapon to subdue the critters.

you gotta link us to that feat or something

[Vizzerdrix]

I'll see if I can find them again, and tell ya what Mag.


This will take some time :)

Found it! Page 32, Dragon Mag #326.

[Shademan]

great... now send me that magazine! HAHAHA

[ShadowsGrnEyes]

Take a look at "Beast Heart Adept" in Dungeonscape. I think it might have the fluff your looking for.

Coincidentally it also gets you the basic effects of those feats and some extra stuff thats pretty cool too. . . like Monster lore. . .

[Eldariel]

great... now send me that magazine! HAHAHA

Crystalkeep should help you out.

[Vizzerdrix]

Beast Heart Adept is a great flavor class, but the pets you get from it are squishy and end up dead too often (they do not qualify for things like Natural bond). The feats I recommended add the monsters to your animal companion list so they will get stronger (they DO qualify for things like Natural Bond).

Hmm... We need some way to transport them. Some small container with an extradimentional stasis chamber. Something that we can deploy them from in a hurry...


(Waits for it....)

[Burley]

A cage with Shrink [Monster] on it.

No, not a cage. A sphere or orb of some sort. To focus the magic better.

[ShadowsGrnEyes]

yes yes we all get the pokemon reference. . . lol

[Emperor Tippy]

A Wizard with Mind Rape and Smokey Confiment.

Throw in gate if you want to be lazy and get your pokemon without having to leave your house.

[DizzyD]

Really I had no intentions of this being a "pokemon" character. I don't want to use the pets to fight. I want to Catch them and sell them. But I guess its my own fault for not seeing the similarities. Anyway, thanks for the advice so far. Any more?

[Burley]

4e has a pair of gloves in the Adv.Vault1 that let you choose to knock an enemy unconscious instead of kill it. From there, be whatever you want, thematically.
For the best pelts, play a Psion. Don't want sticks and stones to break bones.

[Tiki Snakes]

Actually, the gloves aren't even required. Anyone can choose to have a creature knocked out rather than killed when they reduce it to 0hp or less.

The gloves keep it unconcious longer, meaning that instead of waking up with 1hp in five minutes or so, it wakes up with 1hp after a looong nap(about 6 hours.)

Might still be worth taking, of course. I could also see there being a call for a grasping weapon (Probably on a polearm), as it lets you grab things at reach, and so on, adds it's enhancement bonus to grab rolls, and has an encounter power that lets you grab them, pull them adjacent on a normal hit.

Add in the feat "Pin Down" perhaps? (Prone creatures you are grabbing cannot stand until it escapes or is released.)

I'd say don't jump too quickly to ranger, actually. It's a good possible, but what you really want is merely nature as a skill, and possibly stealth also.
If you are going the 'knock it out, quickly!' route, ranger might work, but many other classes are also worth looking at, (including Barbarian, who would possibly even manage better due to being encouraged to use a two-handed weapon, such as a grasping pole-arm?)

If you can get your allies involved, maxing out your grapple stuff would be the way to go, I'd say, for that real croc-wrestling feel. Failing that, you could always build a series of improbable traps...

Spoiler

Show

[Person_Man]

For 3.5 I'm going to say Totemist. They get Wild Empathy, and they get a soulmeld that boosts Wild Empathy. It should be the best way to easily befriend animals and magical beasts.

Also, Beast Heart Adept.