Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Donald_Cannith 10-22-06, 11:28 AM	I am building a shifter totemist for a Crimson Codex sdventure and the only reason i am doign so is becausei really like Incarnum but as a most of the time DM I havent ever gotten to play one. The same thing applies to the shifter. Does anyone have any good builds for a totemist or a shifterr totemist in pareticular. if this cannot be pulled off due to the shifter's limits then suggest a diffretn race for me as well.
tilloch 10-22-06, 08:04 PM	One of the things that make the totemist and all the Incarnum classes special is their adaptability. When you work up your soulmelds each day (or less). You change them to fit your upcoming "adventure day". Having said that, then like a fighter, sometimes your feats can govern what your character is like. A shifter opens some possibilities I have not explored but my Drow totemist's planned advancement may help you get an idea for your character: All totemist levels (no PrC's) 1: Powerful Charge (Feat) 2: Threefold Mask of the Chimera (Totem Bind) 3: Improved Natural Attack (Bite) (Feat) (expansion slots?) 6: Greater Powerful Charge (Feat) 6: Sphinx Claws (Hands Bind) 9: Multiattack (feat) (2 expansion list slots) 10: Totem Avatar (Shoulders Bind) 11: Dread Carapace (2nd Totem Bind) 12 Double of Split Chakra (Feat) (2 expansion slots) This is not the most optimal combination of feats and class levels. I just like the Totemist class, so this was my first run at this character. Tilloch
Donald_Cannith 10-22-06, 11:14 PM	thanks i have been debating back and forth whether i should go with the incarnum based feats or the shifter featsand which trait to go for. iwas thinking beasthide simply for the bonus ot con and the Ac bonus but icouldsee the one with the horns being useful too. and the nfro tmhere. I like the thoughts on binding the threefold maks of the chimera and the sphinx clawsdbut iwas debating whether orn ot to take say beasthide elite and Healing factor but that putme behind in other areas. Should i just completely disregard the shifter aspects. any input would be helpful also for stats i used str 14 dex 16 con16 int 6 wis 11 cha 6 is ths a good build or is it too min-maxy
tilloch 10-23-06, 08:21 PM	Judging by the Xen'drik mods I've played so far, skills are more important than your combat prowess in many cases. You may not want to sell yourself short in the Int and Cha department. In addition, like I said before, the Incarnum classes offer adaptability. Stats can be your key to adaptability. I am not much of an optimizer though, so someone else may have better feel for what to do with your stats. I don't really have a feel for the Shifter race. I won't be much help for you there. Maybe someone else will chime in. You could check some of the other threads and see what people are doing with Shifters and apply them to what you know about the totemist class. Remember, this is roleplaying. Do what you want and everyone else's opinion be darned. It's your character, do what's fun for you and your friends. Good Luck, Tilloch
Tarvok 10-23-06, 10:04 PM	Although, the opinions of others can be of value when it comes to the attempt to create a character concept that makes sense, or rather, attempting to illustrate a character concept via a character sheet. Unfortunately, I am not familiar with any non-PHB classes, so I couldn't help you with this, but if I were, I'd suggest you post your concept, and maybe I could help you stat him out. In fact, I'll suggest that anyway; maybe others here can help you with that.
KShaver 10-24-06, 08:05 AM	I'd say go primarily shifter feats, they build up on each other much better than incarnum feats. That being said, shifter is an excellent totemist, but its hard to give you a suggested build as totemists can be dramatically different day to day. Generally you'll want to totem bind something for natural weapons, then use normal melds for ac or other nifty abilities. Some melds specifically enhance already existing natural weapons, so they work nicely for you while shifted.
