wip Mëoita AKA Gatto Von Mëoita (Minor Lore)

[Steel Warrior]

8 minutes ago, TheFred said:

Yeah Warshaper is pretty great here. With the 3.5 update, the Grimalkin, whilst cool (one of my favourite races honestly), really gets very limited shapeshifting options. You can do like the Legendary animals from MM2 if I recall, and you can switch between flying/swimming/pouncing/grappling animals rapidly, but it's a far cry from Polymorph's usually versatility (some might say brokenness, even), and it's hard to juggle all the options anyway. Warshaper's one of the few ways to up the effectiveness of the shapeshifting specifically.

Yeah, I am looking forward for when Dalamb has a chance to give me some insight with my relationship with the Captain. I wanted to roleplay her pet, that requested recently to be an actual crew member, so I have to go through the application process like the other new recruits.

Since dalamb approved Warlocks taking the humanoid shape invocation, I can now appear like a catfolk (keeping my base stats, due to the change shape invocation) and be able to use warshaper. Still waiting on the large polymorph approval. Otherwise I can't act like the captain's mount, or anyone elses, but small pc's/npc's.

If I cannot polymorph into large animals, then I may only go with 5RHD and 4 Warshaper | Warlock 9 instead.

 

[TheFred]

I did misremember, the ability functions as a CL4 Polymorph so you can only turn into 4-HD animals and vermin - that's really limiting actually. Perhaps dalamb will allow it to progress with HD - that's very much a houserule, but I suppose the HD are pretty bad otherwise.

All that said... Fleshrakers have only 4 HD and, let's be honest, you want to turn into a dinosaur.

Out of curiosity... why 5 HD? Grimalkins only have 4 by default and advancing by one I don't think really gives you anything? Unless you're getting better shapeshifting or a size boost (and actually without the Large forms the size boost seems like a waste when you're a shapeshifter) racial HD tend not to give you anything really.

[Steel Warrior]

5 minutes ago, TheFred said:

I did misremember, the ability functions as a CL4 Polymorph so you can only turn into 4-HD animals and vermin - that's really limiting actually. Perhaps dalamb will allow it to progress with HD - that's very much a houserule, but I suppose the HD are pretty bad otherwise.

All that said... Fleshrakers have only 4 HD and, let's be honest, you want to turn into a dinosaur.

Out of curiosity... why 5 HD? Grimalkins only have 4 by default and advancing by one I don't think really gives you anything? Unless you're getting better shapeshifting or a size boost (and actually without the Large forms the size boost seems like a waste when you're a shapeshifter) racial HD tend not to give you anything really.

Well, warshaper 5 doesn't offer much, and currently he's only warshaper 3 with the current build.
I get magical beast D10 and full BAB, good fort and reflex.
Warshaper gets medium bab and one good save.

I had also inquired if I could get Eldritch Claws, then if I use the Beast Claws form savage species, I believe they stack from the way I interpret them.

Edited March 9 by Steel Warrior (see edit history)

[dalamb]

 

[Steel Warrior]

1 hour ago, dalamb said:

 

I would think he left on bad terms with his family, because he was the runt, they often used their polymorph abilities to tease and torture me, and often forced him to polymorph into a mouse, so they could watch him squirm. He also got the least food, since by the time his elder siblings ate and drank from mother's milk.

The owner of his parents sold and traded the cats for profit and standing, Captain Zentaru just happened to pass the beast market on Cape Nensa and saw the other kittens batting the small mouse around, and had initially thought Gatto was a mouse, until I shifted back into kitten. That is when she took interest in adopting me.

I was the size of a normal cat when I was adopted, the master soon later realized I had the ability to speak common, something he had could not initally do, because being the runt, also meant his learning was slowed. Because she fed me well, and ensured I was being cared for directly by her in her quarters, he was acting like any normal cat would, since I never chose to use my polymorph abilities for several years after adoption, it was only when I started learning common that the Captain ordered me to not reveal my true nature, even to the crew. So even as I grew to medium/large I usually just stayed a "tiny" cat. She learned that I had the potential for eldritch magic, so she secretly allowed me to continue harnessing the power, and only if I avoided being obvious about it. I could practice my abilities while maintaining the job of being a "mouser" on the ship. So the crew often gave me head pats as I brought up dead rats from the ships storage hold, and never thought it odd, they had strange eldritch burns or marks that were not from normal cat and mouse.

I think maybe a couple of the crew figured it out, but since I was the Captain's personal pet, they chose not to reveal the secret.
 

Maybe a time or two, I could have prevented the Captain's death from crewmembers who joined over the years, specifically to assassinate the captain once they gained her trust, but because they failed to realize I was not a normal cat, I helped save my master from assassination attempts in her quarters or while alone.

