Awakened Housecat?

[mootoall]

I'm pretty keen on hitting up a Warlock-y housecat PC. Awakened, naturally. What kind of LA would the playground put on such a thing? What would the stat adjustments be?

[Yuki Akuma]

The stat adjustments would be Str -8, Dex +6, Wis +2, Cha -2.

[mootoall]

The stat adjustments would be Str -8, Dex +6, Wis +2, Cha -2.

Huh, seems like cats should get a Cha bonus ...

Is that taking into account size adjustments?

[Yuki Akuma]

That is taking into account the exact stat adjustments a cat gets, plus the 1d3 Cha and replacing the Int with 3d6.

[KillianHawkeye]

Is that taking into account size adjustments?

Those stat mods are derived from the house cat's standard ability scores. If you aren't changing its size, there won't BE any size adjustment.

As for Level Adjustment, I personally don't think it deserves any since you already have to deal with the Hit Dice from awaken.

[grarrrg]

I'm pretty keen on hitting up a Warlock-y housecat PC. Awakened, naturally. What kind of LA would the playground put on such a thing? What would the stat adjustments be?

An Awakened Housecat? YOU FOOL! HOUSECATS ARE ALREADY OVERPOWERED! YOU'LL KILL US ALL!!

[mootoall]

An Awakened Housecat? YOU FOOL! HOUSECATS ARE ALREADY OVERPOWERED! YOU'LL KILL US ALL!!

Heh, the two racial cat HD hurts it plenty. I was considering giving it the dungeonbread template for extra funsies. Hellfire Ur-Lock should still work though.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Why not be a tibbit (Dragon Compendium) and stay the whole time in Cat form? just what you want, without any pesky LA or HD

[mootoall]

Why not be a tibbit (Dragon Compendium) and stay the whole time in Cat form? just what you want, without any pesky LA or HD

Mostly 'cause I don't have Dragon Compendium

[Darrin]

There's an anthropomorphic cat entry in Savage Species, although how they decided its LA +1 is beyond me (small size, Str -4, Dex +2, Wis +2... apparently they never met my bountiful-font-of-wisdom "yes I eat ribbons, plastic, and small palm trees" cat).

There's also two humanoid shapechangers that can change into housecats: Hengeyokai (Oriental Adventures) and Tibbits (Dragon Compendium). Both of those are LA +0.

One of my "rainy day" character concepts I've always wanted to play is a Tibbit warlock who pays a hireling entertainer to pretend to be a powerful dueling sorcerer with a "cat" familiar. The Tibbit sets up an elaborate "steel cage deathmatch!" magic duel with the local wizard "champion", bets everything against the hireling patsy, sets up or helps the hireling take a "dive", and dashes out of town with the winnings before the locals get wise.

[Lateral]

One of my players in this PbP I'm running is a Tibbit DFA with the Frightful Presence feat and invocation, Humanoid Shape, and full ranks in Intimidate. It's a cat. That breathes fire. And can transform. And scares the crap out of things.

It's epic.

[mootoall]

One of my players in this PbP I'm running is a Tibbit DFA with the Frightful Presence feat and invocation, Humanoid Shape, and full ranks in Intimidate. It's a cat. That breathes fire. And can transform. And scares the crap out of things.

It's epic.

Yeah, I want this but a Hellfire Warlock Ur-Priest. Because it blasts fire from its eyes, and it's a sardonic atheist. It's everything I want to be, and a cat ...

[Lateral]

Yeah, I want this but a Hellfire Warlock Ur-Priest. Because it blasts fire from its eyes, and it's a sardonic atheist. It's everything I want to be, and a cat ...

Wow. That sounds... wow.

Have you heard of this? The fourth post on the second page has a Warlock prestige class called the Lazor Kitteh, and you could easily re-fluff the requirements so a Tibbit can get in.

[mootoall]

Hadn't seen that! Very interesting ... hmm ...

[babson99]

Another issue you'll run into is a lack of magic item slots. Necklace? Sure. Bracers? Probably. Rings, cloak, headbands, boots, gloves, headbands, goggles, robes? Only if you have a generous DM, and such gear will make it a lot harder to pass yourself off as a normal cat, which can be a significant advantage.

[Lateral]

If you're a Tibbit, they'll meld.

