The mystery of Benfal (Moore, Tryll)

[Anastasia]

Link me to the math?

[Nephrite]

http://www.soulriders.net/forum/index.php/topic,101729.msg1090126.html#msg1090126

[Anastasia]

Raw you can take one like that, but I'd allow the celestial template in exchange for bumping it up to the next tier. More realistically, take the feat that does it or look to gain it later. It's a minor enough upgrade that it's not a big deal if you pick up in gameplay.

[Nephrite]

Okay. I can probably take the feat for it then at our next level up, so we can just proceed with a regular dire bear for now if you'd like. As long as the other math was at least close, anyway.

[Anastasia]

Yes, work up the stat block and get that done.

[Nephrite]

Before I go any further (since this ends up being the same since I didn't need to change much from the original, is the statblock correct? Obviously there are feats and things to worry about afterwards but I want to make sure the base is correct.

Spoiler: ShowHide

Dire Bear
Size/Type: Large Beast
Hit Dice:   12d8+51 (105 hp)
Initiative:   +1
Speed:   40 ft. (8 squares)
Armor Class:   17 (-1 size, +1 Dex, +7 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 16
Base Attack/Grapple:   +9/+23
Attack:   Claw +19 melee (2d4+10)
Full Attack:   2 claws +19 melee (2d4+10) and bite +13 melee (2d8+5)

So since I'm 25, I look at this with 13 LA, so I add the following:

+8 Bonus HD
+8 Natural Armor
+4 Str/Dex
5 bonus tricks (this is probably unnecessary due to the intelligence of a celestial creature?)
Link, Share Spells, Devotion, Evasion, Multiattack.

The HD are 1d8, so let's just use the average for now and call that 4x8 = 48

I feel like I'm really missing something key here, but I'm going to keep going with this anyway.

I believe that ends up being:

Hit Dice: 20d8+51 (I think I did this wrong) 153 HP
Initiative:   +3
Speed:   40 ft. (8 squares)
Abilities:   Str 35, Dex 17, Con 19, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 10
Armor Class:   27 (-1 size, +3 Dex, +13 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 24
Base Attack/Grapple:   +15/+31
Attack:   Claw +27 melee (2d4+12)
Full Attack:   2 claws +27 melee (2d4+12) and bite +21 melee (2d8+7)

[Anastasia]

That's fine, keep going. I'll review it at the end.

[Nephrite]

In that case, I believe I've got it.

Spoiler: ShowHide

Hit Dice: 20d8+51 (153) (this has not been recalculated)
Initiative:   +3
Speed:   40 ft. (8 squares)
Abilities:   Str 36, Dex 17, Con 20, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 10
Armor Class:   27 (-1 size, +3 Dex, +13 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 24
Base Attack/Grapple:   +16/+32
Attack:   Claw +28 melee (2d4+13)
Full Attack:   2 claws +28 melee (2d4+13) and bite +22 melee (2d8+8)
Saves: 17/13/13
Skills: Listen +18, Spot +18, Swim +21
Feats: Alertness, Endurance, Run, Toughness, Weapon Focus (claw), blank, blank
Animal Companion Abilities: Link, Share Spells, Evasion, Devotion, Multiattack

So, before anything else, it would appear according to the SRD that dire animals get Good saves in all categories, so I should increase its saves by... 4, if I'm not crazy.

With it also gaining 8 HD it gains the 15 and 18 feats. I also note that a dire bear has toughness as a feat naturally, so I think its HP ends up higher than I have it regardless.

It also gains 2 more stat points, one will go into Con for 20 and then one into STR for 36. This would further boost its HP.

I believe the skills are right.

I'm not exactly sure how you calculate HP for monsters, so I've left that along.

[Anastasia]

Go ahead and roll the hit dice. Remember max hit points at 1st level.

Hit points should be 20d8+100+20 (assuming you keep toughness).

I'd recommend retraining alertness, endurance and run. Toughness and weapon focus (claw) are debatable.

A level 20 character with all good saves (ala a monk) has 12/12/12 for base save bonus. Including stat modifiers, we're looking at 17/15/13. Doesn't factor if you have anything else going on that boosts it.

Why is BAB 16? Level 20 BAB for a 3/4ths BAB character is 15. After all, it's just level*.75. In this case 20*.75 is 15 on the dot.

Remember to convert to CMB/CMD and use the appropriate modifiers.

Everyone gets the +4/level skill points, even animals. So it'll have more skills. As it's an animal of limited intelligence, these should be skills suited to it - hide, move silently, listen, spot, survival, swim, climb. Those sort of things.  An animal gets 2 skill points per level and it has a -4 Intelligence modifier, so it gets 2 skill points per level. That's two fully ran skills or more spread out as you desire.

[Nephrite]

I'm not sure how I came up with 16 for BAB, since I went from 12 -> 20 so I think I just added one extra somehow. Either that or I was trying to just level it with 3/4ths BAB from 12? I'm not sure.

40 skill points, huh? Okay. Can It gave points in spellcraft so I could take the Mage Slayer and then Pierce Magical Protection? If this is something you'd want to wait on until I got the Exalted Companion feat or something that would be fine.

[Anastasia]

I'd rule no. It's like a Knowledge skill, just too complicated for a standard animal. Waiting until you possibly get it celestial would be fine.

Otherwise, how goes this?

[Nephrite]

Slowly, because I've never dealt with this before. Can it take Improved Unarmed Strike?

[Anastasia]

If it meets the prerequisites, yes.

[Nephrite]

There are none! Which I find odd! But so it goes.

Okay, so here's the plan:

Feats: Alertness, Endurance, Run, Toughness, Weapon Focus (claw), blank, blank

Alertness replaced with Improved Unarmed Strike (no pre-req so doing this at level 1 should be fine)
Endurance replaced with Combat Reflexes (again no pre-reqs here)
Run replaced with Hold the Line (This requires BAB +2 which I'd imagine it has at level 6)
Toughness stays, don't want him dying!
Weapon Focus probably stays too to give it a bonus (is that even factored in to the base sheet? I don't think it is...)
Improved Grapple taken at 15 to give it even further bonuses to grappling (this might be redundant with Improved Grab?)
Finally, since it has Improved Unarmed Strike, can I add Improved Natural attack?

[Anastasia]

Looks fine. You can add improved natural attack to a natural weapon.