3.5 Camel Handbook: A Hump for the Haters

[Jopustopin]

Camel's Handbook: A Hump for the Haters

Introduction
Camels are an obscure, often overlooked, race in the monster’s manual. They have the animal type. Any camel with a type other than animal is outside the scope of this handbook. With size large and a +8 strength you would think that every game the DM would be overrun with player’s arguing over who gets to play a camel. But this does not happen. This is due to several severe class flaws in the design of camels by WotC. They have a great strength score for an animal and large size (all good things) but unfortunately they do not have a primary natural attack. Basically this means that your strength score can only be used for carrying stuff around. They have three crappy HD worth of animal type and, most painfully, cannot advance. You read that right. When the DM awards experience to the group, go ahead and just stop keeping track when you hit level 3. The camel savage progression (as if there was such a thing) hits a hard level cap after 3 pitiful levels. In fact if I was the DM I would just let the player start out at level 3 as they won’t be contributing much of value to the group. Do we give up? No this is the Camel’s handbook and as such we will work around these design limitations to provide a critical look at this overlooked animal.

Weaknesses
You will feel extremely useless at lower levels, and as you “gain in power” you will continue to feel useless unless you are aware of the inherent weaknesses of this animal. We can talk all day about what they should have gotten, but they didn’t. Let’s just move on. Out of the box you have: No way to improve your BAB past +2, Only 6 skill points, only listen and spot as class skills, and no primary natural attacks. Fortunately with just the player’s handbook there is a way to break away from the pack. But we're not stopping there. We'll stop when we've crushed the Riding Dog into the earth and savagely consumed it's corpse.

Camel Advancement Options

1. Acquire a Druid Companion: With a druid companion at your side the world opens up in a way that very few camels has ever seen or experienced. With a druid by your side you have the possibility of getting up to 12 bonus HD from just being around her. If your game goes into epic, you could be an epic animal and go down in history as the most powerful camel to roam the material plane. All this for the price of hanging out with a companion that completely and utterly overshadows you at every point in the game. One last caveat you’ll want a half-orc druid companion. If she didn’t take the half-orc substitution levels pass on her and find a half-orc druid with an intelligence score above 6.
2. Acquire a ranger companion: It beats not having a companion in that you can gain some HD. But at some point the Ranger is going to realize that you suck and release you. When he does you lose all your HD, skills, and feats. If you’re lucky he’ll let you keep your saddle.
3. Find someone who likes animals: If you can find someone with the Wild Cohort feat all is not lost. This is marginally worse than hanging out with the Druid – and if the person who has the wild cohort feat is a commoner or a samurai you could possibly overshadow them. However there doesn’t seem to be any rules for epic progression. This is an unlikely option. Just go with the Druid.
4. Other: There is some trash 1 HD advancement in Sandstorm.

Races
Dromedary^MM-The standard camel and one that you should pass on.
Bactrian^MM-This gem is found if you read the camel entry. Trade 10 ft. of speed for a +2 to constitution. Basically a camel has +2 Con for each hump and the Bactrians have two humps.
Feral Bactrian^CoR-Not the feral template from Savage Species. This template is found in Champions of Ruin and requires your druid companion to have a special feat in order to tame you. She'll need an entire feat in order to deal with your ****. Basically think rabies. All the time. But it’ll be like you’re half raging all the time. The template gives any animal companion a +2 Str and a +2 Con and the ability to spread Red Ache (DC 15 Fort). There will be some role playing involved as well as you're not easy to get along with.
Feral Dromedary^CoR-Same as above but with only one hump.
Camel, Dromedary^Sand-You don't want to play this camel. It has an Int of 1. Also, the player's handbook doesn't indicate you can have camels that have commas after the name followed by a word. If you can then scroll down to your Camel, War animal companion.
Camel, Two-Humped^Sand-Again an Int of 1 means it's not worth it for whatever minor trade offs you get.
Camel, War^Sand-If the DM allows you to have a war camel then you actually do have a tougher choice. The War Camel cannot take the Warbeast template. Thus side by side the War Camel has a much stronger natural attack progression and a+3 natural armor class. But you lose 4 points of strength and 1 point of constitution. If your druid companion has a good alignment then he's going to take Exalted Animal Companion for his first level feat. Scroll on down!
Exalted Camel, War^BoED- The full cheese. I need a color past gold for this camel.
Exalted Bactrian^BoED-More realistically a DM will allow this. You can't add feral or the warbeast template but you get an intelligence of 3. That opens up every feat in the game and you won't need tricks. But now Tome of Battle stances, bindings, incarnuum, you name it. The world is your desert.
Exalted Two-Humped^BoED-Slightly better than the MM Camel now because that 1 intelligence turns into a 3. So you can enjoy the +1 natural armor class and sure feat ability.