[TroubleBrewing]

I ran a game with a Pseudodragon Warlock once. It worked rather well. If you can justify it to your DM, most magic items can be used on a cat. Just google-fu some pictures of cats wearing sweaters, halloween costumes, jewelry, etc. (Yes, I DID just suggest that lolcatz actually have a use for character optimization.)

[Callista]

Just, whatever you do, don't use Lolspeak. Your fellow players will murderize you.

[Kelvara]

If you're going to be an awakened cat, you may as well try to swing it that the Awaken spell was maximized and/or empowered. Sure, it's cheesy to claim this, but from a high level druid's perspective, if you're spending exp to awaken a cat, why would you not use metamagic?

[mootoall]

Looks like Tibbit is the way to go here actually, unless I can convince my DM to have Awaken not add HD, or have them replaced with class levels a la Anthropomorphic cat. Useless for two levels is better than less useful forever, after all. I'd like to use cat for other reasons as well, namely adding the Dungeonbred template for extra smallness and more to-hit goodness.

[PlzBreakMyCmpAn]

If you're going to be an awakened cat, you may as well try to swing it that the Awaken spell was maximized and/or empowered. Sure, it's cheesy to claim this, but from a high level druid's perspective, if you're spending exp to awaken a cat, why would you not use metamagic?

I cannot believe this is only the second time I have seen this suggested. If only there were a PC race with the animal type!

[Kelvara]

Well, I think there's normally none because animals have less than 3 int, and you need at least 3 to be a PC. Don't forget, though, Awaken sticks you with 2 additional HD. Still, having potentially 24 base int is pretty sweet, and since magical beast HD get full BAB you could make an awesome awakened animal Warblade.

[mootoall]

Oooh, I completely forgot it was Magical Beast HD ... That's much more worth it. Not very, but kinda. Especially if they can then be replaced by class levels, again a la Anthro cat

[Kobold-Bard]

From the vaults of the GitP Monster Class project I present the Awakened Cat. bow before it and tremble!!

Awakened Cat

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HD: d4
Skills: 6+int modifier
Class skills: Balance, Bluff, Climb, Diplomacy, Escape Artist, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Listen, Move Silently, Sense Motive, Spot, Survival and Tumble.

{table]Level|BaB|Fort|Ref|Will|Feature
1|+0|+0|+2|+0|Cute and Fluffy Body, Adorable, Moxie, Cat's Eye, Weapon Finesse, -2 Str +2 Dex, +1 Cha[/table]

Proficiencies: Cats are proficient only with their natural weapons.

Features
Cute and Fluffy Body: The Awakened Cat loses all other racial traits and bonuses and gains magical beast traits (Low Light Vision and Darkvision 60 feet.) It is a tiny sized and has a base speed of 30 feet. It has two natural claw attacks dealing 1d2+Str damage each, and a secondary bite attack that deals 1d3+1/2Str damage
It does not have hands capable of fine manipulation, and cannot wield a weapon in either set of its paws; however, it is capable of casting spells with somatic components by flicking its tail.

Adorable (Ex): Aw, look at the kitty! Look at it! Don't you just want to give it a big hug? An awakened cat is just so darn cute, it can cast Charm Person as a SLA 1/day per HD with a DC=10+1/2 HD+Cha modifier.
At 10 HD, the cat's allure even extends to supernatural entities, and gains Charm Monster instead of Charm Person.

Moxie: The Awakened Cat gains a racial bonus to its Listen & Balance checks equal to 1/2 its HD and a racial bonus on Jump & Move Silently checks equal to its HD. The Awakened Cat uses dexterity instead of strength for the purposes of the Climb & Jump skills.
If an Awakened Cat is smaller than its opponent, it does not receive penalties to its intimidate skill and its opponent does not receive bonuses based on size differences.
Finally, they get a +5 bonus on tumble checks to avoid fall damage.

Cat's Eye (Ex): Cats are naturally skilled at seeing in the dark. The Awakened Cat's Darkvision improves by 5 feet every level. At 5HD it gains blindsense out to 10 feet, which improves by an additional 5 feet every two levels afterward. At 15HD it gains permanent True Seeing.

Weapon Finesse: At 1st level, the Awakened Cat gains Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat.

Ability Score Increases/Decreases: At 1st level, the cat takes a -2 penalty to strength, a +2 bonus to dexterity and a +1 bonus to charisma.