Grantor 10-25-06, 01:02 PM	I'd say go primarily shifter feats, they build up on each other much better than incarnum feats. I would also suggest shifter feats, but for another reason. The shifter is a little nerfed in racial abilities. They take two penalty stats and gain one bonus stat, plus another bonus stat that can be used once per day. Compare this to an Orc. The kicker is that shifters also get a minor racial benefit that is activated by shifting, either an acceptable natural attack or natural armor, or (effectively) a bonus feat. But, at only one use per day, this bonus is not too powerful. Hard to gear all of your character toward natural attacking when you can only use it in one fight per day. Thus, you bring the character up to his potential by taking Shifter Feats. Not only do these these increase your benefits during your shifts (although two of the feats in expanded sources work all the time), they give you more shifts, which is really what is important about them. When you can shift three times per day, gain +2 Con, +2 natural armor, +10 feet move, DR 2/silver and some other benefits, you are starting to get ahead of the curve in feat and racial benefits. Now, while the poor shifter might be a bit handicapped in racial abilities, they do have tons of flavor, are fun to play and slip into the Warshaper prestige class (Complete Warrior) as early as fifth level. They are also (nearly) immune to some of the (errated) negative polymorphing effects, as they have the shapechanger subtype. And actually having natural attacks (if only occasionally) works well with many spells and incarnum soulmelds. Oh, also keep in mind that totemists are illiterate, thus, like barbarians, gain no benefit from the Crimson Codex faction ability. Of course, this is the only easy way to get a totemist, so just accept that you won't get a free knowledge skill marked as a class skill (which you weren't going to put ranks in anyway) and move on. As for the totemist advice. It's early. Whatever feat you take at first level is probably not going to impact your choices when you really start making choices at the 4th level bump in February. Especially if you are taking shifter feats. So have fun!
KShaver 10-25-06, 03:01 PM	Thus, you bring the character up to his potential by taking Shifter Feats. Not only do these these increase your benefits during your shifts (although two of the feats in expanded sources work all the time), they give you more shifts, which is really what is important about them. When you can shift three times per day, gain +2 Con, +2 natural armor, +10 feet move, DR 2/silver and some other benefits, you are starting to get ahead of the curve in feat and racial benefits. Thats precisely what I meant by build up on each other. The benefits from each feat are slightly better than a normal feat, but have severely limited usefullness, unless of course you happen to have a lot of them. With shifter feats, when you take them in bulk, you get better abilities that last longer and can be used more often.
Grantor 10-25-06, 06:45 PM	Unfortunately, because of the pair of ability penalties, shifters are a poor choice for development plans (I hate the term "builds", especially when the characters are all first level novices) that require lots of non-shifter feats to complete. The proper choice in that case is normally human, which gets that extra feat. What feat is Donald_Cannith planning to start with? And have you considered aiming your shifter at the Totem Rager prestige class in Magic of Incarnum?
KShaver 10-26-06, 08:05 AM	Unfortunately, because of the pair of ability penalties, shifters are a poor choice for development plans (I hate the term "builds", especially when the characters are all first level novices) that require lots of non-shifter feats to complete. Totemists don't need either of the stats that shifters take penalties in to perform their primary role, combat, so they could use both as dump stats if they wanted to.
Donald_Cannith 10-26-06, 07:42 PM	thanks for all the input just got swamped at school and havent been able to respond. My concept was basically that he was from deep in the eldeen reaches and learned of it through a maifest zone with the faerie court.I was in fact planing on taking a levle or two f barbarian to go after the totem rager prestige class, but iwas unsure if it was restricted. He was "discovered' , by a Morgrave university proffessor and im sort of his muscle down here( the wizard of our party is the prof. so our backstories sort of intertwine) I was planning ontaking beasthide elite to sort of offest the low AC of the totemist and barbarian just in general. I did not like the idea of only having two skills but someone elsein our party is playing a ranger with an int score of 15 nd we have a rogue with an int of 16, A cleric w/ knowledge domain and int 14 and awizard with an int of 18 so we will have three skill monkeys so where my character is goingto be lacking it will be madeup for. i wll then just be able to concentrate on Balance climb and Jump since those are available to both the totemist and the barbarian and fairly useful. I also just realized that if i go all out o nthese shifter feats that eventually ican get razor claw as my second trait and suddenly that along with a totem bound threefold mask of the chimera and hands-bound sphinx claws would make for some deadly charges. Another random question do natural attacks granted by soulmelds count as "magic" for purposes of overcoming DR.