The Warbeast Feral Bactrian

Spoiler: Hold the Cheese

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At level 3 your druid companion will be level 1.
If you got the right druid companion she should be good enough with animals to train you to be a Warbeast ASAP. This immediately gives you a free level! Like no xp needed. Broken right? With the retraining rules in the PHB II makes sure you retrain Alertness for Power Attack when you gain that level. At 4 HD bump up Str by 1. A typical druid starts with 50 gp. He should spend most of it on you. Leather Armor for a Camel cost 40 gp. When your Druid Companion is level 1, your stat block should look like this:

Spoiler: Camel 4

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Joe Camel the Camel
male feral warbeast camel animal 4
TN large animal (camel)
Init +3; Senses Low-light vision, Scent; Listen +5, Spot +5
Languages Camel

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AC 15 (-1 size, +3 Dex, +1 natural, +2 Armor), touch 12, flat-footed 12
HP 41/41 (4d8+23)
Fort +9, Ref +7, Will +2

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Speed 50 Feet
Attack Bite +4 (1d4+3/x2) plus red ache (DC 15 Fort)
Power Attack Bite +1 (1d4+6/x2) plus red ache (DC 15 Fort)
Attack Unarmed Strike^{provokes an AoO} +8 (1d4+7/x2 non-lethal)
Power Attack Unarmed Strike^{provokes an AoO} +5 (1d4+10/x2 non-lethal)
Base Atk +3; Grp +13

---

Abilities Str 24, Dex 16, Con 21, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 4
Feats Light Armor Proficiency, Medium Armor Proficiency, Heavy Armor Proficiency, Toughness, Power Attack, Endurance
Skills Listen +5, Spot +5, Balance +3
Possessions Leather Armor

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Tricks: Attack, Attack (All), Come, Guard, Down, Unarmed Strike, Power Attack

Yeah you'll notice the last two tricks are so that the DM can't cry that you shouldn't know when to power attack and when to unarmed strike. He'll claim you're "metagaming" because your Int is only 2. Now you can just wink at whoever is playing the druid companion across the table and then proceed to roflstomp everyone. Considering the riding dog can’t be a warbeast – you are blowing him out of the water with 41 hit points. Attack of opportunity? Who cares you have 41 hit points and you’ll be fighting level 1 mooks while you wait for your druid companion and his friends to catch up to you in levels.

Your druid companion hits level 3.
You know what that means? You immediately gain two levels of animal. Now this is really important. That jumps you from level 4 to level 6. We will be getting Improved Bullrush. You get two more skill points, both go into Balance (1.5 total). The druid can teach you another trick. I’d go with Spit because camels spit and by now everyone should be sick and tired of you and your druid companion. Alternatively you could teach him the trick Bullrush otherwise who knows when you’ll start doing it. Probably when it's appropriate... You could trade out Endurance but you might need it for Steadfast Determination. If you do trade out Endurance get Improved Sunder.

Your druid companion hits level 6.
You jump to level 8. You do get an ability score bump and it goes to Constitution! You get two more skill points (Balance 2.5). And another bonus trick. If you haven't been taught when to spit, now is the time to do so. Otherwise see if you can wait a bit until you have your weapon. You didn't think we'd be fighting unarmed for 15 levels did you?

Your druid should have been saving all his gold for your weapon. (Alternatively someone with a good alignment could take ancestral relic and let you use it). I mean, power attack? Stupid. Improved Bullrush? This is supposed to be a min/max guide and you still don’t have a way of attacking without provoking an attack of opportunity. Here is where you get good: +1 Gloryborn Mouthpick Jovar. Okay it doesn’t have to be a Jovar. It could be a spiked chain, a glaive, a scythe, or whatever other weapon you want your camel running around with. I like Gloryborn Jovars. You do you buddy. Skill Trick: Using a mouthpick weapon. That'll shut up the DM.

