The Beast Within [3.5 Feat Set]

[Admiral Squish]

It's well known that all the greatest fighting styles have inspiration in the animal world. It's a simple explanation, man sees animal, man imitates animal, man kicks butt. But with some, the connection is not merely imitation, the act of mimicking the animal's motions unlocks a hidden connection to the primal nature of man. With study, this connection can deepen.

This feat tree is inspired a lot by anime. You know the scenes I'm talking about, when the character takes on a combat stance and suddenly you see some sort of animal in the background striking an intimidating pose. Hopefully, I created a way to do that, as well as providing some nice options for character with a feat or two to burn.

Beast Spirit:
You feel a special connection to a specific kind of animal, which grants you some benefits.
Benefit: Choose one animal from the following list as your spirit beast and gain the associated benefit.

{table=head]Animal|Benefit| Greater
Ape| +2 bonus to Climb and Intimidate checks| Climb Speed equal to 1/2 base land speed
Badger| +2 bonus to Fortitude saves| Barbarian Rage +1/day
Bat| +2 bonus to Listen checks, +1 bonus to initiative checks|Blindsense equal to 5 ft x wis mod
Bear| +2 bonus to grapple Checks| Improved Grapple
Bison/Bull| +2 bonus to bull rush checks| 4d6+2x str damage if you bull rush an opponent into a wall
Boar| +2 bonus to checks to stabilize| Diehard
Cat| +2 Bonus to move silently checks and jump checks|Weapon finesse
Cheetah| +5 foot bonus to land speed| +1d6 Skirmish
Crocodile| +2 bonus to swim checks and on constitution checks to hold your breath| Swim speed equal to 1/2 base land speed
Dog| +2 bonus to survival checks made to follow tracks and sense motive checks| Scent
Eagle| +2 bonus to spot and search checks|Flyby Attack
Elephant| +2 bonus to overrun attempts| 2d6+str damage to opponents successfully overrun
Horse|+2 bonus to constitution checks to keep running| Run
Leopard| +2 bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks| Pounce
Lion| +2 damage on charge attacks| Pounce
Monkey| +2 bonus on climb and balance checks| Climb speed equal to 1/2 base land speed
Octopus| +2 bonus on swim checks, +1 bonus on grapple checks| Swim speed equal to 1/2 base land speed
Owl| +2 on spot and move silently checks| Flyby Attack
Rat| +2 on climb and swim checks| Bonuses increase to +8
Rhino| +2 damage on charge attacks| +2d6 damage on charge attack
Shark| +2 bonus on swim checks and +1 bonus on initiative checks| Swim speed equal to 1/2 base land speed
Snake| +2 bonus on Hide and Escape Artist checks|Poison Use
Squid| +2 bonus on swim checks, +1 bonus on grapple checks|Swim Speed equal to 1/2 base land speed
Tiger| +2 damage on charge attacks|Pounce
Weasel| +2 bonus on Escape Artist and Climb checks|Climb speed equal to 1/2 base land speed
Wolf| +2 bonus on trip attempts| Improved Trip
Wolverine| +2 to attacks made in a grapple| Barbarian's Rage +1/day
[/table]

Greater Beast Spirit
Prerequisite: Beast Spirit, BaB +5
Benefit: Consult the table. You gain the 'greater' benefit of the animal you selected as your beast spirit. In addition, the bonuses granted initially by your beast spirit double.
If the greater benefit is a feat, you are considered to have that feat.

Feral Aura:
Prerequisite: Beast Spirit, Greater Beast Spirit, Cha 13
Benefit: When activating this feat you may take either a move action or a swift action to make an intimidate check. All enemies within 60 feet that you can see and can see you are shaken for one round if the result of your check is equal or greater than their HD. If you chose to take a move action to make this check, the enemies are instead frightened for one round, and shaken until the end of the encounter.

[Temotei]

Lion/tiger + rhino sounds delicious, though it takes four () feats.

They mostly seem balanced, though some are obviously more powerful than others (lion/tiger vs. cheetah vs. horse).

[Kobold-Bard]

No penguin? Nobody fears the deadly penguin anymore.

Look good.

[Temotei]

No penguin? Nobody fears the deadly penguin anymore.

Look good.

Yes! Give a +2 bonus to Swim checks, as well as a +4 bonus on saving throws against extreme cold conditions. I'm not sure about the greater version. Limited flight, as a joke?

