Good spells for a druid?

[zyzzyr]

Hi all,

I'm about to embark on high-level campaign wherein a play a druid (level 15).

What are good spells for druids? I have PHB, MoF, QDruid, DotF, MoW, T&B, Rokugan, Pocket Grimoire Divine. I can use any spell from any source (within reason, Miasma is out).

E.g., what would be good "travelling" spells? What would be good combat spells? Indoor vs. outdoor? Sleuthing? Etc ...

Any help would be appreciated - the game is tonight and unfortunately there are just WAY too many spells to go through at higher levels.

Thanks!

zyzzyr

 

[Pielorinho]

The classics, of course, are flamestrike and fire seeds. Wall of Thorns, subject to neither SR nor saves, is a great method of dividing your enemies up.

Consider combining a high-level summon monster with animal growth; cast animal growth on your companion as well.

Transmute Rock to Mud and Transmute Mud to Rock are both fantastic spells, and if you're hasted, you can make a nasty trap for lots of critters.

If you're going up against fire-based creatures, take a look at the incredible Quench. Ignore it otherwise.

Is there a monk in the house? Give him the gift that keeps on giving: Greater Magic Fang. Give your animal companion the same gift -- and if you plan on wildshaping in combat, give it to yourself as well.

Barkskins for everybody!
Daniel

 

[Storminator]

Whether or not it works, Poison is terrifying...potentially 2d10 CON damage. And Empowered...

I'm also fond of Extended Heat Metal. It ain't quick, but if you can throw one of them early, it really adds up to a lot of damage.

And Entangle is just wrong. Huge areas can become nearly impassable.

Not much, but that's all I've got.

PS

 

[Witch Doctor]

at 17, you can get Nature's Avatar, very nice sepll for animal companions, such as dire tigers or bears. Adds +10 attack/damage, Haste, and 1d8/level temporary HPs. Can be found in MotW. Also, if there's no cleric in group, the Regenerate spells are nice also.

 

[Nightfall]

Not sure if it's in Pocket, but if you run into enemy clerics, casting sever works pretty well. Wall of Hornets is also pretty sweet.

 

[Pielorinho]

From Relics & Rituals 2, there's Earthblast, 4d6+10 points of damage and reflex save or knocked prone. Not great, but not bad either, especially with the reflex save.

Repel Metal or Stone is awesome in the right circumstances -- no save, no SR way to clear the area in front of you of warriors. For extra fun, cast a wall of fire at the end of the range, or better yet, have a wizard buddy cast a prismatic wall. Sweep, sweep, sweep!

Windwalk is great transportation. Tree stride is not so impressive. MotW has Feathers and Bottle of Smoke; while either one is good transportation, combined they're very good indeed. Still, though, teleport will beat either of them.

Brilliant Aura, from MoF can be very nice versus heavily-armored foes -- it turns all your allies' weapons into brilliant energy, and grants a +1/2 levels (i.e., +7) bonus on damage.

Druids are also fairly good at recon. You'll get scry at a lower level than anyone else. Commune with Nature can be used cleverly if you need information. And MOTW has Speak with Anything, a fantastic divination spell. And that's not even counting the possibilities of wildshaping -- remember that you can become a tiny animal (but not, sadly, an elemental -- you'll have to wait one more level for that).

If you're outdoors, strongly consider taking entangle and call lightning (especially if you take a third-level spell in, I think, DotF that gives you accurate weather forecasting for the next week). Big Sky is a cool outdoor spell: prayer for your guys, fear for your enemies.

Daniel

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

the regenerate ring spells ar very nice

As are the progression of spells that make sticks incredibly nasty things, starting with shillelagh and working its way up to spikes.

I like anything that enables the druid to pull off environmental effects and get away from spell resistance.

Wall of thorns is particularly nice if you can set a blaze.

There are some good buff spells. Big Sky comes to mind.

There is a spell called kiss of death that must be seen to be believed. It gives you touch attack poison damage and is persistent. Cast that before wild-shaping into something with multiple attacks and just watch the carnage.

If, that is, you are into carnage.

Circle dance and camouflage are lovely. Blinding spittle is so good it should be a controlled substance. Slime wave, vine mine, and circle of eyes are nice investments.

MotW also has some great feats and important rules clarifications. Do not ignore Defenders of the Faith, that has some nice stuff in it.

Control winds is a fantastic spell at the levels you will be working in.

Always be careful to pay attention to what sort of environments you will be working in. That makes a big difference to what spells you choose.

 

[Greatwyrm]

Having played a druid for a while, I'd say most of the best druid spells are in the PHB. Two exceptions to this are Briar Web and Spikes (I think that's the name of the spell that soups up your staff/club) from MotW.

As someone mentioned earlier Wall of Thorns rules.

Barkskin is great and stacks well, since it's natural armor.

Summon Nature's ally followed by Animal Growth (I'd like two lions please, super-sized).

Produce Flame is cool (the way it's written, you should get multiple attacks if your BAB is high enough).

Of course, there's always Flame Strike.

The druid's main strength is ground control spells. Soften Earth, Spike Stones, Entangle, Obscuring Mist. Especially with how important where and when you move is in 3e, these spells that hinder your enemies' movment are more useful than they appear on the surface.

 

[zyzzyr]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies.

I had the game. Interesting.

Animal Companions + Summoned Animals + Animal Growth is OBSCENE. I can see how that is quite powerful.

HOWEVER, I did run into some difficulty.

The villain flew. Also had high SR.

Flame strike, Greater Creeping Cold did nothing to it. And my summoned dire tiger was of no help. Luckily my summoned arrowhawk could do a bit of damage (though with Damage Reduction it was hard to chomp through!)

What the heck do I do if it flies? Wildshaping into a dire eagle is still nothing compared to a dire bear, so I'm not really gaining much. Plus a druid can't fly without wildshaping, isn't that correct? So I am reduced to flying as an eagle or hawk and casting spells.

Any ideas?

I have some other questions, but they are rules-based so I am going to post them in D&D Rules. Hope to see you there!

Thanks

zyzzyr

 

[zyzzyr]

Ah, I hate following up to my own post so quickly, but I forgot:

Speak with ... is only as good as the GM allows. How do you speak to dirt? What I mean is, what perception does dirt or stone have? What valuable information do they impart?

Same with speak with animals. If I ask a bird if a man walked by here lately, what are the odds that they would have cared enough to notice? How do you describe someone in leather armor?

If the GM feels that animals have their own language, and converse in it, and are fairly intelligent (more than a 2 Int gives them), then it is useful. Otherwise it's not all that great for collecting information.

Now, *convincing* animals to do certain tasks .. that's different. But when animals have only a tiny attention span, that's very difficult! You can't ask a bird to keep an eye out for someone - it won't remember!