A More Martial Druid?

[Panask]

I'm interested in playing a druid whose fighting talents are a little better than usual. I was thinking of throwing out Wildshape (which doesn't really fit this character's concept), and giving the character a fighter's BAB.

But Wildshape is very powerful, so this doesn't look like a fair trade to me. One thought: Bonus fighter feat at 1st level and every 5th level (5th, 10th, 15th, 20th). Does this seem balanced?

Also, can anyone point me to an existing martial druid variant?

I'm going to have to get my DM's buy-off in any case, so I want to present him with something reasonable.

Thanks for your help.

Panask
Servitar to Baldur

 

[wuyanei]

Sounds fair to me. As for druidic variants, there is the druidic avenger, but it is styled more towards barbarian than fighter, and does not get fighter BAB:

Druid Variant: Druidic Avenger
The druidic avenger channels her inner fury to wreak vengeance upon those who injure the natural world. This comes at a price, however, since the avenger must give up some of her own sensitivity to nature.

Class Skills: Add Intimidate to the avenger's list of class skills. Eliminate Diplomacy from the avenger's list of class skills.
Class Features: The druidic avenger has all the standard druid class features, except as noted below.
Animal Companion: An avenger does not gain the service of an animal companion.
Fast Movement (Ex): A druidic avenger's base land speed is faster than the norm for her race by 10 feet. This ability is identical to the barbarian ability of the same name.
Rage (Ex): An avenger can enter a furious rage, identical to that of a barbarian. An avenger can use this ability once per day at 1st level, and one additional time per day for every five levels above 1st.
An avenger does not gain the greater rage, indomitable will, or mighty rage abilities.
Spontaneous Casting: An avenger cannot channel stored spell energy into summoning spells.
Tireless Rage (Ex): At 17th level and higher, an avenger no longer becomes fatigued at the end of her rage.
Wild Empathy: A druidic avenger takes a -4 penalty on wild empathy checks.

 

[pbd]

Actually, for a VERY martial based druid don't throw out the wildshape; use it.

Focus on waldshaping and look to the PrCs "nature's warrior" and "war shaper" these both seriosly buff the druid's fighting ability while wldshaped.

A druid/warshaper and/or nature's warrior in, say, tiger wildshape, is nigh on unstopable. If you really want to goose things, throw in a level or 2 of monk and you can almost outdo any other martial build.

All this without any house rules to get by the DM needed (always a plus since my DM can be a hard@ss)...

 

[Aus_Snow]

Well, there's always the Ranger.

No seriously, I've tried the Druidic Avenger and found it works pretty well.

If you were to go for full BAB (and particularly with the Fighter feats), I might suggest reducing spellcasting to the Bard progression. . . but then that was often one of the first things I used to think of when contemplating a 'more fighty' spellcaster, or a more magical ranger, paladin or other 'semi-magical' class.

But I suspect it'd be too weak a class then. Hm. No, my best advice at the moment is to say 'me too' with regards to the Druidic Avenger. :\

 

[mfrench]

Since wild shape doesn't really fit your design, would you mind fleshing out your concept a bit to give us some idea where to take this?