Druids

[mcgeedis]

Well, I've decided to make a Druid for our next campaign, mainly because I've never played one before. We rolled our ability scores last night and we have 16, 15, 15, 14, 13, 11. Our campaign setting is a one of a winter world. The highest temperature is perhaps 1 degree Celsius in the summer, and -20 in the winter (I think). I'm thinking I might be either a half elf or a human (there is a houserule that allows half elves to gain an extra feat at 1st level).

I am allowed to use the core books (DMG, PHB, and MM) in my character creation and all of the "Complete" book series. Additionally, we are allowed one non core feat, spell, ability, class, or prestige class per level (with DM approval, of course).

The main question is, what path shall my Druid take toward the higher levels? I want to maximize my character of course also. What animals are the best to wildshape into? How shall I divide up my ability scores? Skills to focus on? Any good prestige classes to trend toward? How about some good spells for a Druid? Feats? What other races shall I consider?

What I plan on so far is being a Druid who will spell cast early in combat (buffs, some damage dealing, and combat control), then wildshape into a bad mother and enter combat on the reserves (we have a warblade in the party that will mush them up early on). I will be taking Natural Spell of course. What shall I do in the early levels? We won't have another healer, so I think I may be focusing on that early on. Eventually, we will rely on wands and potions.


Thanks for bearing with me through this long post. But I want to make sure I do things right at first rather than regretting my choices later on.

 

[lukelightning]

There are lots of good guides to druids, but here is my simple advice: Highest stats are wisdom and constitution. I like a somewhat high Int too for bonus skill points; even though druids get 4 it's always helpful to have more.

As for animal companion and animal forms, I'm a big fan of tigers and dire apes; dire apes are my favorite because they have reach and can climb, so you avoid stuff like "how do we get this buffalo into the dungeon" etc.

I'm assuming that in this winter world there are "winterized" versions of regular animals, otherwise you're limited to polar bears, which totally rock too.

 

[Doug McCrae]

For your first two feats how about Augment Summoning and its prerequisite Spell Focus (Conjuration)?

 

[Angerland]

I am playing my 1st druid as well, I am now 4th level. As I don't have wild shape yet I have been basically buff my animal comapnion and me, throw a utility spell or tow and then jump in to combat so far. I started out with a Riding Dog wearing studded leather armor as my companion and it was a TANK. High AC good attack and damage and a trip attack to boot. Lots of folks go wolf for a combat companion but the fact that a Riding dog wears armor trumps the wolf in my opinion. Seriousl the dog had a 20 AC to start and a 22 when I released him for my Fleshraker Dinosaur in last night's game.

Druids don't really need to PrC as they are quite powerful through out 20 levels. As I ma playing a shifter druid in Eberron, I am planning of taking the Moonsinger PrC though, but if in a generic or other setting I would stay Druid.

The 1st level spell you will find the most useful is entangle. Honestly it's probably broken as a 1st level spell as long a you adventure in a wilderness setting with plenty of vegetation to use. I would even get a wand of it as even cast at 1st level it lasts for a minute. IT will shut down a group of low level bad guys damn near completly. Other than that I use magic fang quite a bit on myself and animal companion. ( I am a Razor claw shifter so I get some benefir out of it). Shillelagh is great for a buff on your club or staff, lesser vigor from the Spell compendium is another great wand spell, ( Grants fast healing 1 for quite a few rounds), Obscuring mist is very nice...reall ther are a lot of good spells.

Skill wise I have maxed out Knowledge Nature, Survival, Animal handling, and Concentration so far....I don't know if I will keep up with all of them. Animal Handling synergizes with your wild empathy checks, Knowledge nature and survial synergize as well, climb swim jump and stuff like that are only useful until you can shape into and animal to do the same things.

Ability wise,remeber your physical stats will change as you wild shap in to animals so maybe put priority to the mental/social ones. You have pretty fgood scores anyway so you won't go very wrong regardless. Wisdom/Constitution/Inteligence maybe for top 3?

There is a good hand book on the Wizards site that runs down everything you are asking about, I aam having a hard time getting links to work or I would hit you with it.

 

[Dread Polack]

So, your campaign is taking place in my home state of Minnesota Actually, it's been around 32 Celsius here lately, but summers are around 23 and the coldest winter I've seen is -39. I'm not kidding.

I'm also playing a druid in my upcoming campaign, and I'm looking for advice as well. I think my concept is pretty far from yours, but what I've gotten that you can go a number of ways: focusing on spells, summoning, your animal companion, wildshaping, or archery, to name most of the paths. I'm playing a small druid with a +1 LA, which rules out mundane combat. I'm also using Aspect of Nature instead of Wildshape, so I can't really exploit that. As a human or elf using wildshape, you can probably go any direction you want.

Dread Polack

 

[szilard]

I played an elf druid to 20th level. Non-optimized and without much summoning, he was the most powerful character in the party.

You should strongly consider the Spontaneous Rejuvenation option in PHBII. Group healing is always nice.

I wouldn't mess around with multiclassing or prestige classes. Put a decent score into Int for skill points. Druids can get insane spot/listen scores. This can be really useful with the Quick Reconnoiter feat (C. Adv.?).

Scribe scroll is a must. Druids have an incredibly versatile spell list, but some of their spells are very infrequently used.

Non-core spell suggestions:
Uplift from the Spell Compendium. This was a low-level spell that I used frequently even at high levels.

Essence of the Raptor. Nice long term buff that does a bunch of things.
Summon Elementite Swarm. A mid-level, versatile summoning spell. One of the few I ever used.

Also, at high levels, Bombardment (SC) is one of the nicest attack spells around.

In terms of wild shape, I enjoyed Dire Wolverine shape for quite a bit of time until I found something better.


-Stuart

 

[blargney the second]

Have you looked at the shapeshifting druid variant in PHB2? It lets you shift all day long as many times as you want as a swift action, and there are some sweet forms. It's really a lot simpler than wild shape, and as potent as any other class feature.

 

[lukelightning]

Have you looked at the shapeshifting druid variant in PHB2? It lets you shift all day long as many times as you want as a swift action, and there are some sweet forms. It's really a lot simpler than wild shape, and as potent as any other class feature.

Except you can't cast spells in that form with natural spell (it's not wild shape), AND you have to give up your animal companion.

 

[Machiavelli]

- EDIT -

 

[Moon-Lancer]

yeah, I really don't care for the phb2 variant. considering wildshape is stronger in the long run, I dont see why one has to give up the animal companion as well. Its more of a rebalance if you ask me.