New class: Spirit Bound

[Dimirag]

The engaging bonus combined with the distraction penalty and a d4hd is forcing the pc to die fighting.

So, the idea is a sub-druid (something like a sub-sub-class unless you use the druid as a class).

[SerGavin]

the pc won't necessarily die fighting. the idea is the druid and his bonded partner work as a team receiving benefits from working together and penalties for fighting separately.

I'm hoping that this will be a unique spin on game play and I think our party will play test this sometime in the future then after tweaking it for balance, release it as a supplement.

[SerGavin]

Furthermore I am hoping to utilize this for an npc in a future campaign.

[Dimirag]

I mean that you are making a d4 character fight in order to not provoke a penalty to his companion, its like forcing the mu or thief to fight so the fighter doesn't suffer an attack penalty, just my opinion.

For the ST you can use a bonus, or let them both save against the effect and applied the best outcome and for non mental saves just use the lesser value (like in combination classes).

[SerGavin]

Oh sorry, I see what you mean. I will have to think about that with my DM. the druid still fights as a cleric and at lower levels they act just like a cleric with unlucky rolls.

[SerGavin]

Although there is some potential to have a level two druid have 2hp and their companion have 16hp. maybe if we have a mechanic where if a druid and their medium to large companion are fighting next to each other there's a 50% that the enemy will attack the bonded companion and not the druid?

[SerGavin]

Oh and bonding with an animal extends both bonded's lifespan by the longest +50 years due to a more hardy soul or something.

[black1blade]

I think that a shortened spell list from the druid would work, maybe reduced to level 5 max. The spell progression could be similar to the jester. This would mitigate the obvious advantage of having an animal companion. SerGavin and me where talking about how he want's the wolf to become a winter wolf at level 7 so I don't know if the possibility of supernatural ability could be a possibility.
Another thing to consider is the fact that the animal companion's attack bonus table may have to be modelled after the fighter otherwise it may make higher hit dice creatures harder. I also believe the the spirit bonded animal shouldn't have stats or at least not rollable ones. An array maybe like: 17 15 13 for the physical stats and 11 9 7 or the mental stats. An array could make up for the fact that there attack bonus has been decreased to the level of the fighter. As they level up one of there metal stats could increase by 1 point but it couldn't progress pass the mental stat of the spirit bonder.
I think and experience requirement of 2500 exp would be the minimum amount. They would also have the animal's characteristics. So what I'm thinking is having a cap on carried wealth a la the great way adept.

[SerGavin]

Well I'm not sure about the cap on wealth but I think some of your ideas are great. But instead of not rolling stats there should be caps on certain stats. Like for a wolf no higher than 5 int initially and maybe a bit more charisma and a penalty to wisdom. Like -1 or something


Also it should really start out as a winter wolf because I don't like the idea of it evolving. Maybe it's too young to use the breath weapon or something?

Ps did you get the progression table I sent.

[SerGavin]

"Spirit boned animal" !