Hi there! I’m looking for some help turning a character concept I have into a viable build. It’s an interesting concept, but I am having trouble nailing down class and build. Or… more specifically a class and build most DMs will go for.
Concept: A Chimera. A creature made by a mad scientist that is the distillation of many different animals. Normally, they look like a small fox, but they are sentient and can morph their body to adapt to different situations. I would like the build to focus around this ability.
Now, the perfect class for this is a Mystic that only focuses on the Immortal order. With its disciplines, you can have the character morph their body to have gills, larger, eyes, tougher skin, or larger claws. They can increase their strength, speed, or size, and spit venom or even have acidic blood. Every skill would focus on changing or adapting the body in a verity of ways. You would have to ignore almost all of the other Mystic orders as calling fourth walls of fire, or teleportation don’t really fit the theme of this build. The problem is, as many of you know, many DMs will not touch a Mystic with a 10 foot poll. I would also hesitate to let a player at my table build an unrestricted Mystic because of their insane versatility and a few broken combos (Anyone ever shrink down to the size of a gnat and then mind blast villains silently, so they have no chance of even knowing where to retaliate?) While I think restricting the Mystic to just one order like my proposed build solves most of the issues with a Mystic, a lot of DMs still would not green light it. So! I need other options!
One obvious class would be the Moon Circle druid. If you focus on wild shaping, you can pretty much achieve the same concept, except it is less about adapting your body and more about straight turning into other animals. However, there are a few issues with this type of build some of you may be able to offer insight on. The animal cannot talk in the normal way. Being a ghostwise gnome for the base race would at least allow it to communicate with the other players though telepathy, but spell casting would be almost impossible. A Druid that can’t cast spells, even a Moon circle sub class, is shooting themselves in the foot. To be honest, even if the DM allowed the animal to cast spells, it doesn’t really fit the theme. The focus should be on morphing the body, not casting sun beam. You can use your spell slots to heal animal forms, and that’s nifty, but still makes for a far weaker druid than one that casts spells. Maybe multiclass? Barbarian for rage? How would you build a wild shaping druid who does not cast spells?
Are there any other classes/multiclasses, that are not straight homebrew, that could work? I am no power gamer, and I do not mind bringing a character to the table that is far from optimized. However, I do not want to bring a character that is so hamstrung it brings the rest of the party down.
Sorry for the long post and thank you for any insight you may have!
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Hi there! I’m looking for some help turning a character concept I have into a viable build. It’s an interesting concept, but I am having trouble nailing down class and build. Or… more specifically a class and build most DMs will go for.
Concept: A Chimera. A creature made by a mad scientist that is the distillation of many different animals. Normally, they look like a small fox, but they are sentient and can morph their body to adapt to different situations. I would like the build to focus around this ability.
Now, the perfect class for this is a Mystic that only focuses on the Immortal order. With its disciplines, you can have the character morph their body to have gills, larger, eyes, tougher skin, or larger claws. They can increase their strength, speed, or size, and spit venom or even have acidic blood. Every skill would focus on changing or adapting the body in a verity of ways. You would have to ignore almost all of the other Mystic orders as calling fourth walls of fire, or teleportation don’t really fit the theme of this build. The problem is, as many of you know, many DMs will not touch a Mystic with a 10 foot poll. I would also hesitate to let a player at my table build an unrestricted Mystic because of their insane versatility and a few broken combos (Anyone ever shrink down to the size of a gnat and then mind blast villains silently, so they have no chance of even knowing where to retaliate?) While I think restricting the Mystic to just one order like my proposed build solves most of the issues with a Mystic, a lot of DMs still would not green light it. So! I need other options!
One obvious class would be the Moon Circle druid. If you focus on wild shaping, you can pretty much achieve the same concept, except it is less about adapting your body and more about straight turning into other animals. However, there are a few issues with this type of build some of you may be able to offer insight on.
The animal cannot talk in the normal way. Being a ghostwise gnome for the base race would at least allow it to communicate with the other players though telepathy, but spell casting would be almost impossible. A Druid that can’t cast spells, even a Moon circle sub class, is shooting themselves in the foot. To be honest, even if the DM allowed the animal to cast spells, it doesn’t really fit the theme. The focus should be on morphing the body, not casting sun beam. You can use your spell slots to heal animal forms, and that’s nifty, but still makes for a far weaker druid than one that casts spells. Maybe multiclass? Barbarian for rage? How would you build a wild shaping druid who does not cast spells?
Are there any other classes/multiclasses, that are not straight homebrew, that could work? I am no power gamer, and I do not mind bringing a character to the table that is far from optimized. However, I do not want to bring a character that is so hamstrung it brings the rest of the party down.
Sorry for the long post and thank you for any insight you may have!