[Morph Bark]

Feral Aura should take a move action, not a swift OR a move action. This will make it so you can't do it in combination with a full attack. On average (with a Cha of 13, max ranks in Intimidate, no stat- or skill-boosting spells or items) you will be able to make creatures with 14 more HD than you shaken, unless they are immune to fear (which for monsters is almost always type-dependant: undead, oozes, constructs and plants, prettymuch). Frightening is just too much as it will disallow them from taking actions. Into the mid-levels you could frighten the Tarrasque into oblivion by taking a move action every turn to use it, as-is. So, bad idea.

EDIT: Also, do the Beast Spirit and Greater benefits, if they overlap, stack? For instance, the Rhino bonus damage on charge attacks?

Can you take the feats multiple times and thus gain multiple Beast Spirits, as Temotei would love to do? (If yes, can you take the Greater Beast Spirit feat and have it count for all your Beast Spirits?)

Octopus and Monkey also have differently-worded Greater versions. One says "1/2 base land speed" (so 15 for humans, always) the other "1/2 land speed" (15 for humans normally, but 15 more during haste, or 5 more for a Barbarian, or a level 3 Monk or Scout).

[TheGeckoKing]

No Gecko spirit with Climb bonus and Spider Walk? I'm shocked

[Admiral Squish]

Lion/tiger + rhino sounds delicious, though it takes four () feats.

They mostly seem balanced, though some are obviously more powerful than others (lion/tiger vs. cheetah vs. horse).

Isn't the general rule of feats you can't take them more than once unless it's specifically mentioned?

I admit, there is some significant disparity, but a lot of the choices would be mostly flavor.

No penguin? Nobody fears the deadly penguin anymore.

Look good.

Meh... +2 swim and +2 to saves against cold damage or cold effects, then swim speed.

Feral Aura should take a move action, not a swift OR a move action. This will make it so you can't do it in combination with a full attack. On average (with a Cha of 13, max ranks in Intimidate, no stat- or skill-boosting spells or items) you will be able to make creatures with 14 more HD than you shaken, unless they are immune to fear (which for monsters is almost always type-dependant: undead, oozes, constructs and plants, prettymuch). Frightening is just too much as it will disallow them from taking actions. Into the mid-levels you could frighten the Tarrasque into oblivion by taking a move action every turn to use it, as-is. So, bad idea.

EDIT: Also, do the Beast Spirit and Greater benefits, if they overlap, stack? For instance, the Rhino bonus damage on charge attacks?

Can you take the feats multiple times and thus gain multiple Beast Spirits, as Temotei would love to do? (If yes, can you take the Greater Beast Spirit feat and have it count for all your Beast Spirits?)

Octopus and Monkey also have differently-worded Greater versions. One says "1/2 base land speed" (so 15 for humans, always) the other "1/2 land speed" (15 for humans normally, but 15 more during haste, or 5 more for a Barbarian, or a level 3 Monk or Scout).

Well, HD scales faster than CR in a lot of situations. How would you recommend making it scale properly, then? Will save? Also, the swift action is only shaken, and only for one round, so you would have to using your swift action every round to use it, and there are a number of things you could otherwise use your swift actions on. The move action was intended to make it more of a long-term scare. As of losing actions, I was intending to demonstrate the usual effect I see of this in the source, which is the opponents hesitating out of fear.

yes, they stack, so guy with greater rhino would deal 2d6+4 bonus damage on his attack post-charge.

I'll go fix the wording.

[Temotei]

No Gecko spirit with Climb bonus and Spider Walk? I'm shocked

This makes me want a chameleon one. Give a bonus to Hide and Move Silently(?), then give hide in plain sight.

Isn't the general rule of feats you can't take them more than once unless it's specifically mentioned?

These feats just seem like they should be able to be taken more than once, so you can get multiple spirits. I was asking more out of "WHY NOT?" than "Can they?"

[Admiral Squish]

On multiple spirits, it's not adopting wandering ghosts or something, it's more like unlocking the true form of your own spirit. You get one.

[monkman]

When it says Fly by attack(greater for owl and others), what happens if the person has no wings?

[Admiral Squish]

They're treated as having the feat. If they don't have wings, there's nothing to use. If they somehow gain the ability to fly, though, then they would be able to use the feat.