Your Druid hits level 9
You jump to level 10 (that companion of yours is catching up to you). You get a feat, two more skill points (Balance 3.5), and a bonus trick. Your feat will be Shock Trooper. Your skill is obviously: Heedless Charge.

Spoiler: Camel 10 with Animal Growth

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Because of course Animal Growth. Best 5th level spell for you.

Joe Camel the Camel
male feral warbeast camel animal 10
TN huge animal (camel)
Init +3; Senses Low-light vision, Scent; Listen +5, Spot +5
Languages Camel

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AC 22 (-2 size, +3 Dex, +7 natural, +4 Armor), touch 11, flat-footed 19
HP 128/128 (10d8+83)
Fort +15, Ref +10, Will +4

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Speed 50 Feet
Full Attack +1 Gloryborn Mouthpick Jovar +18/+13 (4d6+19/18-20)
Heedless Charge +1 Gloryborn Mouthpick Jovar +20 (4d6+33/18-20)
Base Atk +7; Grp +28

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Abilities Str 35, Dex 17, Con 26, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 4
Feats Light Armor Proficiency, Medium Armor Proficiency, Heavy Armor Proficiency, Toughness, Power Attack, Endurance, Improved Bullrush, Shock Trooper
Skills Listen +5, Spot +5, Balance +5
Possessions mwk Chain Shirt

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Tricks: Attack, Attack (All), Come, Guard, Down, Unarmed Strike, Power Attack, Spit, Heedless Charge, Whatever

Your druid companion has now hit level 12.
You also hit level 12. +1 Strength. That nets you a feat and we will go with either Steadfast Determination or Combat Brute. If the DM has figured out how to get rid of you by now take steadfast determination otherwise head for Combat Brute. Time to beef up that Will save. Balance 4.5. Your bonus trick will be: Uh... Momentous Swing!

Your Druid hits level 15 and you’re only 14.
The sad times begin. You don’t get a feat, or an ability score bump. You get a trick and… uh… 2 skill points (balance 5, Listen 1). Trick: Whatever man. Teach Joe Camel how to smoke.

Druid Level 18
You are at level 16. Both a feat and an ability bump (+1 Str). Combat Brute obviously. But if you picked up Steadfast Determination then you will probably want something stupid. I'll go with Powerful Charge^{Miniature's Handbook}. Skill Tricks for whatever magic items you get hooked up with this level. Your glory days are in the past, just be glad the Druid still has kept you around.

The Standard Spitter

[spoiler=Work in Progress[/spoiler]

Work in progress - As always I am open to ideas and other unexplored options. Next up is the feat Exalted Animal Companion - for those camels dwelling on the upper planes and the realms of good.

[eggynack]

No way to raise your BAB over +2 without some external source of advancement or whatnot? Feh, I say. One must only look to the war camel from sandstorm to know the truth, that marginally greater power was in reach of a baseline camel stat-block all along. Not a druid thing, or an any class thing, really, but it's a camel thing.

[Ruethgar]

It is better to find a Sorcerer or Wizard companion with the AC ACF, Obtain Familiar, and Theurgic Bond(Sorcerer/Wizard). That way you get 1.5x Animal Companion advancement. Add in a Major Bloodline, one level of Beast Master(+7), and a level of Animal Focus Druid(+6) and you can sit pretty at eventually effective companion level of 43.

Edit: +28 HD +28 NA +14 Str/Dex 15 tricks
Also Titanic Dungeonbred Camels don't have it bad.
Also note that if you are are weak Camel from playing pattycake with an undead(2HD), you can get yourself a Gnome friend that can say Pazuzu Pazuzu Pazuzu to give you Titanic and Awaken.

[Jopustopin]

No way to raise your BAB over +2 without some external source of advancement or whatnot? Feh, I say. One must only look to the war camel from sandstorm to know the truth, that marginally greater power was in reach of a baseline camel stat-block all along. Not a druid thing, or an any class thing, really, but it's a camel thing.

