Help with building a druid

[Dracimus]

Hey, im playing 3.5 after a long break from D&D and im looking for help in building a druid to play. ive played clerics and sorcerers before but never a druid and im trying to figure out how to min/max it as best i can as thats how our DM plays it and how we play it. Im in a group where its one wizard, 2 fighter types and a rogue.
I have access to all the books but trying to see what feats to take and hwo to go about things is just not working too well for me currently. After reading the books ive decided to make a verdant lord but other then that i have no idea what to do. Any suggestions or ideas? I like the idea of Wildshape more then just focusing on being a caster as well so any advice is greatly appreciated

 

[Dandu]

Druid Optimization: Take Natural Spell and 20 levels in druid. Congratulations, your class features are now more powerful than entire classes.

Here's the handbook.

I have no idea what Verdant Lord is, so I can't help you there.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

What level are you starting at, and how long do you expect the game to run? If you start at level 1 and the game ends around level 4-6, you basically just gimped your str and dex for no real gain because you never got much use out of wildshape. Common sense, but worth noting.

If you do expect to go well past level 5, then yeah, standard druid optimization. Max wis, good con (wildshape doesn't alter hp), rest of the stats can be arranged as you prefer. It's a shame you don't care about being a caster much and want to focus on the wildshape. Seems like your party could use a caster more. Aside from the wizard, it's all martial types already.

I have no idea what verdant lord is. If you want to be awesome in melee while wildshaped, grab 3-4 levels in the Warshaper prestige class (C.Warrior). No spellcasting or wildshape progression, but gives a lot of goodies.

For what it's worth, the most powerful Druid prestige class in the entire game is probably the Planar Shepherd.

 

[Dracimus]

Cheers so far, Planar shepard ive never heard of before, what book is it in can you tell me?

Verdant lord is a prestige class from masters of the wild, it is a class that turns you into a treant come the top end of it. making you crit, sneak attack immune etc. Also it grants you the ability to make infusions and a couple of other nice bits and pieces.

The reasons im looking at wildshaping more is ive played a pure caster in both sorcerer and my Priest before and while i tend to avoid classes that just hit and smash mostly i like the druid cause it can do both. We are starting at 3rd level and it will hopefully run to high levels alright. we generally hit into or just at epic levels when our games seem to end.
I would love to her ideas for being a caster type as well as a wildshape type as well if you have any.

 

[Dandu]

Just take feats that enhance Wild Shape and stay in druid to keep advancing everything important, and/or prestige into Planar Shepard from Faiths of Eberron if you feel like making everyone who is not an Incantatrix, IotSV, Tainted Scholar, Dwometerkeeper, Beholder Mage, or etc cry.

Verdant Lord advances spellcasting, but not Wildshape, nor does it boost your AC. I do not like it.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

While I'm infamous for not caring about the effect of multiclassing on the spellcasting classes, Wild Shape is one area where I do kind of go with the majority.

In a sense, Wild Shaping is what the Druid is about...and no other class has it. I only multiclass my Druids if my PC concept demands it.

That said, it looks as if you're either playing 3Ed or a 3Ed/3.5 hybrid, since you're looking at the Verdant Lord (which wasn't reprinted in 3.5).

Can you tell us a bit more about your PC concept and what books you're using?

 

[Goodlad]

While I'm infamous for not caring about the effect of multiclassing on the spellcasting classes, Wild Shape is one area where I do kind of go with the majority.

In a sense, Wild Shaping is what the Druid is about...and no other class has it. I only multiclass my Druids if my PC concept demands it.

That said, it looks as if you're either playing 3Ed or a 3Ed/3.5 hybrid, since you're looking at the Verdant Lord (which wasn't reprinted in 3.5).

Can you tell us a bit more about your PC concept and what books you're using?

Im in the same game as dracimus so can tell you what books we are using.

Im not actually too sure when 3rd ed crossed into 3.5 to be honest, lol
We have all books from the phb 1 to the most recent 3.5 books.

We can pick stuff from them all.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

One of the ways people play Druids is to use a lot of the Summoning spells, especially since they can spontaneously Summon.

With that in mind, you might check out some of the Reserve feats in PHB2- several of them give boosts to your summoning spells as a side effect of whatever else they do.

 

[Dracimus]

Hey cheers for the advice guys, were playing a planescape game the DM has banned Planar Shepard so im planning to just go straight Druid all the way.
I have been thinking bout playing a druid that will specialise with Elemental Shape shifting if thats possible? If so can you give me any advice?
Im also ill admit loving the Dragon wild shape from the draconomicon book. SO im thinking of that too to add to the class just to change it up for later levels.
We seem to have a melle heavy group so is it possible to be a shape changer and yet still be an effective cannon?
I dont overly like summoning too much so any help would be appreciated again. thanks