Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Mithrus 03-02-07, 10:49 AM	Ok, dramatic title, I guess I'm feeling a bit goofy at the moment. Long ago, when 2nd Edition ruled the land, I had a character I enjoyed a great deal. His name was Ulric Wulfhere, adopted son of the chieftain of the Weguir nation, otherwise known as the Wolf Nomads. His most prized possesions included his Sunblade and Decanter of Endless Water (heh, his castle actually had running water!!). He was level 13 when he retired. From a mechanic perspective, he was a Fighter with the Animal Rider kit (anyone still remember Kits?:)). His chosen mount: Dire Wolf (naturally). When 3.5E came out, I attempted to re-create Ulric under the new rules, but nothing seems to fit right, so I let it rest. Then Complete Adventurer was released, and hope was rekindled via the Animal Lord and Beastmaster PrCs. I was able to reconstruct him for an epic campaign a friend of mine was running, using a combination of Ranger(non-spellcasting variant)/Wolf Lord/Beastmaster to get his animal companion to respectable survivability. Now I'd like to try to see if I can make a legal build in LG. Here is what I have so far: Human Ranger4/Beastmaster1/Wolf Lord10 Goal is have his animal companion with the highest possible effective druid level, and him not gimp either for combat :) Eventually, I want him to use a Dire Wolf as a mount, but that won't happen for a few levels ;) Since he's got ranger levels, I figure going TWF makes some sense. Originally, he was a bastard sword wielding guy (hence why Sunblade is so cool), but I've decided that trying to get teh High Sword/Low Axe feat makes sense give the free feats he gets with Wolf Lord. I haven't done all the figuring yet, but any considerations would be appreciated.
UMiskatonic 03-02-07, 12:46 PM	Animal Lord is really pretty lame as a class. You can do better. Ranger/Beastmaster is a decent way to get a wolf-riding nomad. Mounted archery would be a great way to build the character, and if you have to dismount and stand while you shoot arrows, you'll still be very effective. It's typical nomad tactics, too, the Mongols were deadly this way. You can always close with a lance/sword/axe if you like, arrows don't always work. If you're committed to sword, then you've basically got a cavalry build. Take a look at wild plains outrider, cavalier, halfling outrider, and hospitaler, as well as paladin. Those are all great ways to build a mounted guy. Hexblade with improved familiar might be able to get some kinda wolf too. I don't have the table in front of me, but wolf rings a bell.
jstorrie 03-02-07, 04:09 PM	You could do High Sword, Low Axe with Two-Weapon Pounce, if you wanted to charge people with your wolf. Or Wild Plains Outrider has full mounted attack.
Southernskies 03-04-07, 07:51 AM	Fairly standard build that doesn't maximise your animal companion, but still solid: Rgr4/Ftr2/Beastmaster1/WPO3 with Natural Bond. Gives you a range of options to go into afterwards (2 more Ftr levels for specialization or another p-class). Otherwise strait: Rgr6/Beastmaster 1/WPO3 with natural bond. Maximised animal companion, 2nd favoured enemy and ITWF Full Mounted Attack is lethal; especially if you get enough bonus HD on your mount to pick up Spring Attack (very hard to do effectively, though). In my experience with WPO, keep your tactics open enough to flip between lance charge, full mounted attack and mounted archery. They all have optimum times to be used (especially with flying mounts). My own build got a little odd due to a metaorg requirement: Rgr4/Ftr2/Hospitaller1/Beastmaster2/WPO3/Exemplar3 using a 13HD light riding horse or a Bronze Griffin.