Please help balance/adjust homebrewed sentient tiger based of The Noble Wild handbook

[tigmades]

Firstly, I'm an animal lover (more like obsessor). I've played druids, shapeshifters, etc and my DM granted my request of homebrewing a sentient tiger character. I realize homebrewing can be quite difficult to make balanced, so I'm hoping I could receive some aid/feedback as this is the first time I've attempted it (it would be much appreciated!!!).

I have The Noble Wild handbook, and they do have a tiger, however it has an LA of +3, and our campaign starts at ECL 1 and thus the homebrewing component. So what I did was fiddle around with the progression of the tiger class, which there are 6 levels (but I'm turning into 9 to account for LA), and the plan is to level as a barbarian afterwards. (Ergo much of it is similar to the Noble Tiger in the The Noble Wild handbook, however abilities are given at different levels).

Please keep in mind that this character's sole purpose is to deal damage with natural attacks, and that is it: no magic, no tricks, just tigery goodness (much like a barbarian), so I'm expecting to have higher damage output than normal because that's all I'm good for! ;)


Sentient Tiger Racial Traits

• small
• Size threshold: 5th and 8th hit dice
• Base speed 30ft
• Natural weapons: Bite (1d4), 2 claws (1d3)
• -2 STR, +2 DEX
• Low-light vision
• Scent (Ex)
• +4 racial bonus to balance, hide, move silently, swim. Hide increases to +8 in areas of tall grass or heavy undergrowth
• Automatic languages: feline and high fauna. Bonus languages: Bat, Camel, Canine, Common, Crocodilian, Elephant, Equine, Herdspeak, Hyena, Lizard, Monitor, Raptor, Rodent, Serpent, Simian, Songbird, Ursine, and Woodland.
• Natural talent track: Alertness, Improved Natural Weapon (bite), Improved Natural Weapon (claw)

(Natural talent track is from the Noble Wild book - essentially if I take all those feats, when I take the last one on the list I get my choice of bonus feat)

Sentient Tiger Character Class Features

• HD: d8
• Class skills: Balance, Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Spot, Survival, Swim
• Skill Points at 1st Level: (2 + Int modifier) x 4
• Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier
• Good fortitude and reflex saves, poor will save
• BaB starts off 0 at lvl 1 but increases 1 each level thereafter
• Ability Increase: At 4th and 8th levels your Dexterity score increases by +2.
• No weapon or armor proficiency granted
• Natural Armor: At 5th level tigers gain +1 Natural Armor bonus.
• Pounce (Ex): At 5th level you gain the Pounce special ability. If you charge a foe, you can make a full attack.
• At 5th level, base landspeed increases to 40ft
• Improved Grab (Ex): At 6th level, you gain the Improved Grab special attack. To use this ability, you must hit with your bite attack. You can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If you win the grapple check, you establish a hold and can Rake if you have that special attack.
• Rake (Ex): At 8th level, you gain the Rake special attack. When you make a charge attack using the Pounce special attack, or when you make an Improved Grab attack, you can also make 2 additional claw attacks that do the same base damage as your front claws (without any specific magical bonuses) with your rear claws. This attack always counts as a secondary attack.

The Noble Wild also introduces deeds that have 5 levels - so after x happens you can pay x experience for x benefit (eg. lvl 1 deed: kill a foe equal or higher lvl and you pay 125xp for a +1 to attack and damage roles of one natural weapon). Eventually I will get +5 to attack/damage roles by paying an xp cost, once I reach lvl requirements for deeds, which I might only get for bite or claws (I can take deed for each natural weapon).

From the size charts, going from S to L I will get:

• +12 STR
• -4 DEX
• +6 CON
• +2 natural armor
• bite damage: 1d4 --> 1d8
• claw/rake damage: 1d3 --> 1d6
• -2 Attack/AC mod
• +8 Grapple (mod bonus total +4)
• -8 hide (mod bonus total -4)
• 3x carrying capacity

To get an idea of approximate damage, I made up a lvl 9 char with this build. Assuming I took feats multiattack, natural weapon attack:bite, natural weapon attack:claws, damage would look roughly like this IF I hit with everything:

• Standard attack: 2d6+STR (~9)
• Full attack: 2d6+STR, 2x 1d8+1/2STR
• Pounce attack: 2d6+STR, 4x 1d8+1/2STR

I probably would be pouncing 1-3x by my guesses in a fight depending on the number of enemies and positioning. Is this too much? Base attack bonus would be 8 for primary weapon and 6 for secondary.

Or instead of those 3 feats, should I go for Power Attack, Improved Bullrush (prereq) to get Shock Trooper for the Heedless Charge benefit?

My apologies if I've forgotten to include anything... this was moreso just me getting feelers out to see how things are progressing and how/if I should change them. Any opinion is greatly appreciated!

Thank you ^_^

[The Mentalist]

The class seems balanced if a little weak but I would definitely take the Power Attack + Charge Line as a Tiger and take the build to the roleplaying forums for other ways to up your damage output. You'll also need to up your jump as you don't fly.

[tigmades]

The class seems balanced if a little weak but I would definitely take the Power Attack + Charge Line as a Tiger and take the build to the roleplaying forums for other ways to up your damage output. You'll also need to up your jump as you don't fly.

Hmm, potentially a little weak, eh? I also realized I turned the tiger class into essentially 8 instead of 9, but if it's not OP then I'll leave it as is, and perhaps add something more to it. *smacks forehead* I just realized I was looking at BaB as if it were the attack roll bonus; with a strength starting as 16 for lvl 1, by the time I'm lvl 9 attack roll bonus would be 16 for primary, 14 for secondary. That still seems alright/balanced?

As for Jump, I guess I can justify adding it as a class skill and give it a bonus because dire tigers have it, and I would prefer eventually reaching dire tiger size (they still count as only large).

I didn't see a feat called Charge Line... were you referring to the Shock Trooper feat I had mentioned earlier?


Thank you for your input :)