Edit: To be fair, even though it shows common as the base language, I should have learned Elven, because it makes more sense she spoke to me in her native tongue.

[dalamb]

If another accepted player has a background as crew, the three of us can work out how much their character knows about Gatto.

Swift Vengeance expects all crew to learn Andaroni, so that can serve as a sort of common tongue aboard ship. Learning Elven in honour of the Captain makes a lot of sense.

 

[TheBard101]

On 3/8/2024 at 7:17 PM, TheFred said:

I did misremember, the ability functions as a CL4 Polymorph so you can only turn into 4-HD animals and vermin - that's really limiting actually. Perhaps dalamb will allow it to progress with HD - that's very much a houserule, but I suppose the HD are pretty bad otherwise.

All that said... Fleshrakers have only 4 HD and, let's be honest, you want to turn into a dinosaur.

Out of curiosity... why 5 HD? Grimalkins only have 4 by default and advancing by one I don't think really gives you anything? Unless you're getting better shapeshifting or a size boost (and actually without the Large forms the size boost seems like a waste when you're a shapeshifter) racial HD tend not to give you anything really.

You know, it never occurred to me that you could intentionally take extra racial HD beyond that it shows. I thought all the advancements were there in case a template or magic upped your HD. Interesting.

[Steel Warrior]

34 minutes ago, TheBard101 said:

You know, it never occurred to me that you could intentionally take extra racial HD beyond that it shows. I thought all the advancements were there in case a template or magic upped your HD. Interesting.

Yep, it's all a part of the 3.5 improving monsters.
Increasing Hit Dice so I just added 5 HD to become Large and then added the medium to large size increases/penalties to the monster in question.

So my monster Polymorph effect goes from 4th to 9th since it's based on HD, as well as the Empathy (Ex) DC.

Edited March 10 by Steel Warrior (see edit history)

[TheFred]

It’s a bit of a weird thing for PCs because it’s not entirely clear if the LA should stay the same (for dragons for example it increases)… but normally, aside from size increases, HD are so bad that if anything it ought to lower your LA.

[Steel Warrior]

14 minutes ago, TheFred said:

It’s a bit of a weird thing for PCs because it’s not entirely clear if the LA should stay the same (for dragons for example it increases)… but normally, aside from size increases, HD are so bad that if anything it ought to lower your LA.

True, but the way I see dragons, they also often gain spells, increased breath weapons, ability score boosts and natural armor increases along with it. Those boosts are outside the size changes as well. "Most" other monster races don't get any other significant bonuses except for the possible size increases.

Edited March 10 by Steel Warrior (see edit history)

[Steel Warrior]

On 3/9/2024 at 3:50 PM, dalamb said:

If another accepted player has a background as crew, the three of us can work out how much their character knows about Gatto.

Swift Vengeance expects all crew to learn Andaroni, so that can serve as a sort of common tongue aboard ship. Learning Elven in honour of the Captain makes a lot of sense.

 

I filled out much of my character's background. So far it has made sense that Garth and Fandarel know Mëoita's true nature.

Sorry I haven't posted in the IC Yet, I was still working out a lot of mechanics and focusing on my background once I knew enough of how what was going to be allowed in what we discussed. Still waiting on a few more answers of course, but mostly now the Polymorph effect, if I am Large, are the animal/vermin options large or smaller as well. As it makes perfect sense it would be based on the size of the base Gremalkin.

I still need description and Personality, which isn't going to be too hard, but I am still considering playing around with some feats and skills, or even potentially bumping my int score, because "need more skill" lol.

Edited March 11 by Steel Warrior (see edit history)

[dalamb]

You can start in IC as soon as you have a clear grasp on his personality and have enough background that you could interact with others. You don’t need a complete set of choices on feats and skills.

I might be missing something, but I see no problem with allowing Large animals, beasts, or vermin, as long as you’re mindful of the shipboard space restrictions. It might not be terribly useful at sea, except possibly to polymath into a Large sea creature. I see that Giant Octopi are Large.

[Steel Warrior]

8 minutes ago, dalamb said:

You can start in IC as soon as you have a clear grasp on his personality and have enough background that you could interact with others. You don’t need a complete set of choices on feats and skills.

I might be missing something, but I see no problem with allowing Large animals, beasts, or vermin, as long as you’re mindful of the shipboard space restrictions. It might not be terribly useful at sea, except possibly to polymath into a Large sea creature. I see that Giant Octopi are Large.

Cool, I think he's going to just have a playful personality or very cat-like in nature. Wants to play one moment and nip and bite the next. But never in a harmful way. When he gets closer to people, he might have the urge to jump on them in cat form and sit on their shoulder, or rub against their leg. Even bring them random things he finds as tokens of friendship.

So he's still pretty much animal in nature and protective of those he considers his pride, even if he can turn into a humanoid cat.