Feral Gnoll Knight - Suggested feats, tactics, equipment?

[john_pullinger]

Hello again, mateys! Normally I stick to a lurking subsistence on the forum here, perusing threads, gleaning hints and tips, enjoying the humour; but today I thought, hey, why not see if anyone else is as interested in the potential of a Feral Creature templated gnoll Knight.

So far I've waddled him up to level 5 as a knight, I was going for a pure melee build with lots of animal in it (I like characters who are animals, lycanthropes or some mixture in between), but with good roleplaying potential and exciting class features. Knight stuck out, so I plumped for it.

He's very strong, has respectable charisma, but suffers from low intelligence. I've kitted him out with spikey full plate, a longspear and a warhammer. He also uses a buckler, having taken Shield Specialization and Improved Buckler Defence, so that he can have a bit of a shield bonus and use his knight shield class features even when he's using a two-handed weapon.

If things get desperate, he can drop his weapon and try to grapple. With two natural claw attacks and spikey armour, this'd probably work quite well at a pinch.

What he really lacks at this stage is any form of magic item or special equipment, he's got the basics but doesn't even have healing potions yet. The Feral Creature template gives him fast healing though, I wanted him to be resilient and, by the time he gets to level 20 as a knight, it'd hopefully let him use Loyal Beyond Death to stay in the fight while his fast healing went to work.

Also, he invests his sole skill point per level in Perform (burp).

So then my fellow D&D enthusiasts, what suggestions might you be able to ply me with to help improve my beastly knight?

-John

[paddyfool]

Sounds like fun. By level 5, I take it you mean ECL 5, so two gnoll racial hit die, +1 LA for gnoll, +1 LA again for Feral, and Knight 1? And have you had any thoughts on what kind of mount you'd want? EDIT: I'd recommend looking up the Desmodu War Bat.

[term1nally s1ck]

Go spend a day making money in the street by burping. Because that's too amusing to avoid doing. (especially if it's good enough to atract the attention of wealthy patrons)

Apart from that, Healing Belts are amazing, you probably want to start on your +1 items (cloak of resi, armor, weapon), or the +2 stat modifier...

Everbright lantern is useful, and very cheap.

[john_pullinger]

Thanks for the suggestions, mateys! Feral Creature grants darkvision increasing in range as you gain hitdice, so normally vision isn't a problem, but it'd be good for the rest of the party.

By healing belt, is that an activated item with 50-odd charges of cure critical wounds, something like that? Or is it a named magic item?

Currently my knight is: Gnoll - 2 hit dice, Knight - 5 hit dice, +1 L.A. for Feral Creature and +1 L.A. for gnoll.

I honestly haven't thought about a mount. I enjoy being a foot soldier primarily. Would it require a lot of book-keeping? It would be handy for carrying excess items though, tents and things. Flying mounts would be useful for getting about, too. Is there that much of a benefit to being mounted? Any recommendations?

I'm planning on having a good burp performance as soon as he hits a reasonably sized settlement, don't you worry. <_< I'll be enjoying the personality of this one.

-John

[term1nally s1ck]

Infinite use healing item.

3 charges/day, spend:

1 charge: 2d6 healing
2 charges: 3d6 healing
3 charges: 4d6 healing.

750gp is a bargain for an item that will outclass any wand within 2 or 3 levels, and if you have 3-4, it's a LOT of healing you can use on your downtime.

EDIT: Woah, ECL 9. That makes things easier..you can afford a fair bit by now.

Your AC can be boosted by getting a mix of armor enhancements, ring of protection, amulet of natural armor, and one of the ioun stones. at least a +1 on each would be a lot cheaper than +4 armor.

I'd go with a resistance item +2, for the saves, and from there, you can grab any wondrous items you like. You can't use wands though, so that one's up to you.

I'd invest in a Heward's Handy Haversack. 2k gp, eliminates the need to keep track of your encumbrance, and you can get anything as a move action (free if it qualifies for quick draw.)

[paddyfool]

Currently my knight is: Gnoll - 2 hit dice, Knight - 5 hit dice, +1 L.A. for Feral Creature and +1 L.A. for gnoll.

ECL 9 then? OK - lots of money to spend. But you're also going to be well behind the power-curve as a melee character with racial hit die etc. even tempered with the Feral template.

I honestly haven't thought about a mount. I enjoy being a foot soldier primarily. Would it require a lot of book-keeping? It would be handy for carrying excess items though, tents and things. Flying mounts would be useful for getting about, too. Is there that much of a benefit to being mounted? Any recommendations?

I'm no expert on mounts, but the Knight's mounted combat feats do rather lend themselves to having one. Of course, a large-sized mount is generally only going to be useful when you're out-of-doors so it'd be best not to invest too much in this, but they could be quite a bit of fun when you are. Also, some form of access to flight is essential as 9th level, and mounts can help address this (the war bat that I mentioned being about the cheapest way, although something of a slow-moving option).

[Runestar]

750gp is a bargain for an item that will outclass any wand within 2 or 3 levels, and if you have 3-4, it's a LOT of healing you can use on your downtime.

