Class Articles: The Totemist Part 4

Section 4: Class Role

As I mentioned before, the Totemist is designed for melee combat. He's got some ranged options (and there's one particular build that's entirely ranged based) and some tricks, some of his Soulmelds give him boosts to certain skills (Jump, Climb, Hide, Move Silently, Handle Animal, Spot, Ride, Listen, Intimidate), and he can pull out some craaazy tricks when he needs to (become Ethereal and walk through almost anything, teleport, fly, turn people to stone...), but the Totemist's main job is to get up into someone's face and rip it off with claws and teeth.

The upshot is that Totemists ultimately end up spamming lots of attacks instead of making a smaller number of big ones. If you can get your hands on the Multiattack feat, this means that one attack will be made at your usual total attack bonus, while ALL THE REST of your attacks will be made only at a -2 penalty (compare this to the usual way of making more than 1 attack per round from having high BAB, where you take a cumulative -5 penalty to each subsequent attack after the first)--that's a lot of attacks that are also pretty accurate. The downside is that you won't be doing as much damage per attack; the extra attacks from your claws/Bites/whatever will only be using ½ your Strength bonus. This means that Damage Reduction can be a killer for you—make sure your Natural Weapons can overcome DR! I'll be showing you ways you can do this later in the article.

Non-melee stuff:

So the Totemist is really good at going Wolverine on a sucker. But let's check out what else he's got. Here's the a comprehensive list of the stuff a Totemist can do that isn't just more Natural Attacks:

Armor Bonus to AC

Spit a line of acid/electricity

Gain Darkvision

Gaze Attack to turn an enemy into stone

Bonus against being Bull-Rushed or Tripped

Electricity Resistance

Bite attack that does electricity damage

Dimension Door as a move action or standard action

Gain 50% concealment against targeted attacks (but your own attacks get a 20% miss chance)

Get the Die Hard feat

Bonus to Spot checks

Get Weapon Finesse on your Natural Weapons

Bonus to Intimidate.

Make a roar; anyone within 10 feet who fails the Will Save gets fatigued.

Detect Magic at will

Gain a melee touch attack with extra 5 ft. reach. If you hit, then you can try and deactivate a magic item the enemy has for 10 minutes after succeeding on a meldshaper check (1d20 + your meldshaper level, DC = 11 + the item's caster level).

Blur (20% concealment)

+60 ft. bonus to your base land speed for a round.

Spell Resistance

Temperatures from -50 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit don't bother you

Cold Resistance

Ranged touch attack to deal cold damage

Make a trilling noise that stuns one creature within 20 ft. for 1d4 rounds if they don't make the Will Save

+1 bonus to Fortitude Saves, +2 bonus to checks to resist Bull Rushes, Trips, Overrun, or Trample attempts

Once per day, breathe petrifying gas on an adjacent enemy. If they fail the Fortitude Save, they're hit by the Flesh to Stone spell

Low-light vision

Evasion

Bonus to attack and damage against cold-subtype creatures

Anyone who attacks you in melee take fire damage

Add fire damage to your Natural Weapons/Unarmed Strikes

Bonus to Heal and Survival

The Track feat

Kinda-sorta gain the Scent ability (detect enemies by their smell)

Bonus to Swim

Bonus to grapple checks

Water breathing

Bonus to Jump and Move Silently

Make a loud screech that Frightens enemies for 1 round

Claws that also do acid damage

Bonus to Hide and Bluff

Spring Attack feat plus +10 feet on your base land speed

Deflection Bonus to AC against Evil creatures, bonus to saving throws against spells and effects from Evil creatures

Give above bonuses against Evil creatures to your buddies

Breathe fire

Move action to sense the total # of creatures whose feet are touching the ground within 10 feet of you

Flight, plus Flyby Attack feat

Ranged spike attack

Bonus to Climb, can always take 10 on a Climb check

If you move at least 5 feet in a round, you become Ethereal during that movement (don't provke Attack of Opportunities, can walk through stuff, etc.)

Bite with Constitution-damage poison

Temperatures from 40 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit don't bother you

Fire Resistance

Turn fire damage into fast healing

Adjacent enemies take fire damage

Die Hard, but Essentia invested pushes your “actually dead” threshold below -10

Damage bonus when below 0 hit points

Bonus to Ride

Bonuses to AC and melee damage while riding

You can better manipulate your mount if it's a magical beast

Bonus to Listen

Surround yourself with magical darkness, gain blindsight within that darkness

Immunity to Bull Rush, bonus to saving throws against Mind-Effecting spells and effects

Telepathy

Become Ethereal

Pounce, except with only your Natural Weapons (you can make a full attack at the end of a charge)

Bonus to Strength checks and Strength-based skill checks

Can't be flanked

Bonus to Search and Spot

You can make an extra move action at the end of your turn, but you can only take either a standard or move action the next turn (not both)

You can make an extra standard action at the end of your turn, but no actions next turn

Bonus hit points

Bonus to natural armor

Get the Improved Grapple feat

Bonus against Bull Rush attempts

Boost the damage die of your Natural Weapons by one size category

Bonus to damage on your Natural Weapons

Detect Evil as a standard action

Move through ice and snow at normal speed, bonus to Balance checks on ice

Cold Resistance

Various bonuses to Overrun

Bonus damage when charging

Melee touch attack to Fatigue an opponent

Breathe a cone of cold

Bite attack with cold damage

Boost base land speed

Improved Trip (more or less) when making Bite attacks

Boost Natural Armor

Gain the Awesome Blow feat (knock people around with melee attacks)

Blindsense (sort of)

Ranged touch attack that does sonic damage

Gain climb speed equal to ½ your base land speed

Bonus to Fortitude Saves

Gain Acid, Electricity, Fire, and Cold Resistance all at once

Fast Healing

Damage Resistance

Frightful Presence aura (enemies with less HD than you get debuffs)

...that's a freaking huge list. With such a huge variety of special abilities, you can see how Totemists can be pretty flexible. Up against a fire mage? Get some fire resistance. Need more armor? Boost your Natural Armor. Invisible enemies? Blindsense. Gotta go fast now? Movement boost. Need to tank? Bonus hit points. Grapple time? Improved Grapple. Enemy Rogues? Immunity to flanking. Elemental damage? You've got it. Need to fly? You've got that too. Concealment effects? Yep. Short-ranged teleportation? Uh huh.

And remember; once you've unlocked the requisite Chakras, all of these abilities are just 8 hours of rest away, much like a Wizard who knows a ton of spells. This gives the Totemist an amazing amount of strategic flexibility. A Totemist who knows what he's up against is a Totemist who can re-tune himself on the fly to wreck his enemies.