I will obviously include the option of gaining one HD before abruptly coming to a dead end. A dead end in which there is no escape. No epic Camel ever grew from this 4HD waste. It's a one humped war camel so you know it's trash.

[eggynack]

I will obviously include the option of gaining one HD before abruptly coming to a dead end. A dead end in which there is no escape. No epic Camel ever grew from this 4HD waste. It's a one humped war camel so you know it's trash.

To deny the pure truth of the only a camel is to deny the majesty of camels themselves. You must accept that which is only camel. Such is the path to perfected camel understanding.

[Ruethgar]

You could probably get even more with the common reading of Sword of the Arcane Order on a Paladin and theurge mount, animal companion, and familiar, potentially multiple times.

[eggynack]

Actually, might end up including camel. But it'd mostly be because it's almost strictly if marginally superior to a heavy horse, which I already have listed. You lose out on run, you trade out a point of will for two of reflex, and you weirdly trade your flat-footed AC for touch AC, but the advantages are a real thing, especially if you're going by sandstorm which expands on camel capabilities a bit, including the sure feet ability. Also, it looks like the sandstorm two humped camel picks up a point of AC over the standard version for some reason. Might be worth noting that in this handbook. You could maybe argue that the MM camel stats take precedence for animal companion stuff, but it seems like a hard position to take. The animal companion thing just says camel, but the camel entry, as you point out, explicitly states that we're working with two different kinds of camels that seem equally camel, and the sandstorm entries are labelled identically to the MM description.

Edit: Done. Came out alright, I think.

[Jopustopin]

You could probably get even more with the common reading of Sword of the Arcane Order on a Paladin and theurge mount, animal companion, and familiar, potentially multiple times.

Honestly I was just trying to make something that a DM would reasonably allow. I know some people don't think warbeast is reasonable others but I think most DM's woudn't allow your effective level to go past your actual level. But maybe I'm wrong, who knows.

Also, it looks like the sandstorm two humped camel picks up a point of AC...

I have been at work for the last eight hours with nothing to do. I only used the SRD and whatever I could find in other handbooks. Unfortunately it never crossed my mind to check any other book for camel variants. I will have to update it once I get to my copy of Sandstorm at home. Thank you for taking the Camel seriously.

[Bronk]

Yet, what good is your druid or ranger companion if they aren't also acting as your personal trainer in your quest to better yourself... as a warbeast?

[noce]

Keep in mind Camel is an option for paladin special mount, from DMG.
You should mention this in the advancement options, it's at least better than ranger. You get to command other camels!

[Stealth Marmot]

Be careful, if you give the camel too much leeway it can gain a good charisma score and try to sell cigarettes to kids.

[Jopustopin]

Be careful, if you give the camel too much leeway it can gain a good charisma score and try to sell cigarettes to kids.

When I do the item section I'll make sure to label Cloak of Charisma +X appropriately.

[noce]

The Sandstorm version of two humped camel trade 1 point in intelligence for +1 AC.

Sandstorm also has a War version of the camel, better than camel in every respect, it also gets two primary hooves and a secondary bite.
I didn't find rules for gaining a druid companion though, but given its CR it is reasonable to assume that a war camel gets 3 level less of druidic augmentation from its druid companion.
Also, being already trained for war, I don't think you're allowed to take the warbeast template.

Even if you get 3 lvl lower druid progression and no warbeast, war camel seems ahead to me.

[eggynack]

The Sandstorm versions of both dromedary and two humped camel trade 1 point in intelligence for +1 AC.

The dromedary has the same AC as the MM version, 13. You are correct, however, that both non-war sandstorm camels ditch a point of intelligence.

[Jopustopin]

The Sandstorm version of two humped camel trade 1 point in intelligence for +1 AC.

Sandstorm also has a War version of the camel, better than camel in every respect, it also gets two primary hooves and a secondary bite.
I didn't find rules for gaining a druid companion though, but given its CR it is reasonable to assume that a war camel gets 3 level less of druidic augmentation from its druid companion.
Also, being already trained for war, I don't think you're allowed to take the warbeast template.

Even if you get 3 lvl lower druid progression and no warbeast, war camel seems ahead to me.

Basically just don't tell the DM about the Sandstorm book.