2-3 lvs is a long time. There is no limit to how often you can spam a wand of vigor or CLW (so long as you have charges), but you can only use a belt to regain up to 6d8hp each day (and 27hp healed/day is likely to be much lesser than the damage you will probably take).

Only advantage of the belt is that you can activate it yourself without need for ranks in UMD.

Else, I would still go with the wand anyday. The advantages of being able to swap multiple healing belts to use is much overrated, IMO.

[paddyfool]

Only advantage of the belt is that you can activate it yourself without need for ranks in UMD.

And this character has invested all of his skill ranks in Perform (burp). So a wand really isn't an option.

[term1nally s1ck]

I see no UMD. How does he use those wands?

If he buys 1, he gets 6d8 healing a day. That's 27, on average. For that you need 2.5 charges of lesser vigor, which is 1/20 of the wand, which would cost the same.

20 days is not necessarily a lot, if you are journeying and have a random encounter, that's 1 day gone. The wand runs out a lot faster than you think, and you need to take 2 wands anyway, to avoid dealing with the issues if you roll a 1.

If he's taking 2-3 healing belts, it averages between 54 and 81 healing a day, which would be 5 charges, or just over 7 charges, per day.

The other advantage is that you can use them in battle for an average of 18 emergency healing, while lesser vigor is A) Useless for that, and B) he has to pass the UMD check anyway.)

[Orran]

Better yet, get one of each, use the healing belts first to save on vigor charges, win all round.

[john_pullinger]

Thanks for the gratuitous input on healing wands and belts, they'd only be used to heal others though, since the Feral Creature template grants fast healing, so I wouldn't mind moving on to other aspects. A few minutes' downtime would sort my knight out between encounters. A potion of heal might come in handy though. Perhaps some kind of damage reduction/energy resistance might be better for a belt to wear in actual combat?

A war bat actually sounds pretty class. Maybe a big eagle or griffon. A pegasus? I've never dabbled in mounts before (except once with another character, my human rogue scout, who once rode another party member who was a winter wolf). Cobalt's (my knight's) ride and handle animal skills are abyssmal so it would need to be something easy to control.

What about feats? I gave him power attack when he reached 6 hit dice, to help get through damage reduction and to make the most of his two-handed weapons.

Any way to get spikes on a buckler, like a rondel, and enchant the spikey bit to be defending for an AC boost? Perhaps a special material to make his plate armour out of?

Anything I could add to his armour spikes? Would armour blades be better, any alternatives?

Will definitely, definitely take you up on that Handy Haversack suggestion, Term1nally.

-John

[FishAreWet]

Feral template grants those special abilities based on RACIAL hit-die. Which you have two of. And probably won't ever have more.

[term1nally s1ck]

For feats, it depends on what you want your char to do. Is going to smash into enemies on the charge and paste them, or is he going to be more controllery.

Person-Man's guide will tell you what to do for any of the standard tricks.

A Cure Serious Wounds potion costs the same as a healing belt, and heals about the same as a 3-charge burn. The belt is just generally awesome

All the weapon and armor crystals in the MiC are worth looking through.

[paddyfool]

Arg! I've just realised I completely forgot to link to this thread before. You should find it very helpful.

EDIT: Grr, ninjas.

A potion of heal might come in handy though. Perhaps some kind of damage reduction/energy resistance might be better for a belt to wear in actual combat?

To my mind, you might have a use for the odd potion of restoration etc., but you're right in thinking you really don't need to sweat this too much.

A war bat actually sounds pretty class. Maybe a big eagle or griffon. A pegasus? I've never dabbled in mounts before (except once with another character, my human rogue scout, who once rode another party member who was a winter wolf). Cobalt's (my knight's) ride and handle animal skills are abyssmal so it would need to be something easy to control.

Yep, that's another major bonus to the whole flying mount bit: a significant insertion of class. You can buy a war-trained mount to largely avoid the handle animal bit, and you can get saddles that help with your ride check somewhat, so I wouldn't sweat these too much.

[john_pullinger]

Bugger. x_x I've been misintepreting the template all this time. Thanks, Fish, I'll have to sort that out when I get home (sneaking posts on from work at the moment).

War-trained is good advice, and the special/magic saddles, thanks!

Those guides by Person-Man are absolutely excellent, too, cheers Paddy. I'll give them a good scoping out.

I appreciate your advice, mateys, this has given me lots to think about. And fix, lol, thanks Fish.

-John

[john_pullinger]

I just got home and looked over the Feral Creature template again. I'd have to disagree with you unfortunately, Fish. It says "hit dice", it doesn't limit it to only racial hit dice. I checked for errata and found none.

Does anyone know if there has been clarification for templates like this before to clear up confusion over applicable hit dice/racial hit dice?

-John

[dougch]

its a wierd thingy john. it says hit dice first, but then refrences monstrous hitdice afterwards. to keep balance its commonly accpetred that onluy actal monstous hd boost it.

but ask your dm, if hes coo, then your gold

[john_pullinger]

He's been okay with it so far so we should be alright, thanks for the help.

Cheers guys, I should be sorted now. ^_^

-John