The obvious choice (half-minotaur) is out as we are allowed no Dungeon/Dragon content.
Working on Dungeoncrasher Fighter/Weretouched Master for an arena competiton (lolth-touched half-dragon shifter using the bear form of weretouched master for a +30 before buying abilities)
You can use the lycanthrope template with animals other than the ones given. They're just examples. You'd have to come up with an appropriate alignment, if it matters. But for an arena, it probably doesn't.3RHD+2lycanLA+3dragonLA = 1 more level to add. You could use something less ridiculous than a heavy horse that has 4 HD instead of 3. Or hell... use a camel. They have better stats than horses anyway, and you're already going to be the laughing stock of the arena... till you kick their asses. :D
Ape is pretty decent with 4 HD, and isn't as dorky as a camel or horse. :P
Well, here's the problem I'm running into. It is a level 9 gestalt arena, and all Racial HD + LA must be taken on one side. I was originally going to go with a Werebear (6hd+2la) but can't then fit in Half-Dragon for wings. I need a fly speed to keep up with people in this arena, and I am having a hard time either being size large to get the wings from half-dragon, or having wings at all while being a lycanthrope with a good +str mod.
Dragon Born perhaps?
This animal can be any predator, scavenger, or omnivore whose size is within one size category of the base creature’s size (Small, Medium, or Large for a Medium base creature).
Emphasis mine. Were-Horse and Camel arguably do not belong to this category, unless you borrow your horses from greek myths.
However, grabbing a Large flying form as your lycanthropic animal might work nicely. Glidewing (EbCS) or Pteranodon (Serpent Kingdoms) are essentially identical except for the names, have decent stats (about equal to Camel), and have a 80ft. fly speed. Not bad at 3HD.
At 4HD, the Desmodu bats (or Dire bat) are pretty decent.
Winged Viper (FRCS) has some style points, but unless you (ab)use Venomfire for all it's worth, the crappy stats aren't worth it IMO.
Even without the Paragon template, the Drakkensteed is still a good choice, although its poor flight maneuverability is slightly painful.
There was a supposedly powerful half-minotaur template somewhere, I think in Dragon 313. It's a +1, but the impressive stat bonuses (made even more impressive when you include the strength increase you get if your size changes) and other goodies would make it desirable for a +2 as well.
From the OP:
The obvious choice (half-minotaur) is out as we are allowed no Dungeon/Dragon content.
Emphasis mine. Were-Horse and Camel arguably do not belong to this category, unless you borrow your horses from greek myths.
Ah crap, you're right. Too bad. I was looking forward to hearing the tale of the were-camel. :D I thought about suggesting dinosaurs, but the core ones won't work for what he wants, and I was too lazy to look up non-core ones. :P
Well, here's the problem I'm running into. It is a level 9 gestalt arena, and all Racial HD + LA must be taken on one side. I was originally going to go with a Werebear (6hd+2la) but can't then fit in Half-Dragon for wings. I need a fly speed to keep up with people in this arena, and I am having a hard time either being size large to get the wings from half-dragon, or having wings at all while being a lycanthrope with a good +str mod.
Winged Boots won't do the trick for you? Or a flying steed (e.g. Obdisian Steed)? How much money do you have to spend?
Winged Boots won't do the trick for you? Or a flying steed (e.g. Obdisian Steed)? How much money do you have to spend?
40kgp to start.
As of right now, I almost have the build, i'm just running into a feat/skill problem.
Winged (+2 LA) Lolth-Touched (+1 LA) Half-Dragon (+3 LA) Shifter Fighter 3 (Yes I know, ending on an odd level but I'm a dungeoncrasher and have to work towards level 6) on one side, the other side being Barbarian 4/Fist of the Forest 1/Weretouched Master.
Sources: MM4, Saves Species, EBCS, CC, and Dungeonscape.
I just can't figure out how to qualify for Fist of the Forest in time, or without taking the educated feat, how to qualify for weretouched master without levels in druid/ranger instead of barbarian.
Sources: SRD, ECS, RoE, SoS, SpC
I'm assuming that three base classes and no prestige classes is the same as two base classes and one prestige class.
On one side, go druidic avenger for 9 levels. Take the rage variant Whirling Frenzy.
On the other side, go Monk 1 / Psychic Warrior 8. Take Longtooth Shifter.
Flaws: Pathetic (Charisma, if available) and Slow (Who cares about your base land speed since Wild Shape will give you a new one?)