Either that or, you could, read into the Warbeast template and declare that creatures that have war variants are what you gain by training them. That is, they follow the same rules as applying the warbeast template except that in the end they are the "war creatures" as described. Ergo, you can have a riding dog trained for war as a Druid (by following the same steps for applying the warbeast template) You can have a heavy war horse as a druid (ditto).

Thus you could have a War Camel. You lose four points of strength and one point of constitution but you get three real attacks and +3 natural AC.

[eggynack]

Is training for the use of specific combat things an actual game mechanic? Can't recall seeing it, and it'd be useful for other things.

[Jopustopin]

Is training for the use of specific combat things an actual game mechanic? Can't recall seeing it, and it'd be useful for other things.

It says in the MM II that you can't apply the warbeast template to a "war creature" because they are "considered to already have" a "war template." The only way we know of to add a war template of any kind is what's in the MM II under training a Warbeast. There are no other game rules in any book on this subject.

[eggynack]

It says in the MM II that you can't apply the warbeast template to a "war creature" because they are "considered to already have" a "war template." The only way we know of to add a war template of any kind is what's in the MM II under training a Warbeast. There are no other game rules in any book on this subject.

I meant the weird power attack as trick thing. It'd be useful for, say, martial study on companions.

[Jopustopin]

I meant the weird power attack as trick thing. It'd be useful for, say, martial study on companions.

Teach an Animal a Trick
You can teach an animal a specific trick with one week of work and a successful Handle Animal check against the indicated DC. An animal with an Intelligence score of 1 can learn a maximum of three tricks, while an animal with an Intelligence score of 2 can learn a maximum of six tricks. Possible tricks (and their associated DCs) include, but are not necessarily limited to, the following.

I take the first sentence and the last sentence to be where I'm getting this. If you have a real animal that knows how to power attack he may not know when to do it. If you teach him to only do it when you tell him to then you won't have to worry about the DM making dumb decisions on your Camel's behalf.

The only way I'd let an animal companion take a Martial Maneuver would be if it got the Magical Beast type. I considered adding the Exalted Companion feat to this guide and making a shadow jaunting camel but once I opened up one template I was allowing the flood-gates to open.

[noce]

Basically just don't tell the DM about the Sandstorm book.

Either that or, you could, read into the Warbeast template and declare that creatures that have war variants are what you gain by training them. That is, they follow the same rules as applying the warbeast template except that in the end they are the "war creatures" as described. Ergo, you can have a riding dog trained for war as a Druid (by following the same steps for applying the warbeast template) You can have a heavy war horse as a druid (ditto).

Thus you could have a War Camel. You lose four points of strength and one point of constitution but you get three real attacks and +3 natural AC.

I don't think it works that way, and probably you misunderstood what I mean. There are two options:

A) There's the standard camel. You can apply warbeast template for free. You can get it at full druid level.

B) There's war camel. As stated from MMII you cannot add warbeast template. Being war camel CR 2, a reasonable DM would let you take it at druid lvl -3.

What I'm saying is that option B seems better than option A.
I'm not saying that you should convince your DM to take a war camel at full druid level because "it's just a printed version of warbeast camel", because it's not. I consider this cheating.

[eggynack]

I take the first sentence and the last sentence to be where I'm getting this. If you have a real animal that knows how to power attack he may not know when to do it. If you teach him to only do it when you tell him to then you won't have to worry about the DM making dumb decisions on your Camel's behalf.

Reasonable, but not really RAW-concrete enough for my purposes. Ah well.

The only way I'd let an animal companion take a Martial Maneuver would be if it got the Magical Beast type.

My general thinking is that the companion taking martial study (or having an item with such an effect) is plausible, at least rules-wise. Where things are a lot murkier is getting the companion to actually use the thing ever. Animals are weird. They very rarely have decisions as part of their combat tactics. You have the fleshraker, this whirlwind of crazy combat maneuvers swinging every which way, yet the whole thing takes this perfectly linear path.

I considered adding the Exalted Companion feat to this guide and making a shadow jaunting camel but once I opened up one template I was allowing the flood-gates to open.

