Talk:The Predator's Embrace (3.5e Equipment)

I haven't tried The Predator's Embrace in a campaign yet (persuading DM at the moment), but I'm sure it would make rangers who have it much more formidable. Personally, I think that it is more like a Minor Artifact when compared to Major Artifacts like the Dragonkind Orbs, but from what I can tell most Minor Artifacts go away after all of the uses are up. So....any comments, questions, concerns? Omen 15:47, 16 June 2009 (MDT)

Edit: I take back what I said about this item being more like a Minor Artifact; I detailed the stats a bit more to make it worthy of the Major Artifact title. Now I'll really have trouble convincing my DM to let me use it. Then again, he did give me a Death Rock in a very unexpected manner, so I don't doubt I can trade the Death Rock for it. Omen 18:54, 16 June 2009 (MDT)

Once you hit around 15th level, this item should be more than fair game for a ranger. I wouldn't even try convincing a DM before 13th. --Aarnott 19:30, 16 June 2009 (MDT)

Well he did give my 6th level Ranger a Death Rock, and he permitted me to ask a very influential person to trade the Death Rock for another Major Artifact so I think I have some chance. But anything to comment on the item itself? Is it flawed in any way? Anything I should change as far as effects? Omen 07:13, 17 June 2009 (MDT)

Well as far as a general comment goes: most of the text is rather windy. I wouldn't see anything bad with making this a ranger-only item.

Here are some examples of trimmed down text:

Ever - The cloak was created by the god, Uller; as such the cloak is indestructible unless Uller himself destroys it. If the cloak is pulled around the wearer, a swift action, all weapon damage dealt to the wearer is converted to bludgeoning damage; ending this protection is a free action. The wearer is also immune to precision damage (such as sneak attack damage). Furthermore, while under the cloak, the wearer gets a +5 sacred bonus to all saving throws and is treated as having Evasion and Mettle.

Endure Elements - When used in hotter areas the cloak cools the wearer and when used in colder areas the cloak keeps the wearer warm, exactly as the spell Endure Elements. In this way, the wearer cannot suffer from hypothermia, frostbite, sunburns or heat stroke by natural means.

Natural Bedroll – The cloak is big enough to be used as a regular bedroll and does not fatigue the wearer when slept in. It provides a standard 8 hour rest, including ranger spell regeneration and a bonus 2 hit points per character level, in 4 hours of rest. Sleeping in the cloak counts as both wearing it and covering the user with it for the purposes of the Ever and Endure Elements abilities.

Pact of the Hunter – The ranger's levels are treated as a druid of an equal level for the purposes of the Animal Companion ability. If a ranger removes the cloak and has a higher level animal companion than his effective druid level would permit without the cloak, the animal companion will stay until killed or dismissed.

Natural Instinct – Any feats, exceptional (Ex) special qualities, or exceptional (Ex) special attacks that the animal companion has are added to the player character’s feats, special attacks and qualities until the animal companion is either dismissed or killed. If a Weapon Proficiency is given to a character that does not have the necessary ability such as a human that gains the Weapon Proficiency (bite) from their wolf companion, they do not gain an extra bite attack. A PC that gains a feat in this way must still take the feat before being able to take another feat that requires it.

For instance, a ranger with a wolf companion would gain the feats Track and Weapon Focus (bite), the special abilities low-light vision and Scent, and the special attack Trip. The ranger would still need to take Weapon Focus (bite) if they wanted to take Improved Critical (bite).

Note that I changed it to Ex abilities only. This gets around many potential abuses, keeps the spirit the same, and avoids the wordy stuff about dragon breath weapons. It is also good to give clarifying examples after the rules text, not within it.

Dire Company – Once per day as a swift action a ranger can wildshape into a dire animal of the same form as his animal companion until he wishes to cancel the effect. When the character has 10 ranger levels, they may take on the form of a legendary animal of their animal companion 1/day.

I would give more uses, but scale the legendary back to level 15 (at least). Consider giving 1 use per 5 ranger levels and have the same uses pool be used for the legendary animal too.

Uller's Promise --> leave it the same.