For feats, you can take:
1st Whirling Frenzy Druidic Avenger / Monk: Improved Unarmed Strike, Improved Grapple, Monastic Training (Psychic Warrior), Longtooth Elite, Shifter Instincts
2nd WFDA / Psychic Warrior: Versatile Unarmed Strike
3rd WFDA / PW: Tashalatora, Overchannel
4th, 5th, 6th WFDA / PW: Extra Shifter Trait (Razorclaw), Powerful Charge
7th, 8th, 9th WFDA / PW: Shifter Savagery, Greater Powerful Charge
Assuming 25 point buy, you can have the stats:
Str 8, Dex 8, Con 15, Int 12, Wis 17, Cha 8
After ability score increases, racial adjustments, the flaw, and middle age effects (taken at 9th level):
Str 7, Dex 9, Con 14, Int 11, Wis 20, Cha 5
When wild shaped into a Dire Lion, your stats become:
Str 25, Dex 15, Con 17, and your size category is Large. You gain pounce!
Manifest Inertial Armor (8 AC: Cost 9 pp, 1d8 damage, duration 8 hours)
Cast Girallon's Blessing (grants two extra claws in any form, duration 90 mins)
Manifest Expansion (+2 sizes: Cost 9 pp, 1d8 damage, duration 80 mins)
Cast Superior Magic Fang (+2 to attack and damage, 9 round duration)
Cast Bite of the Weretiger (9 round duration). That's a +12 enhancement to Str, a +4 enhancement to Dex, a +6 enhancement to Con, a +5 enhancement to natural armor, multiattack, blind-fight, and power attack.
Wild shape, frenzy and shift, then charge. Your attack at the end of your charge:
Unarmed Strike +21/+21/+21/+16 melee (8d8+21/19-20x2 bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing) AND Bite +19 melee (4d6+13+1 Con/19-20x2) AND 2x Claws +19/+19 melee (2d8+13/19-20x2) AND 2x Claws +19/+19 melee (2d8+11/19-20x2) AND 2x Rake +21/+21 melee (2d8+11/19-20x2). If you hit with the bite attack, you get a free grapple because of Improved Grab. Your grapple check is +41, which you can increase with Grip of Iron if you want to +47 as an Immediate Action (or +49 if you overchannel). If your grapple check succeeds, you deal unarmed strike damage again (8d8+21). Additionally, since it is a charge, each time a melee attack hits, Greater Powerful Charge adds 6d6 damage. You could power attack, trading up to 6 BAB for extra damage, but likely, you will want all the attack bonus you can muster.
Some disagree with this, saying that you lose your unarmed strikes when wild shaped, but the fact that you are a monk should allow you to keep it. Unarmed strike is a class feature of monk, and you don't lose class features when wild shaped. So, that is 11 attacks per charge. If your opponent doesn't have very high AC, you have absolutely nothing to worry about. If you need to fly, there are spells that can help you out with that, as well, or wild shape into a Glidewing from ECS for 80 ft fly speed with average maneuverability.
For your shifter build I would look at the custom half-fiend templates.
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060630a
If you pick your half-fiend parent to be of a huge variety, it will increase your size category by 1. So you could play a shifter half-fiend giving you an adjustment of +4 on your racial side. You can also get wings if your parent has wings, so you need to look for a huge fiend with wings. Now the werewolf can be tacked on for 2HD and +3 LA (Well natural werewolf then half-fiend for legal order). This might not give you the stats of a werebear, but you will end up with you wings at the end of it.
Another possibility is the were-bat from Monster Compendium of Faerun. It has decent stat modes spread over all the stats, gets a fly speed, and has 4 racial HD. The monster entry shows it as huge in size, and the creature is based off the Dire Bat which is large in size. This should also net you Large size. Leaves room for lolth touched or another template as well.
You could always try the tauric template from savage species, that could get you large size and wings depending on what you do with it
+1.
Be a Tauric Lammasu and you get Large size, wings and 7th level cleric casting...
Full rules we are using can be found here. Though I have settled on a build that does exactly what I was trying to do before, with only 2 less strength then originally.
Dragonborn Half-Dragon Orc Were-Drakensteed || Fighter 6 (dungeoncrasher)/Warshaper2/Fist of the Forest 1
Ends up with 48 str, 16 dex, 32 con, 12 int, 12 wis, 8 charisma
+10 NA, con to AC, full bab, as well as a host of other goodies.
I'll remind you that Dragonborn makes you lose all previous racial abilities. So as soon as you go through the re-birth, you lose the change shape ability of lycanthrope. But at least you still have all of those animal HD.
I think he is afflicted, since that is what he mentioned earlier. He could become afflicted after becoming a dragon-born.
But then he can't be a half-dragon, as [Dragon] type cannot be afflicted by lycanthrope. Only naturalborn lycanthropes can also be half-dragons.
A Half-Dragon does not necessarily need to be born half-dragon. A wizard attempting to splice a lycanthrope with a dragon could successfully create a half-dragon afflicted lycanthrope. Experiments like that would likely be something interesting to work on for many-a-wizard.
A Half-Dragon does not necessarily need to be born half-dragon.
Without using Savage Species or house rules, yes it does. It is an inherited template, not an acquired one.