So I wanted to give one of my players a permanent buddy, sort of NPC cohort, because he's still running around by himself in my PbP. And originally, well, it was supposed to be a Frenzied Berserker house cat. However... a tiny animal using natural weapons just doesn't give much to a berserker. But the cat is definitely set in stone, so I need something that is mechanically a bit more viable, and importantly, without being a spellcaster (but may be psionic). The role of this guy will be to scout and muscle. He also won't get much in the way of equipment, to be precise he will start completely naked, and probably everything he gets will depend on the PC he accompanies.
House rules are here :http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=809.msg20032#msg20032, but they are LONG, so I don't expect you to read all of them. Allowed books are all WotC and no mags. Power level of the rest of the campaign is pretty anime.
What's set in stone so far:
Awakened Modified Feral House Cat with stat boosts and Telepathy+Mindsight HD*10ft, entering at Lvl 8.
Racial traits of a cat (skill bonuses) + special qualities of the feral template. (I.e. Darkvision, low-light-vision, Pounce, rakes, 1D4 claws, 1D6 Bite, Fast-healing 4 (5 at Lvl 12), Attach instead of Improved Grab, essentially allowing it to Rake but not to pin in a grapple, and use Dex instead of Str for grappling. Will probably get +4 on the grapple check to attach as a sort of negative size bonus.)
4HD magical beast (Good Fort and Ref, Full BAB, 1D10, 2+Int skills, + 12 bonus HP), stat mods of
-2 Str, +4 Dex, +2 Con, +4 Wis, -2 Cha, and Int is set at 12. This cat gets a 25 point-for-point buy.
My initial Stat distribution was (but is open for changes)
Str 10 (2pts)
Dex 24 (10pts +2lvls)
Con 17 (7 pts)
Int 12 (must take 4 pts)
Wis 12 (0)
Cha 8 (2 pts)
Feats I've settled on for the first four HD are Weapon Finesse (bonus from cat), and Multiattack. Which leaves one Bonus Feat at Lvl 1 from house-rules from a small list, and the feats from lvl 3 and lvl 6. The bonus feat must provide a small numerical bonus and cannot scale. The focuses (any) have all been house-ruled to scale, so that won't work. Dodge works, Save boosters work, etc.
Now as a recon+muscle critter, this cat needs some bonus damage on his natural attacks. Additional attacks don't help that much, I guess it'll just stay at three + rakes on a pounce. Now there are four levels to play with, but of course the plan can go further.
What I've been thinking of:
Hit and Run fighter 1, Scout 3,
Gets dex to damage vs. flat-footed and makes good use of pouncing, and adds 1d6 skirmish damage at this level. (So on a pounce vs. a flat-footed enemy that would be 4x 1d4+1d6+7 (avg. 4x 13) and 1x 2d6 +7 (avg. 14), 66 total damage. Hmm, that's not really much, and won't overcome immunities. Hopefully the flat-footed condition will be easy enough to lay on the enemies through teamwork.
Ranger 1, Scout 3 and advance as Swift Hunter, which is quite good due to the faster damage progression, but lacks the H&R-fighter benefit, naturally. I've been thinking about a ranger revision, as I think Rangers suck balls for anything above 2 levels, so it might even get improved favoured enemy benefits.
Maybe H&R Fighter 1, Ranger 1, Scout 2, and get Swift Hunter at 9, which seems to not be such a bad choice, all things considered.
Ardent 4 (with different stats), but I'm having trouble picking the mantles, and bonus damage is a pain to get on this setup. However, since its apparently entirely fiat to add powers to mantles, and I'm the DM, I can do this as I like, so I was thinking of using Claws of the Vampire paired with something to up the damage.
Something 1/Warmind 3, using Psionic Talent or however it was called as a bonus feat. Still suffers from piddly powers known and very few powerpoints.
Initiators work very poorly with natural weapons, so I don't see a lot of options. There may be some, though, if someone could help me there.... (Can I somehow get Shadow Blade to apply to natural weapons with some Warblade aptitude gimmicks?)
Rogue perhaps, but I don't like Rogues much, somehow.
So, has someone ever tried optimizing damage output on a tiny animal with only a few levels to play with? And without sacrificing too many other things, like versatility. I would really like to turn this into something viable. Please help.