Anyways -- that's just an idea of what to do. As far as balance goes... Well it is an artifact. --Aarnott 08:19, 17 June 2009 (MDT)

Thank you very much for the constructive help. Changing it to ranger only really helped with simplifying it. I kind of made the item late at night, so I wasn't thinking straight. Everything is very clear now, but I don't know what Mettle is or what it does. Everything has been modified since I was given comments and Uller's Promise is even better than before (hard-ish character decision decision). Omen 15:32, 18 June 2009 (MDT)

Mettle (Ex): If the creature makes a successful Will or Fortitude saving throw that would normally reduce the spell's effect, she suffers no effect from the spell at all. Only those spells with a Saving Throw entry of "Will partial," "Fortitude half," or similar entries can be negated through this ability.

One nice thing about the balance of this artifact is that it puts a character more on par with wizards and clerics.

Pact of the hunter evens out an ability that should have been even in the first place.

Natural instinct is probably fine. It allows some cool builds for sure. You can get Rage from a Wolverine, Sprint from a Cheetah, Powerful Charge from a Rhinoceros, etc. A useful one would certainly be the SRD:Leopard's pounce ability (which also gives rakes). And for a humorous ability, the ranger with a Tyrannosaurus companion would gain swallow whole. You may want to include that feats and abilities gained from companion advancement don't get transferred to the ranger (only feats and abilities from the base creature).

I actually noticed a problem with the "Ever" ability. The character could spend its move and standard action each turn and at the end of the turn pull the cloak over them. At the start of the next turn, as a free action, they could remove it and and act again.

With Uler's promise, the ability score bonuses should have to be applied to the same stat. That way the ability always gives a +1 modifier (not +1 or +2 depending on the number of odd stats you have). --Aarnott 09:39, 22 June 2009 (MDT)

Hmm, thanks for the feedback, but now for mine on yours hehe. Mettle (Ex) sounds exactly like how Evasion should work. Yeah I hated getting nuked every two seconds by the too high CR creatures my DM threw at me every time. I really don't know why the Animal Companion was made to be half of the druid's, because as far as I can tell, a druid is far more powerful than a ranger even without the Animal Companion. Also, Natural Instinct does not allow you to take the feats of your animal companion that require certain physical aspects. A human can't gain the Weapon Focus (bite) feat because they don't have the necessary fangs, but a Catfolk could because they theoretically do. The only exception to this rule is the ability to fly in which case the cloak takes on the form of two wings. A ranger also gains the feats and abilities from the advancement of their animal companion because the cloak represents a constant bond between the two. Oh and with regards to the Ever ability...yeah that is a bit blah. I'll change a few things and tweak it a bit.Omen 11:05, 23 June 2009 (MDT)

Mettle is Evasion for your other saving throws. It doesn't come up as often as you might think, however. Many, many spells don't have partial saves.

There is no point differentiating whether the wearer has a natural bite attack or not. Give humans Weapon Focus (bite); it just won't do anything. You want to make sure that bonus feats the companion gets from advancing HD don't get transferred to the ranger. Otherwise you are able to grant yourself a bunch of free bonus feats. Usually the player gets to pick the feats for his companion to advance, which causes this whole issue. You are obviously going to pick good feats (whereas base animals usually have suboptimal ones like alertness and toughness). --Aarnott 11:31, 23 June 2009 (MDT)

Mettle does sound like what I wanted to have happen. But a ranger with a Tyrannosaurus can't swallow a person whole unless they are large enough which means two or three sizes larger. Well I don't necessarily see what the problem with having your animal companion advance the way you want it to. Wouldn't a character choose their animal companion's feats for them anyway? And I thought an animal companion was an exception to the regular rules of animals; they obey you, do what you want, and still have a mind of their own. A DM can also just say that they will choose the feats for the ranger. Nevertheless, I will think of something.

Edit - "During animal companion advancement, the feats must be chosen as if benefiting the animal companion instead of the ranger." Sound good? Omen 11:42, 23 June 2009 (MDT)

um minor artifact there are non unique multiples of this the only major artifact that is multiples of is unique for each one (orbs of dragonkind) Ewokdruid 10:11, 28 August 2009 (MDT)

Fixed, I can't believe I didn't realize that. Must have put it as Major cause it's very powerful. Although, why does it necessarily have to be one of a kind? A god made them and passed them out, he could just as easily make 50 of them if he wanted. Omen 14:50, 28 August 2009 (MDT)