KShaver 10-27-06, 07:52 AM	I was planning ontaking beasthide elite to sort of offest the low AC of the totemist and barbarian just in general. When I was playing a totemist my ac was pretty good, you can put multiple soulmelds towards your ac, and have one that is extremely high. Also your ac can kind of go up and down depending on how your essentia is invested, having a combination of offensive and defensive soulmelds on any given day lets you switch back and forth between the two as needed. I did not like the idea of only having two skills but someone elsein our party is playing a ranger with an int score of 15 nd we have a rogue with an int of 16, A cleric w/ knowledge domain and int 14 and awizard with an int of 18 so we will have three skill monkeys so where my character is goingto be lacking it will be madeup for. i wll then just be able to concentrate on Balance climb and Jump since those are available to both the totemist and the barbarian and fairly useful. Being from the Eldeen reaches I'd suggest at least enough survival to get by, but with the ranger around to track (and who has track) it shouldn't be a big priority. I also just realized that if i go all out o nthese shifter feats that eventually ican get razor claw as my second trait and suddenly that along with a totem bound threefold mask of the chimera and hands-bound sphinx claws would make for some deadly charges. Another random question do natural attacks granted by soulmelds count as "magic" for purposes of overcoming DR. No they don't, but you can overcome that quickly by purchasing an amulet of mighty fists +1 asap. It'll add a +1 enhancement bonus to hit and damage to every single natural attack you have for only 6,000g. That is of course whenever you decide to have natural weapons as the base character has none and manifests them on a day to day, and sometimes on a round to round basis.
Marcus Majarra 10-28-06, 01:08 AM	Another interesting route for shifter totemists is the beasthide elite route. The Con bonus will make your totemist soulmelds harder to resist, plus you'll get natural armor to pump up your ankheg breastplate. This is probably one of the better soulmelds at low levels (it's really good at level 2, especially if you already took an Incarnum feat). Essentia should more than cover the need for an amulet of mighty fists (it is far too expensive for my tastes). The biggest challenge for totemists (or incarnates, for that matter) is the first level. The trick is finding the right soulmelds to use. The one that you'll want to rely on at first level is the Winter Mask. It requires that you use melee touch attacks, which offsets the drawbacks of opponents wearing armor at such low levels, and rapidly reduces your opponents' melee effectiveness (loss of strength, dexterity, and movement through fatigue and exhaustion). It also allows you to disable your enemies through nonlethal cold damage, although your lack of essentia at first level (i.e. 1) will mean that you'll deal only 1d4 damage per hit. The other good soulmelds at level 1 are the Threefold Mask of the Chimera (if you don't like being flanked) and the Rage Claws (which pretty much doubles your ability to last in battle). Skill-based melds are circumstancial, and you should only use them later on.
KShaver 10-28-06, 08:32 AM	Another interesting route for shifter totemists is the beasthide elite route. The Con bonus will make your totemist soulmelds harder to resist, plus you'll get natural armor to pump up your ankheg breastplate. This is probably one of the better soulmelds at low levels (it's really good at level 2, especially if you already took an Incarnum feat). Essentia should more than cover the need for an amulet of mighty fists (it is far too expensive for my tastes). Chain shirt > Ankheg breastplate at the low levels, and pretty much still better all the way up. Unless you want to bind the ankheg its pretty pointless.
Marcus Majarra 10-29-06, 12:11 PM	Chain shirt > Ankheg breastplate at the low levels, and pretty much still better all the way up. Unless you want to bind the ankheg its pretty pointless. Actually, the breastplate becomes much better at level two. And the idea IS to bind it. Think about it. You get the armor bonus of a chain shirt, plus a bite attack that deals 1d8 + 2d4 acid + Str bonus damage, and without the drawbacks of a chain shirt (ACP, weight, etc.). You can make a decent tank at level two, with 20+ AC, and an attack that deals 8.5 + Str bonus damage on average.