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[gbprime]

I want to pick the community's brain here. A player in an upcoming campaign is going to be playing a mounted combat barbarian, but the plot is going to take her in the direction of becoming the mortal avatar of an elemental deity (water/cold). What I'm looking to do is present the player with options to pick up elemental powers WITHOUT diluting her mounted combat role and WITHOUT making her a spell caster.

The first option that comes to mind would be levels in Warlock, either by class levels or prestige class, including powers like Hideous Blow, Breath of Night, Swimming the Styx, Witchwood Step, etc.

What else might I consider? And is there a good PrC that would transition warlock stuff into a non-caster?

(And for reference, we're not using psionics or incarnum in the campaign, but since this is DM fiat at work, I'd be open to considering them for this purpose.)

[Morph Bark]

Give her an elemental mount? Levels in Warlock or Dragonfire Adept might work, I suppose, but I dunno if you can still use SLAs during rage.

[Prodan]

Frostrager!

[Starbuck_II]

I want to pick the community's brain here. A player in an upcoming campaign is going to be playing a mounted combat barbarian, but the plot is going to take her in the direction of becoming the mortal avatar of an elemental deity (water/cold). What I'm looking to do is present the player with options to pick up elemental powers WITHOUT diluting her mounted combat role and WITHOUT making her a spell caster.

The first option that comes to mind would be levels in Warlock, either by class levels or prestige class, including powers like Hideous Blow, Breath of Night, Swimming the Styx, Witchwood Step, etc.

What else might I consider? And is there a good PrC that would transition warlock stuff into a non-caster?

(And for reference, we're not using psionics or incarnum in the campaign, but since this is DM fiat at work, I'd be open to considering them for this purpose.)

Frost Rage (gain cold subtype while raging).
Look in book Frostburn.

[BobVosh]

Give some immunities from the elemental type (immune to crits, sneak attack, etc)

[Douglas]

Frostrager!

Indeed. The Frostrager PrC sounds perfect for this.

[Jota]

If you don't hate Tome of Battle (and aren't averse to homebrew) there's a number of options.

• You can use Fax Celestis' barbarian with a modified Desert Wind that does cold damage.
• You can do the above with IGTN's Eternal Glacier instead of one of the other disciplines.
• As above with a different cold-based discipline, Yue Ryong's Placid Lake
• I'm pretty sure there's another cold-based discipline (Razor Wind or summat) floating around on the homebrew board.
• Any of the above disciplines, but using Aarnott's Sublime Barbarian prestige class instead of Fax's barbarian.
• There's another homebrew Tome of Battle barbarian on the boards here, but it uses a rages per day mechanic, which I dislike, so if you want to find it that's on you.
• You could add something like a silver dragon bloodline (not recommending it, but it's an option).
• You could re-pick the powers for the phrenic template (probably one of the only templates that is even close to worth it's LA -- might reduce to +1 if they're primarily cold-based substitutions) to fit your theme.
• Another IGTN creation is the Elements Project, which has a few races, feats, and classes/prestige classes that might interest you. A decent amount of the material is tier two or above, just as an FYI.
• In a similar vein to the Elemental Weird from the Elements Project mentioned above, there is the Conduit of the Lower Planes. Both have pre-reqs you might handwave if your character doesn't want to conform to them, but assuming you go this route, the relevant spheres are Arctic, Cold, and Frostbite, in all likelihood, though a few others may interest you. Four levels of conduit loses you one BAB and grants two spheres with enhanced access, which is fair amount of options.

Or you could go frostrager. Yup. Really interesting choice there.

[Lord Loss]

I'd go Frostrager myself, with an elemental Mount, but the above poster's suggestions are very good as well.

[Zaq]

The Planar Handbook offers the Elemental Warrior, which is a melee-focused PrC for making someone more attuned to a chosen element and/or elemental plane. Like most of the PrCs in the Planar Handbook, it's by no stretch overwhelmingly powerful (though it's easy to qualify for), but it's there.

[gbprime]

If you don't hate Tome of Battle (and aren't averse to homebrew) there's a number of options.

[LIST][*]You can use Fax Celestis' barbarian with a modified Desert Wind that does cold damage.[*]You can do the above with IGTN's Eternal Glacier instead of one of the other disciplines.

I like these. I'll use retraining to add something like this in later on in the campaign when she develops the ability. Thanks.

[super dark33]

she will have 2d6 bonus cold damege for any attack.


she will be able to create and control water.

water elementals are honord by her presense

she is hated by fire elementals

she is able to summone water elementals (according to level)

[PinkysBrain]

Is it possible to give the other players freebies of equal power?

I think taking away class choice from a player is just a fundamentally bad idea, it's their character. Anything you as the DM give out should come on top of her choices, not take away her ability to chose.

So personally I'd design a template which gives her extra powers, also a mount granted by her deity.

[super dark33]

she will reide a floating giant seahorse

[gbprime]

Is it possible to give the other players freebies of equal power?

That is the plan, yes. The campaign has a "free" LA rule. Many of the players have taken a LA race, and simply get a -1 to all d20 rolls per LA. The penalty goes away at -1 per 3 levels.

Those PC's who did not take a LA race will instead get some kind of bonus at those levels. So in the case of this barbarian, she'll get all the qualifying feats she needs for free. She can certainly turn down the opportunity, and later use retraining options to do whatever she wants (including retrain the free feats), which will become "plan B" for the character's development. that's up to the player.

And she's going into the game with a special mount already. it's another PC.