Comments:

Spoiler

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I think we can safely assume Sciencepanda has abandoned the thread. Anyways, I just wanted to clean some things up (specifically the ridiculous Charm Person DCs), but in the meantime I ended up changing almost everything.
I added a few more class skills, and removed Scent & Weapon Finesse for Cattish Moxie, which I felt was much more flavorful. If they want weapon finesse, they can take it as their 1st feat- they already get a sizable size bonus to attacks anyways. As for scent, while in reality cats really do have an excellent sense of smell, really, do you see a cat snuffling around in the dirt to track something? I didn't think so.
In hunting its prey, a cat is an ambush predator, relying on stealth & speed & maneuverability, and I felt there needed to be compensation for the lost scent, so I gave it the listen bonus.
The intimidate thing was... well, come on. My own 8 lb cat had our 80 lb dog terrified of it.
And then, of course, a cat always lands on its feet.

Also, check out the addendum after lacking fine manipulation.
Anyways, thoughts? Balance issues? Insults? Etc.? Anyone think I should give it weapon finesse again?

Changelog: Mixed up the skills under Moxie (and changed the name) and gave it weapon finesse.

[dextercorvia]

Oooh, I completely forgot it was Magical Beast HD ... That's much more worth it. Not very, but kinda. Especially if they can then be replaced by class levels, again a la Anthro cat

I believe Level Drain + Restoration shenanigans can make that happen.

[Coidzor]

Well, I think there's normally none because animals have less than 3 int, and you need at least 3 to be a PC. Don't forget, though, Awaken sticks you with 2 additional HD. Still, having potentially 24 base int is pretty sweet, and since magical beast HD get full BAB you could make an awesome awakened animal Warblade.

I believe that's slightly questionable for them to have full BAB since they're Magical Beast (Augmented Animal) HD. By RAW, unless it features an exception somewhere, the usual rules are followed.

If the DM feels they do though, or you can get it to fly, then those three HD aren't half bad, and if you level drain it down to a single RHD, then it's still not too shabby if it's retained rather than being traded for a class level HD.

Augmented Subtype

A creature receives this subtype whenever something happens to change its original type. Some creatures (those with an inherited template) are born with this subtype; others acquire it when they take on an acquired template. The augmented subtype is always paired with the creature’s original type. A creature with the augmented subtype usually has the traits of its current type, but the features of its original type.

Animal Type

An animal is a living, nonhuman creature, usually a vertebrate with no magical abilities and no innate capacity for language or culture.

Features

An animal has the following features (unless otherwise noted in a creature’s entry).

• 8-sided Hit Dice.
• Base attack bonus equal to ¾ total Hit Dice (as cleric).
• Good Fortitude and Reflex saves (certain animals have different good saves, for instance dire animals have good Fortitude, Reflex, and Will saves).
• Skill points equal to (2 + Int modifier, minimum 1) per Hit Die, with quadruple skill points for the first Hit Die.

Magical Beast Type

Magical beasts are similar to animals but can have Intelligence scores higher than 2. Magical beasts usually have supernatural or extraordinary abilities, but sometimes are merely bizarre in appearance or habits.

Traits

A magical beast possesses the following traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature’s entry).

• Darkvision out to 60 feet and low-light vision.
• Proficient with its natural weapons only.
• Proficient with no armor.
• Magical beasts eat, sleep, and breathe.

[Greenish]

Heh, the two racial cat HD hurts it plenty. I was considering giving it the dungeonbread template for extra funsies. Hellfire Ur-Lock should still work though.

Dungeonbred can only be applied on large or larger monsters, I'm pretty sure.

Dungeonbread sounds like a variant of dwarf bread.

[Czin]

Another issue you'll run into is a lack of magic item slots. Necklace? Sure. Bracers? Probably. Rings, cloak, headbands, boots, gloves, headbands, goggles, robes? Only if you have a generous DM, and such gear will make it a lot harder to pass yourself off as a normal cat, which can be a significant advantage.

From what I recall most gear will magically resize to fit it's user unless otherwise stated. That's how dragons can use rings. Now I'm sure there are limits (The Tome of madness specifically states that beholders can't use robes and such but compensate by being able to use a lot more rings.)

[Kelvara]

I believe that's slightly questionable for them to have full BAB since they're Magical Beast (Augmented Animal) HD.

I did not know that. Stupid subtypes!