D&D 3E/3.5 [3.5] A couple Druid questions

[BuzzardB]

Hello everyone, I am helping a player with his Druid as he is mostly new to D&D and druids have a lot of rules to go over to use effectively. I have never made a Druid before I would like some feedback to see if I did this correctly. He asked if I could design his animal companion for him and I used the Black Bear as his and followed the SRD but am not sure I got everything right. He is a level 5 druid.

Google Doc Animal Companion

Sorry for the weird formatting, not sure why it switched to a fullscreen webpage after I published it to web.

Another question I have is when he uses his wildshape abilities does he just pick any small or medium animal from the bestiary that he is familiar with and he then gets the exact stats of the creature he selects? Example, as a level 5 druid that wants to turn into a bear to bear it up with his companion would he turn into the default Black Bear, a 3HD creature, thus being weaker than his animal companion?

 

[emoplato]

Hello everyone, I am helping a player with his Druid as he is mostly new to D&D and druids have a lot of rules to go over to use effectively. I have never made a Druid before I would like some feedback to see if I did this correctly. He asked if I could design his animal companion for him and I used the Black Bear as his and followed the SRD but am not sure I got everything right. He is a level 5 druid.

Google Doc Animal Companion

Sorry for the weird formatting, not sure why it switched to a fullscreen webpage after I published it to web.

Another question I have is when he uses his wildshape abilities does he just pick any small or medium animal from the bestiary that he is familiar with and he then gets the exact stats of the creature he selects? Example, as a level 5 druid that wants to turn into a bear to bear it up with his companion would he turn into the default Black Bear, a 3HD creature, thus being weaker than his animal companion?

1. Looks about right and increased as such.
2. A druid uses the rules of the polymorph spell, as such he gains all physical attributes, racial feats, modes of movement, natural and special attacks of the form he assumes while any items he is wearing or is unable to choose melds into the new form, becoming inert. He only is slightly weaker strength wise he doesn't lose hit die if that is what you are wondering.

 

[BuzzardB]

Hey thanks a bunch, everything went nice and smooth last night. He shapechanged into a bear, had a bear companion and Natures Allied another bear for some hot beary goodness.

 

[Empirate]

1. Looks about right and increased as such.
2. A druid uses the rules of the polymorph spell, as such he gains all physical attributes, racial feats, modes of movement, natural and special attacks of the form he assumes while any items he is wearing or is unable to choose melds into the new form, becoming inert. He only is slightly weaker strength wise he doesn't lose hit die if that is what you are wondering.

Actually, this is no longer correct. Wildshape uses the rules for the Alternate Form special ability, not for Polymorph. But the gist of it is more or less unchanged.

Basically, what you do is the following:

0. Keep your HD, HP, base saves, base attack bonus, mental ability scores (Int, Wis, Cha)!
1. Replace your physical ability scores (Str, Dex, Con) with the animal's ability scores.
2. Lose your natural form's special qualities and special attacks.
3. Lose your movement modes and natural attacks, and your ability to speak.
4. Gain the (Ex) special attacks of your wildshape form.
5. Gain movement modes and natural attacks of your wildshape form, along with its general physical capabilities (paws instead of hands etc.).
6. Recalculate total Fort and Ref save and attack bonuses using your base saves and BAB, but adding the wildshape form's ability score modifiers.
7. Recalculate skill modifiers. Note that you gain racial skill bonuses of the wildshape form (often nice for scouting, hiding, climbing, jumping etc.)!
8. Subtract all effects of magical gear that you are wearing when wildshaping, since it melds into your new form and becomes nonfunctional. You may, however, drop your gear before wildshaping, then re-wear it after wildshaping if your wildshape form is capable of wearing it! Amulets, for example, are fair game.
9. ???
10. Profit!

 

[BuzzardB]

Thank you muchly. I found those rules in time for him but its always nice to have a good point-form version to print out of not so commonly used (least by our group) rules for easy reference.

 

[Empirate]

I suggest you keep your favorite wildshape forms around in an easy-to-use, pre-calculated format: short statblocks, along with a few notes on attack modes, movement etc. Calculating wildshape on the fly hurts the brain, and should only be done in extreme circumstances.

Good forms float around the internet a lot. This handbook contains a lot of useful information, including good wildshape candidates. No stat blocks, however.

 

[Vegepygmy]

I suggest you keep your favorite wildshape forms around in an easy-to-use, pre-calculated format: short statblocks, along with a few notes on attack modes, movement etc. Calculating wildshape on the fly hurts the brain, and should only be done in extreme circumstances.

I second this advice.

 

[nijineko]

a number of character sheets include the familiar/animal companion/henchman mini-character sheet as part of one of the pages. i have my own customized set of characters taken from the standard d&d ones and improved (imo); which include this. i made a group of four of the mini sheets one a single page, and use those to detail my wildshape and other frequently used alternate forms. very handy.