To see the power of the druid, as with any other caster class, you have to look at all 9 levels of spells, identify the best spell or spells at each level, and then presume the player is an excellent wargamer (not powergamer, wargamer) and casts those spells over and over.
3.5 Druid has Shapechange as a 9th level spell, just like a Wizard, but the druid has two good saving throws (fort and will), d8 HP, and better BAB.
That's for starters. There are other PHB examples, but it really gets grody when you include Complete Divine/Defenders of the Faith (3.5 vs. 3.0).
Then the Druid & Companion both benefit from Animal Growth, etc.
You don't need 4 rounds of prep. Even 1 round can do.
Round 1: Wildshape, move into flank; companion takes flank (cause you flanked in a way to "pickle" the foe) and attacks once. Foe not impressed, concentrates on
party tank.
Round 2: If party tank whiffed, Animal Growth. If not, you and companion just melee, trusting YOUR PARTY to buff all three of you (including party tank).
Round 3+ continue battle.
In other situations, if you have enough bonus tricks and a reasonable DM, you might
train your Bear companion to grapple a target of your choice on round 1, then you
follow up with a spell.
Another option vs. foes whose AC may not be that great is to use your highest level
summon over and over, to give your Companion some buddies.
From other threads I think I agree with this overview of D&D combat:
levels 1 to (8 to 10 or so) = Tanks rule, but need healing and buffs to excel.
levels 11+ = Casters rule, using Battlefield Control (Evard's, Acid Fog, some other
uber high level spells like Bigby's or Blade Barrier) to subdivide foes into bite-size
chunks for tanks to eat up, without any buffs on the tanks. And if the tanks get
hurt, the Cleric/Druid yawns and casts Heal.
This is in a typical combat-centered campaign. In a balanced campaign, one that is
far more than a Theatre performance of rules-eschewing elitists, yet not the realm
of number-crunching Mensa members, versatility, even in skills, is king, and a player
who is good at RPing can overcome most lacks of mechanical support, such as a
pure Fighter giving a great war rally speech, and the Bard with Craft Alchemy maxed
with Skill Focus is important for how many flasks of alchemist's fire he can produce per
week.
But, if all you do is party vs. small # of foes combat, the DM biases for types of foes
will show through, players will adapt, and Druids may or may not be a very powerful
class.
(The DM will see a lot of PC clerics if all he puts on the board is undead, for example.
Even with Turning Undead being broken (24 HD skeleton is CR 6. What 6th level cleric
can turn that?) Clerics can still Searing Light, Spontaneous Cure, GMW a mace for
the fighter, etc.)
So keep your players in mind, and think about what, for example, they would do
if an Entangle hit them right after they entered a Spike Stones area, just for
starters at low level.
I can see an Orc Shaman actually being a Druid, and setting up just such an
occurrence for his Orc Archers to take advantage of.
Everything in D&D is situational. Even the "tanks rule level 1-10, casters 11+" is
situational, because eventually D&D also devolves at 11+ into:
"Who won initiative?"
Maybe the Evil party's Monk won, and races over to grapple the PC Wizard. The
PC Cleric goes next, but doesn't have a good way to remove the Monk, who has
good saves and can resist Holy Smite, Evade Flame Strike, etc. so the Cleric buffs
the party (Prayer) then the Evil Fighter Spirited Charges and strikes the party Rogue
for 50+ damage, and the Rogue fails the fort save, dc 15, and dies.
That's a very real situation for a 14th level party or so where enemy melee vastly
changes the battle purely by winning init.
4 12th level enemy PCs = CR 14, which is fine for a party of 4 14th level PCs to face.
The presence of the Evil Monk could mean the Evil party is down a caster, so the
remaining 3 PCs can take care of business, but there's still problems to consider,
as the PC Cleric uses high AC to stall the Mounted Evil Guy while the PC Fighter
executes a Full Power Attack sequence against the grappling Monk, and probably
slays the Monk in 2 rounds.
How well that Fighter rolls and what the other Good and Evil PCs do will affect things,
but it's clear that the non-casters on the Evil side got an advantage despite being
lower level, and not having an opening Evard's or other Nuke to start the battle.
Look over that Druid list, and see if, by replacing the party Cleric with a Druid, you
can make things better for the good guys. I bet you can. Not that Clerics are
useless, but that Druids are quite versatile.