Might be worth adding on the basis that it's not so much a template thing as a feat thing, which would only really leave you open from the feat optimization angle. Also, VoP camel is neat. On the topic of templates though, I recall the other druid handbook suggesting that the horrid template from ECS should be allowed with the cost of moving up a step on the advancement chain, because that's the general pattern for that template. A horrid camel could be cool. Not strictly by the book, but cool.

Separately, I'd be amused by a poisonous spit based strategy, because of the associations between camels and spitting. I think there's some incarnum majig that can do it, and getting the bite attack poisonous would allow for feats that can use the tactic too. Would fit in kinda well with the camel's low capacity to actually hit opponents too.

[daremetoidareyo]

poison attack: Share soulmeld: phase cloak, spit poison, deadly spittle: 15' cone of poison.

The tauric template is awesome on a camel as well. It locks in a low CR but you can put any monstrous humanoid you want on top. Try zern...

[noce]

On the druid part, a level in Beastmaster gives your druid a HD+3 equivalent druid level, which gives the camel "+2 bonus HD, natural armor increases by 2, Strength and Dexterity modifiers increase by 1, and it learns one additional bonus trick" (quoted from SRD Epic Class Progression).

[ExLibrisMortis]

I am currently playing a character who spent 40% of WBL (level 3) on a magebred war camel, al-Salif. I approve of this thread, and highly recommend magebred. For my character, I refluffed 'magebred' to 'desert spirit-bred', but it works out to the same thing.

[Gruftzwerg]

I would suggest either Monk's Belt (changed into other itemslot for extra gold) or Monk's Tattoo (or both if DM is fine that the Monk lvls do stack).
Imho a better solution than the toothpick weapons.

Further, I would recommend a Necklace of Natural Attacks to buff your unarmed strike with weapon enhancements.


edit: another option would be to get somehow some claws, take Beast Strike feat (unarmed + claw dmg) and fly speed, to make dive attacks for 2x dmg

you got a really nice idea here, keep it up ;)

[Flickerdart]

Because camels have relatively low HD for their strength (3 HD vs 4 HD for a warhorse) they are a great target for various templates when serving as a paladin's mount. A half-celestial camel is a force to be reckoned with, but only has 5 HD when the paladin mount's bonus HD are applied, and hence only gets a +1 CR adjustment. The warhorse gets +2, putting it out of reach of a low-level paladin for basically no reason.

[ShurikVch]

Note:
There are also Draft Camel and Racing Camel - in Dangerous Denizens: The Monsters of Tellene
Both can be progressed up to 5 HD
By comparison with Bactrian, they got(/lost):
Draft Camel - +1 Str, -1 Int; Toughness bonus feat; carrying capacity: light load - up to 400 lbs., medium - up to 700, heavy - up to 1000, drag - up to 5000
Racing Camel - 60' speed; -1 natural AC; +2 Dex, -2 Con, -1 Int

Find someone who likes animals: If you can find someone with the Wild Cohort feat all is not lost. This is marginally worse than hanging out with the Druid – and if the person who has the wild cohort feat is a commoner or a samurai you could possibly overshadow them. However there doesn’t seem to be any rules for epic progression. This is an unlikely option. Just go with the Druid.

Note: Silverwood Outrider and Silverwood Arcanist
Also, Windrider from Masters of the Wild

Also Titanic Dungeonbred Camels don't have it bad.

And some lucky prospective Windrider can buy Titanic Dungeonbred Warbeast Camels for only 2050 gp

Also, Vadalis Beastkeeper may be useful to get Magebred template

[Long_shanks]

You could also get your druid companion to take a couple of levels in an arcane class and become an Arcane Hierophant in order to get some familiar goodies and a decent intelligence score. Now, we only need some way to make the camel talk.

[DrMotives]

What about a tauric anthropomorphic camel / camel? Depending on the dromedary / bactrian mix, you can have a 3 or even 4 humped camel. Crunchwise, the choice is purely aesthetic for the anthro-camel, but matter as per normal for the tauric base. This allows you to not only pile camel on more camel, but you can then have a 4-humped camel soul-eater. The humps store the souls that the camel squared eats.

[unseenmage]

In my sig there's a link to a randomized list of all the templates that do not change an animal's type.

Coolest thing I ever got was a half-machine bison.